Mentone, Alabama
town in Alabama
Mentone is a town in DeKalb County, Alabama, United States. Its location is atop Lookout Mountain. As of the 2020 census, Mentone had a population of 319.
A number of private summer camps are located near Mentone. For a number of years, Mentone has hosted an unusually large number of summer camps. Mentone attracts many visitors and tourists annually, partly due to the summer camps.
History
The community was named after Menton in France and was incorporated in 1935.
In April 2003, it was the town nearest the epicenter of a magnitude 4.6 earthquake. The surprise quake had alarmed residents in the dark hours of the morning and was felt across several states, but it did not cause any injuries and only minor damage to the town. Mentone is in the Ridge and Valley region of the southwestern Appalachian Mountains, an area that generally goes several decades between significant earthquakes but has never had a major one in recorded history.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Mentone, Alabama” as town in Alabama. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as town in Alabama. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q67974. VIAF identifies the subject as 183144783012000340007. Authority coordinates are 34.572, -85.580. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2020, 1935 and 2003.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Mentone, Alabama”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Mentone, Alabama primary sources, Mentone, Alabama archive and Mentone research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Mentone, Alabama”?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Mentone, Alabama” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.