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Marion County was established in 1817 and was named after "The Swamp Fox" Revolutionary War Brigadier General Francis Marion (c1732-1795).
In 1779 Cherokee chief Dragging Canoe moved down the Tennessee River from Chickamauga Creek to Running Water creek, and he helped establish the town of Nickajack at the entrance of Nickajack Cave. In 1794, the town was attacked and burned by militiamen commanded by Colonel James Orr of Nashville, Tennessee. The town was rebuilt and the Chickamauga Indians continued to live here until 1838, when all of the remaining Indians were removed from Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia by the Trail of Tears.
During the spring of 1861, early in the American Civil War, Robert Cravens of Chattanooga began mining saltpeter, the main ingredient of gunpowder, at Nickajack Cave. The operation was soon taken over by the Confederate Niter Bureau. At one point, Nickajack Cave was one of the main sources of saltpeter for the Confederate States of America. However, its operation was halted in late 1862. Nickajack Cave was visited by thousands of soldiers of both side troops, who travelled up and down the Tennessee River on steamboats.
Another important mine during the Civil War was Monteagle Saltpeter Cave, located in Cave Cove, about 4 miles southeast of Monteagle. During the war, it was officially referred to as Battle Creek Cave. A 1917 visitor reported that about 25 or 30 old hoppers still remained in the cave.
By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, coal and iron mining industries had come to dominate Marion County's economy. Mines operated in Whitwell and Inman, while iron smelters were at South Pittsburg.
Hales Bar Dam, built on the Tennessee River in Marion County between 1905 and 1913, was one of the first major dams constructed in the United States across a navigable stream. in the 1960s, the Tennessee Valley Authority replaced Hales Bar with Nickajack Dam, further downstream in the 1960s, though the Hales Bar powerhouse still stands as a boathouse.
Adjacent Counties
- Grundy County
- Franklin County
- Jackson County, Ala.
- Dade County, Georgia
- Sequatchie County
- Hamilton County
Cities, Towns & Communities
- Aetna
- Chattanooga (part)
- Griffith Park
- Haletown
- Jasper (County Seat)
- Kimball
- Mineral Springs
- Monteagle (part)
- New Hope
- Orme
- Powell's Crossroads
- Sequatchie
- South Pittsburg
- Suck Creek
- Whiteside (formerly Running Water)
- Whitwell
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