Sand Mountain runs in a diagonal northeast-southwest direction from the northeastern corner of Alabama, and includes parts of Jackson, DeKalb, Marshall, Etowah and Blount counties in Alabama, as well as part of Dade County, Georgia. It was originally Native American (Cherokee, Yuchi, Koasati, Creek and others) territory, and had many that stayed after the Jackson era removal. In 1861, It attempted to secede from the confederacy and form the Union state of Nickajack.