As mining declined in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, Pound—like much of Southwest Virginia—saw its economy and tax base collapse.

[5] Over the following decades, fiscal and political difficulties led the Virginia General Assembly to pass a law in 2022 that would revoke the town's charter in 2023 unless improvements were made.

[6] The Flat Gap High School and Sunnydale Farm are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

[7] On November 30, 1927, Leonard Woods, a black coal miner and resident of Jenkins, Kentucky, was lynched on the Virginia-Kentucky border in Pound.

[8] On the night of the lynching, a crowd estimated between 400-500 surrounded the Kentucky jail Woods was held in and demanded he be released to their custody.

Both Virginia and Kentucky authorities claimed they were not responsible for investigating the crime, and no one was prosecuted for the death of Leonard Woods.

The town failed to pass a budget by its deadline, closed its police department, and was required by the state government to turn over its wastewater treatment facility to Wise County.

[5] Resignations and attendance problems deprived the town council of a quorum, resulting in a judge appointing replacement members.

[5] In 2022, the General Assembly passed, and the Governor signed into law, a bill to revoke the charter without a local referendum, as of November 1, 2023, unless the town government sufficiently improved before then.

[5] On February 2, 2023, the General Assembly passed, and the Governor signed into law, a bill to restore the town's charter.