Little Duck River

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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 area is now Old Stone Fort State Historic Park. 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. More recently, it has been tied to the legend of the Welsh Prince Madoc as possible evidence of the legend's validity. Modern scholarship and archeology suggest that it was a Native American religious and ceremonial structure, not a fort per se. It is believed to have been built between 80 A.D. and 550 A.D., during the Middle Woodland period.