Pihtipudas is known for the annual javelin carnival and for Lauri "Tahko" Pihkala, the inventor of Pesäpallo, the Finnish variant of baseball.

The main villages within the municipality are located on the lakes of Alvajärvi, Elämäjärvi, Muurasjärvi, and Saani on the Saanijärvi, and at Ilosjoki, Korppinen, Kärväskylä, Peninki, Rönnynkylä, Kojola and Seläläntaus.

[11] The so-called 'Village of Rönni' at Rönnynkylä on the north-east shore of Saanijärvi has been dated to approximately 5,000 BC in the Mesolithic period and contained the bones of a small-sized dog, one of the earliest discovered in Finland.

[14] Other evidence for human activity in the Neolithic period includes a zoomorphic stone mace, possibly carved with a fish or amphibian, believed to be associated with the arrival in Central Finland of cattle herding groups in the 3rd millennium BC.

[16] These were excavated in the 1980s and 1990s and contained bronze sheets with high elements of tin, dating them to the Early Metal Period of Central Finland.

[11] In the late 1920s Lauri Tahko developed a sports field on land donated by the Läheaho estate near his summer cabin on Kolima lake in Hiekanpää, Ilosjoki.

[23] In the 1940s the municipality was subject to post-war re-settlement with the introduction of migrants from 62 northern parishes, predominantly in the villages of Muurasjärvi and Kärväskylä.

[24] On 7 March 1969 Pihtipudas was the location of a mass shooting, in which Tauno Pasanen, a smallholder, shot and killed four armed policemen.

[27] The annual Pihtipudas Javelin Carnival was started in 1971 by local athletes Leo Pusa and Jorma Kinnunen.

The original building had double walls and floors with a wide space between them to prevent the theft of grain by drilling holes in the exterior.

[30] The museum contains approximately 900 items, including examples of local prehistory, fishing, agriculture and artisan crafts in several wood-lined rooms on two floors.

The collection includes a Stone Age axe head from the Neolithic period found in a field at Nokare in 1942, donated to the museum by Matti Pekkarinen.

[citation needed] Other collections reflect the more recent traditional practices of the region, including fishing nets, boats, winter transportation and animal traps for bear and fox hunting.

It was invented in Pihtipudas by Uuno Kinnunen and presented to the Sandwick factory in Sweden in the 1950s, but was made obsolete by developments in mechanized tree-felling.

[35] The extensive fishing grounds of Pihtipudas consists of lakes Kolimajärvi, Alvajärvi, Muurasjärvi, Saanijärvi and Elämäjärvi.

This glacial erratic is believed to be one of the stones marking the border of the Hazel Island Peace Treaty (Pähkinäsaaren Rauha) of 1323.

[38] The Imarrekivi stone is a large glacial erratic located near Suurijärvi, south-west of Muurasjärvi, with one facet chipped to resemble a face.

On a Sunday night in the summer of 1600 Pekka Pekanpoika, a local Christian man from Muurasjärvi, went with his family to attempt to remove the face on the stone to discourage the heathen practice.