South Cumberland State Park

South Cumberland State Park
South Cumberland State Park points of interest. Clockwise: Greeter Falls, the trail down Stone Door, Laurel Gulf Overlook, Stone Door Scenic Overlook.
Type	Tennessee State Park
Location	Franklin, Grundy and Marion counties
Coordinates	35°15′32″N 85°47′20″W / 35.259°N 85.789°W / 35.259; -85.789
Area	12,166 acres (49.23 km2)
Website	South Cumberland State Park

South Cumberland State Park is a state park in the middle and southeast portions of Tennessee on the Cumberland Plateau.

The park was established in 1978. It is a collection of eight discrete tracts scattered across Franklin, Marion and Grundy counties, formerly totaling approximately 30,899 acres (as of 2020).^[1] The park now contains 12,166 acres following the separation of Savage Gulf into its own state park. Twelve trailheads provide hiking access to most sections of the park,^[2] which protects a series of unique ecosystems on the escarpments and in the ravines of the Southern Cumberland Plateau. There are over a dozen large waterfalls in the park,^[3] the tallest of which is Foster Falls, in Marion County. The Grundy Lakes unit includes industrial archaeological remains of the coal mines and coke production facilities of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company, as well as a stockade prison it operated that provided convict labor for those facilities.^[4]

The park became too large to manage as a single park so in 2022, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation established Savage Gulf State Park, which removed South Cumberland from Sequatchie County.