A Visit to Etowah Indian Mounds

April 10, 2018

On the way back from a two days at Cloudland Canyon State Park (blog coming Sunday) I stopped by the site of the largest Native American settlement in the Etowah Valley.  This site, containing three Indian Mounds was occupied from about 900- 1550 A.D. The largest mound was a temple area, while the the second was the site of the chief's house and the third was a mortuary ground. Hernando De Soto visited the area in 1540, bringing English diseases which decimated the colony and bringing an end to this culture.

The site has a barrow bit around the part that once curved from the river, around the entire community, and back to the river. Behind this barrow ditch, was a row of embedded logs which formed a palisade which offered great protection from enemies.

Thismodel of a wattle house, used by the natives here, was built by volunteers 

Detail of the roof structure from the inside it had a large smoke hole. 

View of Mound A, foreground and Mound B background. Mound A was a temple area while B was the site of the chief's house. 

There is a path leading to the top of Mound A

This is Mound C, which held burials and is the only mound to be completely excavated and rebuilt

I took this picture of Mound A and visitors from the top of Mound B

The riparian area along the Etowah River was beautiful with newly leafed out trees, some also blooming. 

Such beauty

This shows the fish dam that funneled the fish to a small opening where they could be easily caught

I enjoyed finding a mullein plant - brought by the Europeans for medical purposes, it is now found in all fifty states

Loved this tree at the top of the fish dam

A medium sized tree was awash with these blooms

This was an especially pretty violet plant

It was almost closing time and most of the people were headed back to the Visitor Center

I was surprised to find a single red clover blooming

View from Mound A - I enjoyed the varied colors of new leaves for most of my trip

The Visitor Center was open later than the outside areas.  I had to rush to see most of the outside area but had plenty of time to enjoy the museum and watch a movie.  The outside had a row of these disks.  I asked the ranger about them and he said they were copied from necklaces.

These two figures were excavated from Mound C - this culture must have had some excellent artists

This is a model of what the entire village looked like, based on data gathered from the site. 

The museum had several displays of artifacts found, I think as funeral artifacts.  This was part of the ax display. 

Some of the axes found here

The last Native Americans to live in this area were the Cherokee and the trail of tears started here. I wanted to visit two other sites involving the Cherokee, but they are not open on Mondays and Tuesdays.  Tuesday was my last day off, so maybe next year, I'll get to them.


I'm looking forward to a visit from my new new friends and owners of Nearly Native Plants. They are coming for a tour and supper on Sunday.  And today I had a serendipitous meeting with the director of Georgia Parks. She is also passionate about pollinator gardens. I'm going to share my pollinator meadow and bog plans with her.

I can't believe I only have four more full time days to work.  I'll leave the 19th and visit friends as I head west to Utah, then I'll zip up to Montana for summer about May 10th.