The East Fork flows westward from its source atop Short Mountain, at the edge of the Highland Rim, and passes north of Murfreesboro.

Native Americans were hunting in the Stones River Basin as early as 12,000 years ago, as evidenced by flint tools found on the grounds of Long Hunter State Park.

A fortified Mississippian-era village was located near Lebanon at Sellars Farm, the site of which is now maintained by Long Hunter State Park.

[4] After the Cherokee ceded the Stones River area to the United States in 1805, settlers began to arrive in large numbers.

[1] In 1963, largely due to the demand for flood control along the volatile Stones River, the United States Army Corps of Engineers began construction on Stewart's Ferry Dam near Donelson.

[1] The Sellars Mound site, which had been excavated by Peabody Museum curator Frederic Putnam in the late 1870s, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and purchased by the state of Tennessee in 1974.

In the late 1990s, the Friends of Sellars Farm State Archaeological Area was formed by volunteers who began promoting the site and offering tours.

The Jones Mill Trail, in the Bryant Grove section, leads to the top of Bald Knob, a clear hilltop that overlooks J. Percy Priest Lake.