Jasper, Tennessee
Near Chattanooga, Tennessee
Jasper is the seat of Marion County, Tennessee, tucked into the Sequatchie Valley beneath the steep escarpments of the Cumberland Plateau. The county was named for Francis Marion, the Revolutionary War guerrilla fighter known as the Swamp Fox. Jasper itself sits in the valley, a short drive from the dramatic Tennessee River Gorge, an area sometimes called the 'Grand Canyon of Tennessee.'
The region's geology made it rich in coal and iron ore, and Marion County was an active mining county through the early twentieth century. Jasper today is a small town of roughly thirty-six hundred serving as the commercial center for one of Tennessee's more scenic and rugged corners.
