Orme, Tennessee
| Orme, Tennessee | |
|---|---|
| Town | |
Orme Depot
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 Location of Orme, Tennessee |
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| Coordinates: 35°0′41″N 85°48′19″W / 35.01139°N 85.80528°WCoordinates: 35°0′41″N 85°48′19″W / 35.01139°N 85.80528°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Tennessee |
| County | Marion |
| Area | |
| • Total | 4.2 sq mi (10.8 km2) |
| • Land | 4.2 sq mi (10.8 km2) |
| • Water | 0.0 sq mi (0.0 km2) |
| Elevation | 846 ft (258 m) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 126 |
| • Density | 29.8/sq mi (11.5/km2) |
| Time zone | Central (CST) (UTC-6) |
| • Summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| FIPS code | 47-56040 |
| GNIS feature ID | 1296488 |
Orme is a town in Marion County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 126 as of 2010. It is part of the Chattanooga, TN–GA Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Orme is rooted in a coal mining community known as Needmore, which was established in the early 1890s. Mining operations in the valley were slow to develop, however, due to the area’s remoteness and lack of adequate means of transportation for the coal. In the late 1890s, Chattanooga businessman Frederick Gates purchased the Needmore mining operations, and began negotiating with the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway to build a branch line into the valley. After some hesitation, this railroad agreed to build the line in 1902.
After negotiating the construction of the branch line, Gates sold the Needmore operation to Richard Orme Campbell (1860–1912), who renamed the operation the "Campbell Coal and Coke Company". He renamed the town of Needmore after his son, who was also named Richard Orme Campbell (the name “Orme” was the maiden name of the elder Campbell’s mother, Virginia Orme). Along with mining facilities, Campbell built a commissary, an office building, workers’ cottages, schools, and a hotel. Within a few years, the town had grown to several thousand residents.
Campbell sold the Orme operation in 1905, and the new owners renamed the company, “Battle Creek Coal and Coke Company.” By 1912, the operation consisted of four drift mines, some reaching high up the walls of the Cumberland Plateau. Mule-drawn rail cars carried the mined coal to the mine entrances, where it was transferred to a locomotive. The locomotive then carried the coal to an upper tipple, which in turn transferred it to a lower tipple. At its height, the mining operation was shipping 1,000 tons of coal per day out of the valley. The operation was known for its “good coal, inaccessibility, irregular stratification, and consequently difficult mining.”
Following a miners’ strike in 1939, major mining operations in Orme were shut down. The railroad company removed the rails, and the metal was used for ongoing World War II efforts. Afterward, Orme declined. The hotel closed in 1945, the school closed in 1961, and the post office closed in 1970. The wooden railroad depot is one of the few buildings remaining from the town’s mining heydey.
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