Town file
Section, Alabama
Section, Alabama (Jackson County, Alabama) is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 351, "The Murder Dance" (5 January 2023). Section is a small community in Jackson County in the north-eastern corner of Alabama, high on Sand Mountain where the southern tip of the Appalachians runs into the state.
- Town
- Section
- County
- Jackson County
- State
- Alabama
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 351
- Approximate location
- 34.582, -85.985
Episode 351 / 5 January 2023 / 163 min / full
The Murder Dance
"This is a section Alabama is the name of it, in the northeastern part of Alabama, in Jackson County, area code 256." about 0:04:43
The case: Murder of Michelle Whitten (December 7, 1997); Disappearance of Kimberly Whitten and Haley Calwell (June 22, 2007). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2023
- Population
- 743
- Median age
- 39.6
- Median household income
- $31,458
- Median home value
- $119,200
- Two-bedroom rent
- $705 a month
- Cost of living
- 77
- Religious
- 54%
- Property crime
- ▼ about one third
- Violent crime
- ▼ about a quarter
History, in brief
- Originally known as Mount Zion when the first post office was established. about 0:06:14
- Nearby communities included Kirby's Creek, Gossett's Hollow and Fern Cliff. about 0:06:21
- Settlers began arriving in large numbers in 1862, during the Civil War. about 0:07:47
- Settlers had to live on the land for five years before the property was legally theirs. about 0:08:17
- Renamed Section after the sixteenth section, a square mile parcel the federal government set aside to support public schools. about 0:08:38
- In 1886 Bort Harrison ran a six horsepower water-powered flour and grist mill. about 0:10:08
- Bort Harrison built the community's first store in 1889. about 0:10:19
The reviews read out
five stars
"A great place to live and raise a family, made up of several small towns, with beautiful parks and countryside and the famous unclaimed baggage store."about 0:10:53
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- Arab, Alabama34 miles
- Summerville, Georgia37 miles
- Gadsden, Alabama40 miles
- Whiteside, Tennessee40 miles
- Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia48 miles
- Rome, Georgia50 miles
Everything here is as told in the episode, on the date it went out; figures and places may have changed since. Endings are covered: open an episode and use the spoiler switch to read them.