Last updated: April 18, 2026
Marion County contains cities, towns, unincorporated communities, and several former communities that no longer function as distinct settlements. The places below are grouped by incorporation status and historical role.
Cities
The largest and most established incorporated municipalities of Marion County.
Jasper
The county seat of Marion County since 1819, Jasper houses the county courthouse and the principal civic offices.
South Pittsburg
A city with deep industrial roots and restored historic buildings, South Pittsburg sits on the Tennessee River and once thrived as a manufacturing and railroad hub.
Whitwell
Home of Whitwell Middle School and the Children's Holocaust Memorial, site of the Paper Clips Project begun in 1998.
Towns
Smaller incorporated communities with their own civic identity and history.
Monteagle
A mountain town founded as a Chautauqua assembly and summer destination, Monteagle blends religious heritage with Appalachian culture.
Kimball
The county's primary retail hub at the I-24 / U.S. 72 interchange, a failed 1890 planned industrial city that was reborn in the interstate era.
Powells Crossroads
The southeastern gateway to the Sequatchie Valley, along Suck Creek Road; named for WWI veteran Foster Powell.
New Hope
A town along the U-bend of the Tennessee River, opposite South Pittsburg on Nickajack Lake near the former Cherokee Lower Towns.
Orme
A former coal-mining company town (2020 population: 87), Orme is one of the smallest incorporated municipalities in Tennessee.
Unincorporated Communities
Smaller settlements and neighborhoods that preserve Marion County's distributed heritage.
Haletown & Guild
River communities built to house Hales Bar Dam workers in the early 20th century; now rural lakeside neighborhoods.
Shellmound
A historic community on Nickajack Lake, named for the ancient freshwater shell middens that marked indigenous occupation along the river.
Battle Creek
A rural community and creek drainage on the western side of the county, with roots in early settlement and a long association with conflict.
Sweetens Cove
A pastoral valley community with a historic Primitive Baptist church, a Civil War battlefield, and the Sweetens Cove Golf Club.
Sequatchie
The namesake community of the Sequatchie Valley, not to be confused with the separate Sequatchie County carved off in 1857.
Historical Communities
Places that once thrived but are now remembered through family histories and restored sites.
Victoria
A 19th-century coke-oven company town named for Queen Victoria; the furnaces and associated operations are no longer active.
Inman
A former iron-ore mining community that supplied ore to the South Pittsburg smelters during the Sequatchie Valley iron boom.
Richard City
A Dixie Portland Cement company town built by industrialist Richard Hardy; later absorbed into South Pittsburg.
Rexton
An early-1910s coal-mining town that was platted but never fully built, investors walked away in 1912.
Nickajack & Running Water
Former Cherokee Lower Towns on the Tennessee River, sited near Nickajack Cave. Both were destroyed by Major James Ore's 1794 militia raid.