Last updated: April 23, 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?
Shake Rag
New subpage on the abandoned coal-camp company town of the McNabb Mines (1880s–1905) on the southern end of Walden's Ridge in the Tennessee River Gorge. On the National Register of Historic Places since 2008; stone ruins survive in Prentice Cooper State Forest along Mullins Cove Road.
Raulstontown
New subpage on the South Pittsburg Mountain hamlet of the Raulston family, with Civil War fortifications at Tom Ellis's old home and Red Cut Hill, the 1829 pioneer cemetery near Whitacre Point, and the home ground of Scopes Trial Judge John T. Raulston.
Cheekville
New subpage on the pre-1877 Sequatchie Valley settlement that became Whitwell, and the site of Marion County's first court session in 1817 at the home of John Shropshire. Covers the pre-statehood Cheek log house, the 1817 Acts of Tennessee Chapter 109 venue, the Cheeksville post office (1830–1887), and the 1877 transformation into Whitwell.
Battle Creek Mines
New subpage on the 1869–1876 post-office community that became South Pittsburg. Built around the 1854 coal mine, Tennessee's fifth, and revived in 1905 at Orme as the Battle Creek Coal & Coke Company. Covers Capt. John Frater's 1909 narrative of Tennessee's first coal mines.
Explore
The sections below cover the county's history, communities, landscape, industries, 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.