Last updated: May 3, 2026
Situated between the Cumberland Plateau and the Tennessee River in southeastern Tennessee, Marion County was established in 1817 from former Cherokee lands and named for Revolutionary War brigadier general Francis Marion. Its county seat is Jasper. Across two centuries the county's story has included Cherokee Lower Towns, Civil War engagements, iron furnaces and coal mines, TVA dams, a silent-film actress from South Pittsburg, and a Holocaust memorial assembled by middle schoolers in Whitwell.
What's New?
In the Beginning
Thousands of years of human life in the Sequatchie country before written history: the Archaic hunters of Russell Cave, the shell heaps and mounds along the rivers, and the Mississippian villages the Spanish would eventually find.
The Native American Trails
The overland paths that met at the Old Creek Crossing below Long Island near South Pittsburg: the Black Fox Trail, the Nickajack Trail, the Chickamauga Path, and the Great Indian Warpath that traders and settlers later reused as wagon roads.
Chiaha
The river-island town where De Soto rested for about a month in 1540, the oldest place-name in the Sequatchie country's written record, and the long argument over whether it stood at Burns' Island, Williams Island, or the French Broad.
The Early Explorers
The three Spanish entradas that reached the Tennessee River country around Marion County two centuries before settlement: De Soto in 1540, Tristan de Luna's soldiers in 1560, and Juan Pardo's men in 1567.
Explore
The sections below cover the county's history, communities, landscape, industries, governance, schools, culture, and the people who shaped the valley from the Cherokee era to the present.
Interactive Timeline
A filterable timeline of events from the Chickamauga era to the 2020 Easter tornadoes, organized by era and category.
History
From the Cherokee Lower Towns and the Chickamauga Wars through the Civil War, the British-capital industrial boom, the TVA era, and into the present.
Communities
Jasper, South Pittsburg, Whitwell, Monteagle, and the smaller named places, present and historical, across the county.
Industry & Economy
Coal mines, coke ovens, the NC&StL Railway, Hales Bar Dam, Lodge Cast Iron, Dixie Portland Cement, and the I-24 corridor that reshaped the valley.
Geography & Nature
The Sequatchie Valley, the Tennessee River Gorge, Cumberland Plateau geology and caves, Nickajack Cave, Foster Falls and other plateau-edge waterfalls, the Cumberland Trail, and Prentice Cooper State Forest.
Culture & Traditions
The National Cornbread Festival, Lodge Cast Iron, the Paper Clips Project, and Appalachian folk traditions of the Sequatchie Valley.
Education
Antebellum academies, the Rosenwald-funded McReynolds High School, the Richard Hardy Memorial, and three modern high schools across the county.
Notable Figures
Cherokee leaders, Civil War officers, two governors, a Scopes Trial judge, a silent-film actress, and the industrialists who built the valley's economy.
Demographics
Population, race, income, and employment data for Marion County from the 1820 census through the 2020 count of 28,837.
Government
The courthouse, the sheriff, the county commission, and six incorporated town governments: two centuries of governance from 1820 to the present.