Big Falls is a 25-foot tiered waterfall on the Duck River in Old Stone Fort State Archaeological Park, on the edge of Manchester in Coffee County, Tennessee, beside the stone ruins of a paper mill built in 1879.
The falls
The river breaks over weathered limestone ledges in two drops, a stair-step pattern that splits the lower cascade into several channels before the water gathers into one broad white flow along the south shore. Lidar data puts the height at about 25 feet; earlier surveys listed 30 feet, and another estimate gives fifteen to twenty.
Getting there
The park is at 732 Stone Fort Drive in Manchester, and Tennessee State Parks charges no entrance fee. Parking and the trailhead are about 0.7 mile in from the park entrance. The Wall Trail is a 1.25-mile loop, 1.40 miles with the side paths, rated easy to moderate for its steps and footing. The Big Falls area comes at about 0.95 mile, where an unmarked path drops to the falls; return to the loop the same way.
When to go
Autumn brings color along the rivers; spring brings wildflowers and a chance of river otters.
On site
The park warns of steep bluffs, prohibits jumping and asks visitors to stay on official trails. People swim in the pool below the falls, whose depth is unknown. Dogs are allowed on a leash. Near the falls, the trail runs through the block walls of the old mill, where a sign tells its history.
History and name
The park's 2025 management plan dates the Stone Fort Paper Company mill beside Big Falls to 1879. The company reused a dam and waterworks first built to power gristmills and sawmills, and the mill supplied paper to Atlanta and Nashville into the early 1900s. The park itself protects a Native American ceremonial enclosure built about 1,500 to 2,000 years ago, in the Middle Woodland period.
Nearby
Step Falls on the Little Duck River and Bluehole Falls on the Duck are each about 0.2 mile away, both reached from the same Wall Trail loop. Rainbow Falls on Hale Branch is about 2.3 miles away.
Distances are straight-line.