Little Duck River - Definition

The Little Duck River rises in a poorly drained, swampy area southeast of Manchester, Tennessee. It winds through the town. Its significance is primarily in its spectacular confluence with the main Duck River, just northwest of downtown Manchester in Old Stone Fort State Park. Both streams descend over a series of dramatic cascades just prior to the confluence, which occurs at the base of a table land which they surround on three sides. The perimeter of this table land is surrounded by a low stone wall generally 2 - 4 ft (.7 - 1.2 m) in height. This has long been referred to by residents as the "Old Stone Fort". Early settlers suspected it as being the ruins of a fortification built during the time of the de Soto expedition; this is almost certainly erroneous. Modern scholarship and archeology suggest that it was a Native American religious and ceremonial structure, not a fort per se. It is estimated to be between nine and twenty-two centuries old.