Up The Mountain: Coalmont, the Quiet Town at the Center of the Plateau

Set your sights a little east and head Up The Mountain. There is a good chance you have driven through Coalmont without knowing it. It's a few miles of road and a traffic light (known to locals as "The Junction"). Population 784 at last census. Elevation 1,883 feet. Established in 1904 as a coal company town by the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company, originally called Coaldale. The trains are gone now and so are most of the mines, but the town is still here.

Most people on the plateau know Coalmont as the address between somewhere and somewhere else. That is a fair description and an incomplete one. For visitors, it is also one of the most useful base camps on the plateau. Most of the region's hiking, off-roading, and waterfalls sit within twenty minutes.

The Town Itself

Coalmont sits where Highway 56 and Highway 108 meet, roughly between Tracy City and Altamont. The old company-town layout is mostly still visible if you know what to look for. The Coalmont Bank Building, built in 1921 and now on the National Register of Historic Places, serves today as the city hall and public library, which is the kind of small-town efficiency you do not see in most places.

Big Creek Lake sits just north of town, with a public boat ramp on the south shore off Highway 56. It is a quiet fishing and paddling lake. It does not get the traffic Center Hill or Tims Ford do, which keeps the launch ramp easy and the water uncrowded.

The Coalmont OHV Park, about ten minutes south of the town center, is the bigger draw. More than 1,300 acres of off-road terrain with weekend mud days and group rides that pull from a four-state radius. If you want the full breakdown of trails and pricing, we have a guide to the OHV park on our own site.

Grundy County High School is also in Coalmont, which means Friday nights in the fall the town is busier than you would guess.

What's Within 30 Minutes

This is the part most travel guides miss. From the middle of Coalmont, almost every recognizable plateau destination is inside a half-hour drive.

Greeter Falls and Blue Hole are about 12 minutes north on Highway 56. The Stone Door entrance to Savage Gulf State Park is about 19 minutes via Beersheba Springs. The Grundy Forest section of South Cumberland and the Fiery Gizzard trailhead are about 22 minutes. Foster Falls is about 28 minutes south. The Caverns in Pelham, named Theater of the Year at the 2026 ACM Awards, is about 30 minutes. Sewanee, with the Domain trails and a Michelin Bib Gourmand sandwich at LUNCH, is about 36 minutes.

For more on the bigger trail system, we have a write-up on the broader South Cumberland park system over on our own site.

You are not driving an hour each way to do any of this. You are driving twenty minutes.

What It Feels Like

Coalmont is a working town, not a tourism town. The grocery store is a small market. The restaurants are a couple of family-run places and a Subway. People wave from pickup trucks. The trains that used to run through town are gone and so is the coke industry, but the railroad bed is still there if you know where to look.

If you want amenities and storefronts, Monteagle and Sewanee are 25 to 36 minutes away. If you want a base that feels like the actual plateau and not like an interstate exit, Coalmont is the right call.

Where to Stay

If you are coming up the mountain to use Coalmont as a base, The Getaway on Ranger Creek sits on Maple Branch Road, four miles from the town center, on 18 wooded acres. We have a geodesic dome with pond views, a Scandinavian cabin, a glamping tent, and two more cabins opening this year. Use code COAL10 for 10 percent off your direct booking at thegetawayon.com. Must be booked through our website for the code to apply.