Desoto Falls is a magnificent 104-foot waterfall located on the West Fork of the Little River on the outskirts of the charming town of Mentone, Alabama. The falls have carved their own small canyon. They are named after the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto. The waterfall formed where the West Fork of the Little River plunges off a Lookout Mountain cliff is one of the most beautiful in the South. DeSoto Falls is one of the tallest and most visited waterfalls in Alabama, and it is actually a part of DeSoto State Park.
DeSoto Falls has been a landmark for thousands of years. Native Americans frequented the falls long before the arrival of the first European explorers, who, if old legends are to be believed, may have come here long before Columbus first set foot in America. Many small caves in the sheer bluff below the waterfall are said to have been part of a fort. According to local tradition, it was constructed by Welsh adventurers under the command of Prince Madoc.
Because the believers in the story hold that Madoc landed on Mobile Bay in 1170 A.D. before making his way inland as far as the mountains of Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. Moreover, the waterfall was a distinctive place for the Cherokee Indians, who once inhabited this part of Alabama. The famed Cherokee scholar Sequoyah lived in nearby Wills Town from 1818 to 1823. It was there that he devised the Cherokee Alphabet.
The waterfall is now one of the major features of DeSoto State Park, and one of the attractive recreation eras was established through the exorbitant hard work of the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) during the Great Depression. The key area of the park is a few miles south of DeSoto Falls and provides cabins and chalets, a motel, restaurant, store, picnic areas, hiking trails, campgrounds, and more.
Therefore, the water that flows over the falls forms one of the primary tributaries of the Little River. The stream is exclusive in that it is one of the few rivers in the nation that flow almost completely on the top of a mountain.
