Why this park
Standing Stone State Park lies on the Highland Rim in Overton County, a few miles north of Hilham. At its center is a 69-acre lake where three creeks meet behind a dam of rock-faced stone and concrete, about 300 feet long, with buttresses and two spillways. The park mostly calls it Kelly Lake; the 1986 National Register nomination and others call it Standing Stone Lake.
What makes the place worth drawing is the handwork of the late 1930s: log cabins on stone footings along the ridge, built by WPA crews from National Park Service plans, and the dam itself, seen from the Tea Room's back porch, which the park calls its best view. Then there is the dirt marble yard, where rolley hole players meet every September.
The story
The name comes from a rock that stood about 24 miles to the south-southeast, in today's Putnam County. The Tennessee Encyclopedia describes the Standing Stone as a monolith more than 12 feet high beside the Avery Trace; one early settler likened it to a gray dog sitting up, ears raised, facing west. Tradition, which the park repeats, holds that it marked a line between Cherokee and Shawnee lands. By the early 1890s only about four feet of the stone stood, and railroad crews blasting a roadbed broke up the rest. In 1895 a fraternal order set one piece on a monument in the town that had grown up beside the stone, first known as Standing Stone and now as Monterey. The piece is there still.
The land that became the park was worn out. More than 50 families lived on the 8,500 acres that make up Standing Stone, Paula Stover of the Overton County Heritage Museum wrote in 2019. In the mid-1930s the government bought the eroded farms, and the families had to leave. The Resettlement Administration, with the U.S. Forest Service, moved the farmers out, replanted the hills and fought the erosion, the Tennessee Encyclopedia says. Standing Stone was one of four federal Land-Use Areas that became Tennessee state parks.
Local accounts name the Civilian Conservation Corps among the agencies at work, but the nomination credits the WPA with building the park: the dam, the cabins, picnic shelters, a boathouse, an amphitheater and low stone guardrails, most of them about 1938. Building the park gave work to more than 400 people, Stover wrote. On March 23, 1939, the federal government leased the area to the state's Division of State Parks; Tennessee got full title only in 1955. Ten of the 17 WPA cabins reopened in October 2020 after a $1.4 million restoration.
Marbles arrived in 1983 with the first national championship of rolley hole, a game the Tennessee Encyclopedia ties to Tennessee's Clay County and Kentucky's Monroe County. Teams of two shoot flint marbles, made locally, along a row of three holes, up and back, twelve holes in all, knocking rivals' marbles out of bounds. At the start, the Tennessee Arts Commission says, the state had one active marble yard left. Work led by Bobby Fulcher, a folklorist on the state parks staff, brought twenty yards back into use.
When to go, and what to wear
At Livingston, the nearest NOAA station with temperature normals, eight miles southeast and 975 feet up, April averages a high near 70°F and a low near 44°F. The park says spring brings wildflowers along the trails and Beach Road; bring a light jacket.
July averages a high near 87°F and a low near 66°F. The lake is closed to swimming, but the park has a summer pool and creeks for wading. Ticks are most active from April through September, the CDC says, and it advises permethrin-treated clothing, repellent, and walking mid-trail. The park lists timber rattlesnakes and copperheads, so watch your step.
October is the driest month, with a high near 71°F and a low near 45°F. Deer hunters use the state forest around the park, a wildlife management area; the 2026–27 gun season runs from November 21 to January 3, so wear a bright color if you walk on forest land.
December is the wettest month, and January averages a high near 47°F and a low near 27°F, so dress in layers. In winter the creek is stocked with trout.
All year, wear shoes that grip. Two short spur trails each lose about 175 feet from the ridge, at grades near 50 percent where steepest, and the park warns that its creeks can flood fast.
Know before you go
- The campground has been closed for renovation since July 7, 2025; the park expects it to reopen in late 2026. The field below the dam is closed for construction from March 2026 into mid-2027.
- The south entrance crosses the dam on a narrow one-lane bridge, so the park asks drivers with an RV or trailer to come in by Highway 52 to Highway 136.
- The park rents canoes, kayaks, pedal boats and aluminum fishing row boats, paid for at the park office. Only canoes and kayaks of your own may launch, and boating is allowed in daylight only. Anglers 13 and older need a Tennessee fishing license.
- Flooding has left the Lake Trail partly closed; go around the washout near the bridge over Mill Creek, not through it. Cell service is limited.
- Hours, fees and closures change, so check Standing Stone State Park's page before you go.
Sources: Tennessee Encyclopedia, "Standing Stone State Rustic Park" (Claudette Stager), "Standing Stone" (Opless Walker) and "Rolley Hole Marbles" (Bob Fulcher), Tennessee Historical Society; National Register of Historic Places, Standing Stone State Rustic Park Historic District nomination (Claudette Stager, Tennessee Historical Commission, 1986) and "State Parks in Tennessee Built by the CCC and WPA between 1934–1942" (James B. Jones and Claudette Stager, 1986), National Park Service; Paula Stover, "The history of Standing Stone State Park," Overton County News (October 15, 2019); Upper Cumberland Business Journal, "J&S Construction to renovate historic cabins" (July 10, 2019) and "Standing Stone State Park unveils restored historic WPA-built cabins" (October 28, 2020); Tennessee Arts Commission, Folklife, "National Rolley Hole Marbles Championship and Festival" (2023); 102.5 WOW Country (2025) and Knox TN Today (2024), on the championship; Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, 2026–2027 Tennessee Fishing, Hunting & Trapping Guide, via eRegulations; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Preventing Tick Bites" (2024); NOAA, U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020, Livingston Radio WLIV station; Wikipedia; Standing Stone State Park, tnstateparks.com.
