Jones Valley

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This article is about the natural valley. For the Birmingham neighborhood, see Jones Valley neighborhood.

Jones Valley or Birmingham Valley is the name for the middle section of the 100-mile long anticlinal valley, sometimes known as Long Valley, running from northeast to southwest, bound by the continuous northern slope of Red Mountain and the intermittent southern slope of Sand Mountain.

To the northeast, in present-day Blount County, it is called Murphree's Valley. To the southwest, in Bibb County, it is called Roupe's Valley.

The floor of Jones Valley is elevated above that of neighboring Shades Valley and the valley drained by the Locust Fork of the Warrior River. Many of the streams draining Jones Valley work through the adjoining ridges north or south rather than continuing along the valley floor. Thus it is the valley itself which serves as the watershed between the Warrior and Cahaba Rivers.

Geology

History

Jones Valley hosted the earliest pioneer settlements in what would later be called the Birmingham District. The homestead established in 1813 by John Jones at Fort Jonesboro gave the valley its name.

Williamson Hawkins' 2,000 acre cotton plantation on Village Creek northwest of Wood's Station was the largest farming operation in Jones Valley.

References