Geographic Setting of The Old Stone Fort

Geographic Setting of The Old Stone Fort. Old Stone Fort. The dam in front of you was built in 1963, three years before the Old Stone Fort became a Tennessee State Park. It was not associated with any of the industrial mills that once operated here. The river seen here is the Barren Fork or Big Duck River. The Bark Camp Fork, of Little Duck River, is located behind you. These two rivers, make their drop of the HIGHLAND RIM to each side of the Old Stone Fort. They join together below the Old Stone Fort. , Once the Duck and Little Duck rivers join below the Old Stone Fort, it is approximately four river miles to the pool of the NORMANDY RESERVOIR. This lake is formed by the Normandy Dam. The dam is located between two ridges, the last outlet from the ridges and valleys formed by the HIGHLAND RIM ESCARPMENT. The dam traps water back into the valleys or this transition zone between the HIGHLAND RIM and the CENTAL BASIN. , The HIGHLAND RIM is capped by limestone that forms most of the cliffs seen along the trial. The rivers break through the limestone here as they drop down toward the level of the CENTRAL BASIN. A softer layer of shale beneath the limestone eroded easily, creating the rock shelters or overhangs around the perimeter of the Old Stone Fort. The ridge and valley area that forms a transition zone between the HIGHLAND RIM and the CENTRAL BASIN is known as the ESCARPMENT. , THE BARRENS, a region on the flat top of the HIGHLAND RIM, was a prairie quite recently. In 1806, when this area was opened up for settlement, much of the flat top of the Rim would have been kept treeless by a clay pan in the soil that prevented water percolation. May Prairie State Natural Area, south of Manchester, preserves many of the grasses and wildflowers of the Midwestern Prairie and Gulf Coastal Plains grasslands that made up the local prairie flora.