Sequatchie Valley

Sequatchie Valley is a relatively long and narrow valley in the U.S. state of Tennessee and, in some definitions, Alabama. It is generally considered to be part of the Cumberland Plateau region of the Appalachian Mountains; it was probably formed by erosion of a compression anticline, rather than rifting process as had been formerly theorized.

The Sequatchie River drains the valley in Tennessee, flowing south to southwest from the southern part of Cumberland County, Tennessee to the Tennessee River near the Alabama border.

Geologically, the Sequatchie Valley continues south of the Tennessee River into central Alabama. The Tennessee River flows through the Alabama portion of the valley to the vicinity of Guntersville, Alabama. The valley continues south of Guntersville, where it is called Browns Valley, drained by Browns Creek (Thornbury 1965:148). Although this whole valley is geologically the same, the name Sequatchie is commonly used only for the Tennessee portion of the valley, through which the Sequatchie River flows.