Fiddler's Rock

Credits, Links, Resources and Suggested Reading:

1. Mountain City Elementary School: Learn About Johnson County.

2. To read a full account of this story, please pick up a copy of Demon in the Woods: Tall Tales and True from East Tennessee by: Charles Edwin Price

Snake Mountain is the highest point in Johnson County, rising 5574 feet above sea level, and lies in the Stone Mountain range along the eastern border of the county. Snake Mountain lies in the Trade Community, given its name because in the 1700s, Native North American Indians, trappers and hunters came to trade where three wilderness trails and a buffalo trail met (the old buffalo trail is now Highway 421). 1

Near the top of Stone Mountain is a flat rock known as Fiddler's Rock, or Rattlesnake Rock. In the 1850s a man named Martin Stone lived in Butler and loved nothing more than to fiddle. He would sit on a large rock, on his property, with the snakes who would sunbathe there and play for hours. One day, the man unfortunately died from snake bites. it is said that to this day people can hear the fiddle coming from the direction of this rock, especially on cold, winter days. 2