Georgia: Ocmulgee National Monument

ocmulgee national monument - 23 jun 2012

Despite not having finished up last year’s history studies, Camille has already started up on next year’s project Georgia history, since we are hoping to get in as many field trips as possible, and summer is a nice time for field trips!

Our first field trip was to Fernbank Museum of Natural History, just down the street from us. We didn’t find much about “pre-European Explorers cultures” there, but we did see a couple of exhibits that we will return to in the future. One on DeSoto and one on native cultures, which is the last room in the “A Walk Through Georgia” exhibit.

Ou second field trip was to Ocmulgee National Monument. As I was researching native cultures, this was one of the places that we heard would be good to visit. On their website, I saw that they were having a hike to the “Lamar spiral mound” today, and I signed us up!

We got up at 6 to make the drive down to Macon in order to get there in time for the 9am, four-mile hike. A group of 14 showed up for the hike, led by a ranger and accompanied by a parks police woman. The hike was flat, and the first mile ran along the noisy I-16. The girls did great keeping up with everyone else, but it was hot, hot, hot.

The spiral mound was from the Mississippian era and now has trees and other vegetation (including lots of poison ivy) hiding the distinctive spirals. The police woman opened the gate for us to allow us a closer look. A few hundred feet away was a second mound, not spiraled. No one knows why the one is spiraled — perhaps it was never completed.

Back at the visitor’s center, we were able to watch an informative movie on the native peoples of the area and the mound builders, then we explored the exhibits. It was fascinating to see how the pots and arrowheads changed through the eras.

Outside, we explored the trenches, the Earth Lodge and the Great Temple mound from the Mississippian period. By then we were all exhausted from the overpowering heat, so we called it a day.

lamar spiral mound - 23 jun 2012

earth lodge - 23 jun 2012