Old Stone Fort Archeological Park

732 Stone Fort Dr, Manchester, TN 37355

I love this park! Any government establishment with a misnomer as a name is delightful to me. So, this park was occupied by Native Americans over 1500 years ago, and they occupied it for over 500 years before abandoning the land. When European settlers landed, they incorrectly assumed the remains where that of a fort, so the land became known as Old Stone Fort Park. Archaeologists now believe those remains are that of grounds used for ceremonial purposes.

The land was purchased in 1966 by the state of Tennessee. It is a total of a little over 800 acres. It also includes portions of Duck River, including a couple of different sets of waterfalls.

It has six trails- Forks of the River (0.30 mile), the Moat Trail (0.40 mile), the Garrison Road Trail (0.80 mile), the Nature Trail (0.85 mile), the Backbone Trail (1.25 miles), and the Enclosure Trail (1.40 miles).

We showed up, renting a pavilion for my father's birthday celebration, and enjoyed it. We started to go on one of the trails, or to go see the "fort" but found it all to be overrun with people. Overcautious due to COVID, we ended up just doing some driving around. We will be back to explore more thoroughly, and were very excited to be there.