Big Stone Gap is a town in Wise County, Virginia, United States. The town was economically centered around the coal industry for much of its early development. The population was 5,643 at the 2010 census.
The community was formerly known as "Mineral City" and "Three Forks" before officially taking its name in 1888.[5] The "Big Stone Gap" refers to the valley created on the Appalachia Straight, located between the town and Appalachia. The town served as an important center for coal and iron development in the 1880s and 1890s and residents hoped its coal and iron ore deposits would make it "the Pittsburgh of the South."
The Big Stone Gap post office was established in 1856. The Christ Episcopal Church, John Fox, Jr. House, Southwest Virginia Museum Historical State Park, Terrace Park Girl Scout Cabin, June Tolliver House, and C. Bascom Slemp Federal Building are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In October 1978, John W. Warner, then the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate from Virginia, and his wife, British-American actress Elizabeth Taylor, stopped in Big Stone Gap to campaign for his upcoming election. At Fraley's Coach House, a local diner where they were each meeting with voters, Taylor became choked on a chicken bone in her esophagus that required her to be transported to the nearby Lonesome Pine Regional Hospital. Taylor recovered from the event and later sent a donation to the hospital as a thank you.
In 2014 the American drama romantic comedy film Big Stone Gap, written and directed by Big Stone Gap native Adriana Trigiani and produced by Donna Gigliotti, began filming in the town. The film starred Ashley Judd, Patrick Wilson, Whoopi Goldberg, and others, including local talent for many of the extras and larger scenes. The movie was based on Trigiani's 2000 novel of the same name and was produced on a budget of $3.5 million. The film premiered at the Virginia Film Festival on November 6, 2014 and expanded to a wider release of over 100 theaters in 2015.
Big Stone Gap became the first locality in the nation to pass a resolution in support of the federal Black Lung Disability Trust Fund on August 16, 2018. The measure passed unanimously and urged Congress to support the existing tax rate at the time.