Bellefonte

Overview

A county seat that missed the train

Bellefonte stood on Mud Creek near the Tennessee River, about 6.6 road miles northeast of Scottsboro. The land was Cherokee until an 1819 treaty. In 1820 Stephen Carter and George W. Higgins agreed to buy James Riley's 640-acre reserve, laid out a town and named it for its spring, "beautiful fount" in French. The legislature incorporated it in December 1821. When it became the seat of the new Jackson County depends on the source: Wikipedia says 1821, one local history says it was the temporary seat by 1822, and the county historical association's marker counts from 1828, when a two-story brick courthouse went up.

By 1844 Bellefonte had about 400 people, two churches, two academies, twelve stores and fifty houses. Then it made a choice that sealed its fate. In 1849 residents turned down a railroad through town, and the Memphis and Charleston line was built through the country that became Scottsboro. The post office closed in 1859. During the Civil War Federal troops burned the courthouse, and in November 1868 the county seat moved to Scottsboro. The census counted 181 people in 1860 and 72 in 1870. The town square was auctioned off in 1878, and the last residents were gone by the 1920s.

What is left is the town cemetery on its hill and the chimney of Daniel Martin's inn. The Tennessee Valley Authority later built a nuclear plant just beyond them. It was never finished, and its cooling towers now loom over the ghost town.

Timeline

From Riley's on Mud Creek to a cemetery hill

1. Feb 27, 1819A treaty opens Cherokee land north of the Tennessee River and reserves 640 acres here for James Riley.
2. Dec 1819Jackson County is created on December 13, with a temporary seat at Sauta Cave. Five days later Riley's on Mud Creek is made a voting site.
3. 1820Stephen Carter and George W. Higgins agree to buy Riley's reserve for $6,500 in installments, lay out a town and name it Bellefonte for the spring that supplies its water.
4. Dec 15, 1821The legislature incorporates 60 acres as Bellefonte, which has nearly 200 people. Wikipedia dates its years as county seat from 1821; one local history says it was chosen as the temporary seat by 1822.
5. 1826The earliest dated grave marker in the town cemetery.
6. 1828A two-story brick courthouse goes up, and the county historical association's marker counts Bellefonte as the seat of justice from this year. Another local history puts the permanent courthouse after 1828.
7. 1830Lots go on sale and a post office opens.
8. Late 1830sThe town serves as a supply depot and mustering site during the forced removal of the Cherokee.
9. 1844About 400 people, with two churches, two academies, twelve stores and fifty houses.
10. 1845Daniel M. Martin builds the inn whose chimney still stands. A stone at its top reads "D.M. Martin by H. Ballard, 1845."
11. 1849Residents turn down a railroad through town. The Memphis and Charleston line goes by way of what becomes Scottsboro.
12. 1859The post office closes.
13. 1860The census counts 181 people. Bellefonte is still the only incorporated town in the county.
14. 1861–1865Federal troops burn the courthouse, and the town never recovers.
15. Nov 1868The county seat moves to Scottsboro.
16. 1870The census counts 72 people.
17. 1878The town square is sold at public auction.
18. 1880sBellefonte drops off the census by 1880, though one count still lists 100 people in 1883. The Masonic lodge disbands in 1889.
19. 1920sThe last residents are gone.
20. 1936A TVA survey records 229 grave plots and 57 inscribed markers in the cemetery.
21. 1974–1988TVA builds the Bellefonte nuclear plant next to the townsite (sources date the start to 1974 or 1975) and halts work in 1988.
22. 2005–2007The Jackson County Historical Association starts work to preserve the cemetery. It joins the Alabama Historic Cemetery Register in 2006, and the association puts up a marker in 2007.
23. Apr 2026A video visit shows the cemetery overgrown and the inn chimney standing on private property.

What's left

A hilltop cemetery and one chimney

Bellefonte Cemetery sits on what was the highest ground inside the town limits, chosen before the courthouse was finished. A TVA survey in 1936 found 229 grave plots and 57 inscribed markers. Later surveys found many graves marked only with plain limestone rocks, and many unmarked. The oldest dated stone, from 1826, is for a child of Daniel Martin, the innkeeper. A marker put up by the Jackson County Historical Association in 2007 stands on Bellefonte Road (County Road 33), 0.8 miles east of US 72, with the cemetery on the hill behind it.

A video visit uploaded in April 2026 shows the cemetery badly overgrown and not maintained, with a fence pushed in and a Woodmen of the World tree-stump marker among the graves. The video and an Islands article of the same month both mention a decaying cabin of unknown age in the woods near the graves. Wikipedia mentions piles of scattered bricks.

The other survivor is the chimney of Martin's inn, called the Stage Coach Inn in one local history. Martin built it in 1845, and a stone at the top of the chimney gives that date. The inn stood on the town square. A 2010 note puts the chimney about 0.2 miles east of the marker on County Road 33, on a local business's property and easily seen from the road. The 2026 video shows it on private property, behind a cable.

• Bellefonte Cemetery, graves from 1826
• Chimney of Martin's inn, 1845
• Scattered bricks
• Jackson County Historical Association marker, 2007

The old maps below tell the story in four steps. The 1886 sheet shows Bellefonte as a cluster of buildings where roads meet, with Bellefonte Station on the railroad to the northwest, Bellefonte Island in the Tennessee to the east and Sublette Ferry to the southeast. The 1936 sheet marks Bellefonte Cemetery beside Town Creek. By 1947 water fills the Town Creek valley right up to the cemetery. The 1981 sheet shows Bellefonte between Hollywood and the lake, with US 72 to the west.

Next door

The nuclear plant that never ran

The Tennessee Valley Authority, which surveyed the cemetery in 1936, began a two-reactor nuclear plant beside the old townsite in the 1970s. Sources date the start to 1974 or 1975. Work stopped in 1988, with the first unit about 88% complete by Wikipedia's count, nearly 90% by Islands'. Revival plans came and went. In 2016 TVA auctioned the plant to Nuclear Development LLC for $111 million, then pulled out of the sale in 2018, and a court ruled in 2021 that TVA did not have to sell. Its construction permits lapsed that year.

Islands reported in April 2026 that a March 2026 US–Japan energy deal had named Bellefonte as a potential hub for next-generation modular reactors. The same article says the plant grounds are closed to the public, and the April 2026 video calls them off limits. Treat the plant as no entry.

Legend and record

Dr. Higgins's lantern

The April 2026 video says George W. Higgins, one of the town's founders, was also its first physician, and it repeats a local story that on some nights a lantern flickers in the woods by the cemetery, as if Higgins were still walking from his house to the town square to see his patients. Treat it as a legend. The video's own visit turned up nothing unusual.

Historic maps

Bellefonte on USGS maps, 1886–1981

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

18861:125,00019361:24,00019471:24,00019811:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Scottsboro is the closest city, 6.6 road miles away. From Huntsville the route follows I-565 and US 72 east. Both end on County Road 33, the road to the nuclear plant, a little past the cemetery marker, which stands 0.8 mile from US 72.

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

Photos

Bellefonte in photos

The inn chimney and the cooling towers, August 2010Bellefonte Cemetery, October 2005

Visitor reports

Been to Bellefonte?

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Nearby

Other sites near Bellefonte

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Alabama index.

• Little Nashville16.5 mi W · Jackson
• Bootsville20.9 mi S · DeKalb
• Battelle22.0 mi E · DeKalb
• Rawlingsville22.3 mi SE · DeKalb
• Blanche30.7 mi SE · Cherokee
• Red Apple39.3 mi S · Marshall
• Turkey Town42.3 mi S · Cherokee
• Bluff City48.9 mi W · Morgan

Sources

Sources and credits

1. Wikipedia, "Bellefonte, Alabama", retrieved October 2026: 1821 incorporation and nearly 200 residents, county seat 1821–1868, post office 1830–1859, 400 people in 1844, the Cherokee removal depot, census figures for 1860 and 1870, off the census by 1880, abandoned by the 1920s, the cemetery, chimney and bricks, coordinates (GNIS) and elevation.
2. Jackson County Historical Association marker "Bellefonte Cemetery / Town of Bellefonte" (2007), as transcribed and photographed (April 2010) by the Historical Marker Database, with a contributor's April 2010 note on the chimney: Riley's on Mud Creek, Carter and Higgins, the 60 acres, the 1828 courthouse, the burned courthouse, the 1878 auction, the 1936 TVA survey, the 2005 preservation effort and 2006 register listing, the chimney's location and ownership in 2010.
3. Donna R. Causey, "Bellefonte – 1st county seat of Jackson County now only a ghost town", Alabama Pioneers, October 2022: the 1819 treaty and Riley reserve, the 1820 bond and $6,500 price, the county's temporary seat at Sauta Cave and then Bellefonte by 1822, the 1830 lot sales, 1833 and 1844 figures, the 1844 gazetteer's description, Martin's Stage Coach Inn of 1845, the 1849 railroad decision, the 1883 count, the 1889 lodge, the 1826 grave.
4. Atoosa Ryanne Arfa, "Between Chattanooga and Birmingham is Alabama's once-thriving but now abandoned town with an unfinished nuclear plant", Islands, April 28, 2026: the cemetery, chimney and cabin today, the Memphis and Charleston route, the plant grounds closed to the public, the 1974 start, the 1988 halt at nearly 90%, the March 2026 US–Japan deal.
5. The Deerberry Files, "Exploring Bellefonte - Ruins of an Alabama Ghost Town", YouTube, uploaded April 3, 2026: a dated visit showing the overgrown cemetery, the chimney on private property and its 1845 stone, the plant off limits, the cabin in the woods, a local's advice to stay out of the woods, and the Higgins lantern story.
6. Wikipedia, "Bellefonte Nuclear Plant", retrieved October 2026: the 1975 start, the 1988 halt at about 88%, the 2016 auction, the 2018 withdrawal, the 2021 ruling and lapsed permits.
7. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits

• The inn chimney and the cooling towers, August 2010: Benji5221, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
• Bellefonte Cemetery, October 2005: NatalieMaynor from Jackson, Mississippi, USA, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
• The plant from the air in 2007: two cooling towers, the containment buildings and the switchyard: TVA, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Stevenson 1886, 1:125,000; Hollywood 1936, 1:24,000; Hollywood 1947, 1:24,000; Chickamauga 1981, 1:100,000.