Pound, VA

Pound is a town in Wise County, set in the Cumberland Mountains near the Kentucky line. The 2020 census counted 877 residents. Virginia Route 83 follows the town through a valley of wooded ridges and creek country, while the surrounding roads climb toward the county's older coalfield settlements. Pound's public school is James Woodrow Adams Combined School, operated by Wise County Public Schools. The town's setting is all folds, hollows, and ridge roads.

Christopher Gist is traditionally said to have explored the Pound area in 1751, and local histories call it Wise County's oldest settlement. The name has two common explanations: it may come from an early family, or from a pounding mill built here in 1815. That uncertainty is part of the place's texture; the town grew from a route through the mountains before it had a settled story for its name. Pound still carries that older Appalachian feel through its valley, school, and roads that follow the folds of Wise County.