Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Monteagle, TN

Monteagle is an incorporated town that spans three counties — Grundy, Marion, and Franklin — on the southern Cumberland Plateau; although this record lists Grundy County, the town limits extend into Marion County to the southeast and Franklin County to the west, and most residents live in the Grundy and Marion portions.

The town was founded in 1870 as Moffat Station, named for John Moffat, a Scottish-Canadian temperance activist who purchased more than 1,000 acres of land in the area.

Monteagle was incorporated in 1962, by which time its name had evolved from Moffat Station to Mount Eagle, then Mounteagle, and finally Monteagle, a name referring to the eagles that once lived in the area.

The 2020 census counted 1,393 residents in Monteagle, up from 1,192 in 2010.

The 2020 census counted 614 households and 458 families residing in the town.

Monteagle sits at just under 2,000 feet above sea level on a narrow stretch of the Cumberland Plateau, about two miles wide, known as Monteagle Mountain, with steep drop-offs to the northwest and southeast.

The town is famous for the treacherous Monteagle Grade on Interstate 24, the steep descent off the plateau between Nashville and Chattanooga that is name-checked in Jerry Reed's song "The Legend" from Smokey and the Bandit and in Johnny Cash's song "Monteagle Mountain."

One of the last groups of Cherokees removed from the Southeast along the Trail of Tears, a party of about 700 led by John Bell, passed through what is now Monteagle on the way to Oklahoma in late October 1838.

The Highlander Folk School, long involved in the labor movement and the civil rights movement, was located in Monteagle from 1932 to 1961, and Rosa Parks attended workshops there shortly before the Montgomery bus boycott.

The Monteagle Sunday School Assembly, a Chautauqua-inspired retreat community, was established in 1882 to train Sunday school teachers.