A Visit to Ocmulgee National Monument

This is a park dedicated to preserve the remains of the earthen mounds built hundreds of years before the first European arrived to this continent, by a prehistoric culture of North America known as the Early Mississippian.

The Monument is located in what the scientists call the Macon Plateau in central Georgia. Between AD 900 and 1100 a skillful farming people lived in this area. Apparently, they were not the first inhabitants of this land. The Mississippians displaced the native woodland Indians that occupied the region between 1000 BC and AD 900 until the arrival of the Mississippians, although, they still remained in the area for a while. The Mississippians cultivated corn, beans, squash, pumpkins, and tobacco.

Probably more than a thousand people lived here at one time in a compact town of thatched huts on the bluff overlooking the Ocmulgee River. They leveled part of the ground near the river and built a series of earth mounds. The mounds were probably constructed at different stages and they had different purposes: temples, burial grounds, meeting places, etc.

In Ocmulgee, as you exit the Visitor Center, you will see first an Earthlodge that probably was a meeting place for the town's political and religious leaders (see the photo above). This is a reconstruction of an original building. The pottery display shown at the top of this page is located inside this Earthlodge. The original clay floor is about a thousand years old.

A trail connects most of the features of this park. Also, you can take your car and visit various of the mounds in the south section of the monument. We recommend that you made a stop at one of the parking lots and visit the Great and Lesser Temple Mounds. Not much is known about these two mounds, except that they were topped by rectangular wooden structures and probably used for important religious ceremonies. The Great Temple Mound is the largest Mississippian mound on the Macon Plateau. The photograph above shows the Lesser Temple as seen from top of the Great Temple. Before taking your car again, you should go down the trail to the swampy lowlands of the Walnut Creek.

At the end of the main road there is a Funeral Mound. Approximately 100 burials have been uncovered here, many with shell and copper ornaments. Probably these are the remains of the village leaders.

The monument offers other points of interest such as two lines of prehistoric trenches, a trading post built around 1690 by English traders, the village site, as well as other earth mounds.

Information:

Address:

Ocmulgee National Monument
1207 Emery Highway
Macon, Georgia 31201
Tel: (912) 752-8257

This is a photo of my wife Niní, by the entrance sign

The Monument is open daily from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Closed Christmas and New Years Day). There are no admission fees. The Visitors Center has a good archeological museum, exhibits, film as well as a gift shop and a Native American Art Gallery.

Please visit the Official Web page of the National Park Service indicated below for more details about this Monument.

Links to other related pages:

• The Ocmulgee National Monument official page by the National Park Service.
• The Great Outdoor Recreation Pages (GORP) site providing information about this monument on the Macon Plateau.
• The Mississipian and Late Prehistoric Period page. A site providing some information about the Mississipian and other late prehistoric cultures. This page also offers links to various other sites of similar interest.
• The Moundbuilders page provide information about the prehistoric people that established communities with large arrangements of earthen mounds in North America.

Photographs - © 1996 Antonio Fernández

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