Pownal

Town in Bennington County, southwestern Vermont, USA, on the Hoosic River, just south of Bennington; population (1990) 3,500. Incorporating the village of Pownal, Pownal Center, and North Pownal, it is bounded to the south by Massachusetts, to the west by New York State and the Taconic Range, and to the east by the Green Mountains. Industries include limestone quarrying and dairy processing. The town is home to the Green Mountain Raceway, a dog track.

Pownal was the setting for Christopher Morley's novel Blythe Mountain (1930). Stock manipulator James Fisk (1834–1872), who was involved in the Black Friday crash on Wall Street in 1869, was born in North Pownal. Presidents Chester Arthur and James Garfield both taught, as young men, at Oak Grove Seminary in Pownal Center.