Standing Stone

Settlers named the place for the stone, and the town was called Standing Stone until it was incorporated in 1901. By 1805 three families had settled here and an inn opened for westbound migrants on Avery's Trace. The name changed because of coal and rails. The Tennessee Central climbed the mountain in 1893, a ten-investor company bought coal land, and an engineer laid out a company town beside the tracks. A naming contest produced Monterey. The monolith's old name survives on the state park and in an October celebration the town still holds each year.

What the plaque says

Standing Stone A mysterious sandstone monolith of unknown origin stood just west of Monterey. According to local tradition, the structure resembled the shape of a large dog, which faced west over the edge of the Cumberland Plateau. Captain William Walton, builder of the Walton Road, referred to the monolith as the "Standing Stone." What remains of the stone was removed to Monterey's Whitaker Park in 1895.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Muddy Pond Mennonite Community — 9.6 mi
  A Mennonite farming community in Overton County near Monterey, known for sorghum syrup pressed and boiled each fall and for the farm stores along its roads.
• Cookeville Depot Museum — 14 mi
  The 1909 Tennessee Central Railroad depot in Cookeville's west side, now a museum with a model of the town in 1955 and a steam engine in the yard.
• Cummins Falls State Park — 18 mi
  A 75-foot waterfall and swimming hole on the Blackburn Fork, saved from a housing development in 2011 and opened as Tennessee's 54th state park.
• Burgess Falls State Park — 20 mi
  A day-use park on the Falling Water River, where a short trail passes three smaller falls on its way to a drop of more than 130 feet into a limestone gorge.

More markers nearby

• Stokes' Atrocity — 0.3 mi
• Mount Granger — 7.4 mi
• Cherokee Oak — 9.1 mi
• White Plains — 10 mi