Ocmulgee Mounds

Last Friday we went to Ocmulgee mounds and it was quite an interesting visit. Ocmulgee mounds is located near Macon, GA. The contract to establish the park was signed in 1936 by President Franklin Roosevelt naming the park, Ocmulgee National Monument, though in 2019 the park was renamed Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park.

Before the mounds were built, when the last ice age was still at large and when mammoths still roamed the frostbitten landscape, the paleo-indians traversed the continent. They are North America’s first known culture and the earliest known people to come to modern day Georgia. As time went on, new people came and old ones left. During the Archaic time period people invented different ways of living and invented different tools and techniques. One of the most useful new things was the boiling stone. People would place the stones in a large fire then when the stones became hot they would place them in a hole lined with animal hide, which was their version of a cooking pot. The stones would heat the water so that it would boil, then they would be taken out and people would put meat or herbs in the boiling water. Civilizations move quickly and soon the Woodland time period came crashing in bringing a new way of hunting large and small game. Birds and rabbits alike would hide from this new invention. The bow and arrow was a game changer making it much easier to hunt. Trade routes also extended and people began to move into villages and communities. People grew squash, beans, corn, and sunflowers. Finally, 10000 years after humans arrived in Georgia, they began building the mounds. Intricate pottery and fabric designs were developed. They had ceremonies, rituals, complex burials and more. We can never know exactly what they did back then. But we know enough to piece together this much from prehistoric times.

The mounds were built by hand, basked full by basket full. The tallest and longest mound, the great temple mound, is 55 feet tall. There is also a lesser temple mound that sits next to the great temple mound and would have only supported one building versus the great temple mound’s three. The earth lodge was another mound. A hollow mound, this was where they held meetings. There were niches in the ground were people would sit. The chief had a raised platform and twice a year it would be bathed in sunlight from the entrance tunnel.

I did the junior ranger program while we were there and we had a pretty good experience. We even got to go in the earth lodge and climb the great temple mound. Lots of stairs! The mounds were a great way to spend half a day!