Mentone, AL

Mentone occupies the crest of Lookout Mountain in DeKalb County, at about 1,736 feet above sea level. The West Fork of the Little River runs through the mountain landscape, and the town’s 2020 population was 319. Elevation and climate made Mentone a resort community before it became the small town seen today. The Mentone Springs Hotel, built in the 1880s around mineral and beauty springs, drew visitors seeking mountain air and cooler temperatures; its name, and the town’s, came from Menton, France. Summer camps still cluster around Mentone, keeping that seasonal pattern visible.

ATTRChris Pruitt / CC BY-SA 4.0

Mentone was incorporated in 1935 and sits in the Ridge and Valley section of the southern Appalachians, with the town center on the mountain crest and the western edge following the slopes toward Valley Head. The old hotel tradition remains part of the town’s landscape even though the Mentone Springs Hotel was destroyed by fire in 2014. In April 2003, a magnitude 4.6 earthquake centered nearby caused minor damage but no injuries. Mentone’s present shape comes from a small municipal population, a long resort history, and summer institutions that use the mountain setting as their organizing fact.