The Old Stone Fort

35.46 N 86.12 W

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Myths, history, and oldstories speak of the many earthen mounds, ancient monuments, and elaborate stoneworks that long ago were located throughout the Southeastern U.S. Many of these, especially those along the rivers, are no more, having been flooded by humans' changing of the rivers, plowed under by our farming, or concreted over by our cities and towns. Some of those sites were so ancient as to be a mystery even to the Native Americans of the region, who were unable to explain the origins to the first European explorers and settlers of the area. All that can be known for certain is that these constructions were built by some of the first human inhabitants of this area.

One of these works still remains: The Old Stone Fort on the Duck River near Manchester, Tennessee. An ancient rampart of earth laid over a core of stone, it's design, purpose, and meaning has never been explained by modern anthropology, archaeology, or historical analysis. The earliest settlers of that region told of cutting down an oak tree growing on its ramparts, and after counting the rings on its stump, they figured that the tree was a young sapling growing on the deserted earthworks when Columbus sailed.

The Oldstories tell only of this place's possible association with The Night-goers. Hypotheses and conjectures of its origin include, but are not limited to, its having been built by outcasts from The Lost Island of Mu, survivors of Atlantis, Modoc's band of Welch-people, Mayan migrants, scouts from de Soto's expedition, and, of course, those pre-historic people that the Old Ones refer to as Those Who Came Before Us.

This haunting, mysterious place (which is a Tennessee State Park), is located equi-distance (141 miles, each way on a straight-line) and fairly centered between THE LOST ISLAND STONECIRCLE and THE THORNTON FIREPIT. The Jack Daniels Distillery is located a couple of dozen miles Southwesterly from THE OLD STONE FORT, on a straight azimuth towards THE THORNTON FIREPIT.




Stonecircles