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Standing Stone State Park

City: Hilham, TN
Region: Middle Tennessee
Subregion: Upper Cumberland

Standing Stone State Park takes its name from a huge, dog-shaped rock monolith that once stood nearby. The stone may have belonged to a prehistoric native people; Native Americans in the area later regarded it as a religious icon. When railroad workers blasted the remainder of the rock into small pieces, local tribes incorporated a piece of it into a monument in the town of Monterey.

The rustic park covers nearly 11,000 acres on the Cumberland Plateau of north-central Tennessee and is noted for its outstanding scenery, spring wildflowers, fossils and other natural diversity. The federal government bought the land for the park after it became marginal for farming and relocated the farmers, reforested the land and began erosion control measures. The park centered around a 69-acre, man-made lake with a 300-foot stone and concrete dam.

The park is famous for its marble championship, the National Rolley Hole Marble Championship and Festival every September. The tournament has been featured by CNN, CBS, ABC, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, the Smithsonian and National Geographic. The park and its tournament are the only specific place ever mentioned in a Peanuts comic strip.

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