Town file
Pound, Virginia
Pound, Virginia (Wise County, Virginia) is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 688, "A Mystery Of Stupidity" (3 April 2026). Pound, Virginia is a small coal town in Wise County in the far western tip of the state, near the Kentucky border.
- Town
- Pound
- County
- Wise County
- State
- Virginia
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 688
- Approximate location
- 37.126, -82.607
Episode 688 / 3 April 2026 / 72 min / express
A Mystery Of Stupidity
""We're going to Pound, Virginia" ... "this is in Wise County, area code 276, population of this town, 828"" about 0:03:45
The case: Murder of Judy Cantrell (December 8th, 1981). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2026
- Population
- 828
- Median household income
- $26,417
- Median home value
- $86,000
History, in brief
- The Pound area was explored by Christopher Gist in 1751 and is said to be the oldest settlement in Wise County. about 0:05:54
- The town is nicknamed the Pound; the name may be a family name or come from a pounding mill built in 1815. about 0:06:27
- The county's first post office opened there in 1848. about 0:06:35
- It was not incorporated until 1950, the last town in Wise County to incorporate. about 0:06:39
- It was a big coal town, with tough bars across the Kentucky border that catered to coal miners until the mining declined and the economy collapsed. about 0:06:57
- In the 1990s and 2000s the Virginia General Assembly passed a law to revoke the town's charter unless improvements were made. about 0:07:16
- The town had closed its police department, failed to pass a budget and lost its wastewater facility to the county. about 0:07:42
- The charter was restored in 2023. about 0:07:56
- Dancing without a permit has been banned in the town since 1981. about 0:08:05
The reviews read out
5 stars
"A small town with financial issues that almost lost its right to be a town, with buildings starting to crumble; new shops are opening and the reviewer wants the new income spent on repaving the roads."about 0:08:35
5 stars
"Lived here all my life and would not want to live anywhere else; residents have to leave town for most things but most work in other towns and get what they need before coming home."about 0:09:14
1 star
"There is nothing to do here; residents travel to Pikeville, Kentucky or Wise, Virginia for errands and work, and it is a very small town in the middle of nowhere."about 0:09:41
1 star
"Lived here basically all my life; everyone is on meth and in and out of jail, there is nothing to do and the economy is so bad they shut down the high school. A really sad excuse for a town."about 0:09:55
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- Fleming-Neon, Kentucky7.3 miles
- Raccoon, Kentucky27 miles
- Hensley, West Virginia55 miles
- Dingess, West Virginia57 miles
- Baileyton, Tennessee57 miles
- Marion, Virginia63 miles
Everything here is as told in the episode, on the date it went out; figures and places may have changed since. Endings are covered: open an episode and use the spoiler switch to read them.