Big Stone Gap East, VA

Big Stone Gap East is a Wise County census-designated place on the eastern edge of the town of Big Stone Gap, outside the town limits, where the 2020 census counted 687 residents. It first appeared as a CDP in 2020. U.S. Route 23 and 58 Alternate curve around the south and east sides, separating the community from East Stone Gap; Norton lies eight miles northeast.

That position puts Big Stone Gap East at the seam between a town and the wider Powell Valley. Stone Mountain rises west of Big Stone Gap, while the Powell River and South Fork form much of the larger valley’s water geography. Big Stone Gap grew through coal, railroads, and industrial ambitions in the late nineteenth century, and places such as the Southwest Virginia Museum keep that regional past close by. For Big Stone Gap East, the clearest local story is the edge itself: a mountain-road community beside a historic town, divided by an expressway but connected by the same valley.