Creating Community in the Coalfields of Southwest

If you ever find yourself driving down Highway 23 around the Virginia and Kentucky border, chances are that you'll pass the turnoff to Pound, a small coal community of about 800 people nestled back in the mountains. Take the time to drive downtown, and you’ll find yourself at a junction next to an unassuming lot with a landslide and remnants of an old bank building. That lot is the center of a current swirl of community-based planning and development work, led by passionate residents and a tireless town government.

Thirty years ago, Pound, VA, was a thriving, bustling community with a vibrant downtown. Due to the decline of the coal industry and the vulnerabilities stemming from decades of extraction, climate change, and struggles with a dysfunctional previous town council, Pound is having a difficult time. The previous leadership of the town almost saw Pound's charter dissolved and the town lose its incorporation, a fate that has hit too many coal communities to list. Residents’ distrust of local government, stemming from this dynamic, has made clear community leadership and transparency essential for any type of development.  

The new town leadership is working to stabilize finances while also embarking on new community improvement projects. These projects range from climate resilience and safety to basic infrastructure and opportunities for tourism and recreation. The focal point of the downtown revitalization is the stabilization of a landslide in the center of downtown, and the redevelopment of the brownfield site below into a small flood-mitigating park, complete with a stage for community events. The park is a central part of our community-driven planning process, from the design of the stage to the planned uses of the new space. 

As the project facilitator and as someone who is not from Pound but from a coal-mining community, I knew that my own experiences with Central Appalachian labor history were a useful guide, but in no way were they enough to have meaningful insight into the stage design. I also wanted to make sure that the monument looked to the future and brought in voices of those closest to the margins to help deepen the typical narratives around Appalachian working life. This project provided the opportunity to model how open and engaged community planning can lead to stronger community ties and concrete results.

 The park is meant to serve all town residents, so it was vital that all interested community members could help shape the design. In the project team’s view, it was essential that this planning process be open and accessible. Our goal was to ensure that the resulting project was aligned with the town’s wishes. That required multiple community meetings with extensive advertising and avenues of participation, as well as food, participation stipends, and the convening of a monthly Resident Advisory Council. The funding for the stage component came from the Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia grant program. The stage in particular was designed to serve as a monument to Pound’s labor history, which required deeper conversations and reflections from both old and new residents. 

Across the 18 months of community planning work, involved participants included folks from the Pound Historical Society, town council, local teachers, business owners, preachers, and residents who want to make sure that the project reflects their own needs and priorities. We had already done some deep community planning work in Pound over the past few years, and residents had been outspoken about the need to address the landslide site and provide more communal spaces to bring back the town spirit and sense of collectiveness that they remember. This planning process was the next step in actually achieving those goals in a creative and effective way.

Some of the biggest challenges during the planning process were ensuring that community members were comfortable and that their visions were being accurately culturally translated into the resulting art. Throughout this community engagement, we were extremely fortunate to be joined by both of the artists constructing the stage, who have deep Appalachian roots and experience with community-driven processes. We asked attendees to bring items that they felt represented labor in Pound and, in turn, shared our own stories. One of the most poignant items was brought by artist Dana Jo Cooley, who brought one of the shirts of her father, a miner killed in a mining explosion in Tennessee in 1981. When asked about her hopes for this process, Cooley said, “Creating this work in Pound is about more than an art installation; it’s about honoring community memory and offering something lasting that belongs to the people who live here.”

We also wanted to be aware of power dynamics and to help counter existing power disparities so that not only did everyone feel comfortable speaking about their vision, but their vision was actually meaningfully incorporated into the final project. As the independent facilitator, I kept careful track of who had spoken, making sure to note all ideas equally and to draw some of the quieter folks into the conversation. Virginia Tech also sent a team that included an architectural student who completed a model of the proposed park so that folks could actually visualize and play around with possible park features.

The success of the community-driven planning process is clear in the artistry and enthusiasm woven into the final project. Across the three community meetings, the park evolved from an abstract dream into a true communal space to be used for farmers’ markets, historical reenactments, lunch breaks, and town performances. As I’m writing this blog, workers are remediating the site, the town has obtained the final stabilization approval for the landslide, and there are carved brick panels in an art studio waiting to be constructed into the stage. It is our hope to show that this model of community-based planning is not only feasible but integral to creating strong community development that lifts up all residents. The monument isn’t just a reflection of the labor and love that built Pound; it’s a major step towards climate-resilient projects led by impacted community members and a more holistic redevelopment that starts from the ground up.