Last Look, then Leave
About 600 years ago, Town Creek Indian Mound served as a ceremonial center for social occasions and feasts of the Pee Dee (name archeologists gave these Native Americans due to their close proximity to the Pee Dee River), a South Appalachian Mississippian culture people; today this is the only ceremonial mound and village center of that culture located within North Carolina
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Mount Gilead, NC – 2019NOV10 – The Town Creek Site:
For our 23rd wedding anniversary, after church Joe & I paused for a picnic lunch on our way to Town Creek Site, set high on a low bluff of an oxbow on the west bank of the Little River near its confluence with Town Fork Creek in Mt. Gilead, NC, on the sunny southern side of the ancient Uwharrie Mountain Range located in the southeastern Piedmont region.
The protohistoric Native American ceremonial center – listed in the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark – is the first North Carolina State Historic Site, and it also remains the only state historic site in North Carolina dedicated to American Indian heritage, drawing astronomers, and visitors like us, from far and wide to this fascinating time capsule.
The Native American People legacy carries muffled mystery buried in its background of protohistory, a period that spans prehistory and history, when a culture or civilization had no developed writing but when other cultures notated its existence.
Excavating the earthen mound built of clay – one mound built atop former mounds – has been a focus of archaeological research under one director for more than half a century, an unusual phenomenon in the history of North American archaeology.
People lived here for 12,000 years, but why particularly here? The Town Creek site manager Rich Thompson shared with Joe and me how major rains will turn the ceremonial center into an island surrounded by floodwater then as well as recently, flooding from the parking lot halfway up to the front door of the Visitor Center.
Why the name Indian: fueled by bravery and ignorance financed by greed and arrogance, Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, heading "to India" but reaching the New World, and the Town Creek people vanished with no clue; we have no written record of explanation. Today we see these lovingly-reconstructed structures and can look and learn in amazement and wonder. So we invite you to view the best of our photos we set into 6 mini-themed albums:
• Mount Gilead, NC – 2019NOV10 – The Town Creek Site:
◦ Town Creek Site – 2019NOV10 – Stockade & North Entrance
◦ Town Creek Site – 2019NOV10 – Family Hut on its Burial Site
◦ Town Creek Site – 2019NOV10 – Mound & its Major Hut
◦ Town Creek Site – 2019NOV10 – Minor Ceremonial Hut
◦ Town Creek Site – 2019NOV10 – Ceremonial Center Plaza
◦ Town Creek Site – 2019NOV10 – Little River Bluff Overlook
Hope you also enjoy the 17% of 394 photos we took this day!
Last Look, then Leave
About 600 years ago, Town Creek Indian Mound served as a ceremonial center for social occasions and feasts of the Pee Dee (name archeologists gave these Native Americans due to their close proximity to the Pee Dee River), a South Appalachian Mississippian culture people; today this is the only ceremonial mound and village center of that culture located within North Carolina
___________________________________________
Mount Gilead, NC – 2019NOV10 – The Town Creek Site:
For our 23rd wedding anniversary, after church Joe & I paused for a picnic lunch on our way to Town Creek Site, set high on a low bluff of an oxbow on the west bank of the Little River near its confluence with Town Fork Creek in Mt. Gilead, NC, on the sunny southern side of the ancient Uwharrie Mountain Range located in the southeastern Piedmont region.
The protohistoric Native American ceremonial center – listed in the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark – is the first North Carolina State Historic Site, and it also remains the only state historic site in North Carolina dedicated to American Indian heritage, drawing astronomers, and visitors like us, from far and wide to this fascinating time capsule.
The Native American People legacy carries muffled mystery buried in its background of protohistory, a period that spans prehistory and history, when a culture or civilization had no developed writing but when other cultures notated its existence.
Excavating the earthen mound built of clay – one mound built atop former mounds – has been a focus of archaeological research under one director for more than half a century, an unusual phenomenon in the history of North American archaeology.
People lived here for 12,000 years, but why particularly here? The Town Creek site manager Rich Thompson shared with Joe and me how major rains will turn the ceremonial center into an island surrounded by floodwater then as well as recently, flooding from the parking lot halfway up to the front door of the Visitor Center.
Why the name Indian: fueled by bravery and ignorance financed by greed and arrogance, Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, heading "to India" but reaching the New World, and the Town Creek people vanished with no clue; we have no written record of explanation. Today we see these lovingly-reconstructed structures and can look and learn in amazement and wonder. So we invite you to view the best of our photos we set into 6 mini-themed albums:
• Mount Gilead, NC – 2019NOV10 – The Town Creek Site:
◦ Town Creek Site – 2019NOV10 – Stockade & North Entrance
◦ Town Creek Site – 2019NOV10 – Family Hut on its Burial Site
◦ Town Creek Site – 2019NOV10 – Mound & its Major Hut
◦ Town Creek Site – 2019NOV10 – Minor Ceremonial Hut
◦ Town Creek Site – 2019NOV10 – Ceremonial Center Plaza
◦ Town Creek Site – 2019NOV10 – Little River Bluff Overlook
Hope you also enjoy the 17% of 394 photos we took this day!