Culture of Marion County, Tennessee

Mountain Goat Trail

A rail-to-trail along the former NC&StL Mountain Goat branch through Sewanee, Monteagle, and Tracy City

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Last updated: April 23, 2026

The Mountain Goat Trail is a paved, multi-modal rail-to-trail that follows the grade of the historic Mountain Goat Railroad, a branch of the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway that climbed the southern Cumberland Plateau from Cowan to the coal fields around Tracy City and Palmer. The trail serves walkers, runners, cyclists, and dog walkers along a corridor that ties Sewanee, Monteagle, and Tracy City together. Most of the open trail runs through Franklin and Grundy counties, but Monteagle straddles the Grundy/Marion county line, and the Monteagle segment touches Marion County at the town's southern edge. Marion County residents along the Jasper, Pelham, and Kimball side of Monteagle Mountain use the trail as their closest paved recreational path.

The Mountain Goat Railroad (1856 to 1985)

The railroad was built by the Sewanee Mining Company and its successors to carry coal from the Grundy County mines to the main NC&StL line at Cowan. Surveyed by civil engineer A.E. Barney in 1853, the line opened in stages from 1856. The grade up the Cumberland escarpment between Cowan and Sewanee was one of the steepest railroad climbs in the country and gave the branch its nickname: the Mountain Goat. Branches extended from Tracy City to Coalmont, Gruetli-Laager, and Palmer over the next several decades. In its peak years the line ran three or four trains a day, carrying both coal and passengers, and it was the lifeline that connected the Grundy County coal fields to the broader Tennessee rail network.

Passenger service ended in 1971. Freight service continued under NC&StL successor L&N and then CSX until 1984. CSX formally abandoned the line in 1985 and removed the rails in 1986. The corridor sat unused for the next decade and a half, and the right-of-way began passing out of railroad ownership into private hands and eventually into land-trust stewardship.

The Mountain Goat Trail Alliance

The Mountain Goat Trail Alliance was formed in the early 2000s as a nonprofit to convert the abandoned corridor into a multi-use trail. The Alliance has raised funds, negotiated easements, and coordinated construction across four counties (Franklin, Marion, Grundy, and a small sliver of Sequatchie) and multiple municipal jurisdictions. The stated goal is to complete approximately 40 miles of paved trail along the full historic corridor, with spurs and connectors to local points of interest.

Open segments

The first major segment, connecting Sewanee to Monteagle, opened in December 2014. It runs roughly 5 to 6 miles on a paved surface, following the old rail bed along the University of the South campus and through the Sewanee highlands to the Monteagle town limits. The trail crosses the highway and runs parallel to U.S. 41 into Monteagle, ending near the heart of the town.

A second segment, running from the DuBose Conference Center in Monteagle to downtown Tracy City, covers another approximately 6 miles. With these two segments, approximately 12 miles of continuous paved trail between Sewanee and Tracy City are open. The Monteagle portion includes the segment that straddles the Marion County line at the town's southern edge; Marion County residents in Pelham, on the Jasper approach up Monteagle Mountain, and in the I-24 corridor use this segment as the nearest paved recreational path.

Planned extensions

As of 2026, construction has begun on two additional segments: a Sewanee-to-Cowan extension that will take the trail down the historic steep Mountain Goat grade to the Franklin County valley floor, and a Tracy City-to-Coalmont extension that will push the open trail further into the Grundy County coal communities. The Mountain Goat Trail Alliance projects completion of the full corridor by 2028, though completion dates on long-distance rail-trail projects are generally subject to property-easement and funding schedules.

The Marion County connection

Monteagle is a Grundy-Marion border town. Most of the town, including the Sunday School Assembly gates and the historic commercial district, sits in Grundy County, but the southern edge of the municipality crosses into Marion County. The Mountain Goat Trail's Monteagle segment therefore has a short Marion County mileage. No dedicated trailhead sits on the Marion County side, and the closest parking for Marion County users is typically the Monteagle town square or the DuBose Center.

The trail does not enter any of Marion County's named communities beyond the Monteagle edge. The Jasper side of Monteagle Mountain, the I-24 descent toward Kimball, and the Sequatchie Valley floor are not part of the historic railroad corridor. A longer-term connection from the Mountain Goat Trail down into the Sequatchie Valley would require a new corridor rather than a conversion of existing rail bed, and no such project is currently under development.

Why it matters

The Mountain Goat Trail is one of the clearest examples in the region of industrial infrastructure being repurposed for public use. The coal that rode the Mountain Goat branch out of Grundy County for more than a century funded the regional economy that shaped the plateau's towns; the trail now carries walkers and cyclists over the same grade, past the remnants of that economy. For Marion County, the trail is a short piece of regional corridor rather than a defining feature, but it is the only paved rail-trail within driving distance of Monteagle residents on the Marion County side of the line, and it is the most direct active-use link between Marion County and the South Cumberland tourism corridor.

Related

About Monteagle →
Railroads of Marion County →

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