Poverty Point National Monument

For nearly thirty years, I lived in Ohio, then moved to Iowa for eight years, and finally relocated to Florida and retired. Various mounds built by the area’s inhabitants from 800-1200 years ago dot the landscape of both Ohio and Iowa. I’ve visited areas such as Fort Ancient in southwestern Ohio, Serpent Mound some 45 miles to the southeast, and most recently Hopewell Culture National Historical Park near Chillicothe (Stop 3 on my National Park tour). In Iowa, Effigy Mounds National Monument is part of a future visit.

But until this current trip, I was generally unaware of mound-building in the south. Poverty Point is the site of a massive mound-building effort – and it is truly ancient compared to its newcomer northern brethren.

Poverty Point National Monument in northeastern Louisiana is actually a state historic park. The National Park Service simply piggybacks on the site, providing some funding, but the employees at the visitor center are state park workers. The site has also been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Best estimates place the start of mound construction to be around 1650 BC. That’s over 2,000 years BEFORE the Ohio and Iowa mound builders got to work. The finished site consisted of six concentric semicircles enclosing a huge open area. Six “Aisles” were left fanning outward and cutting through the semicircles. In addition, several separate mounds were built of different shapes, the largest believed to represent a bird. It stands today at 165 feet and you can climb to the top of it (don’t worry – you climb on a wooden walkway, preserving the mound itself). Three of these mounds are aligned on a perfect north-south line.

Why were they built? No one is quite sure. It was built near a waterway that connects to the Mississippi. Relics found on site show that the locals traded as far away as Wisconsin, bringing metals to the community – something not abundant in the local region.

The actual construction appears to have been done by loosening dirt with stone hoes, and filling either baskets or pouches of animal hides with up to 40 pounds of dirt. At this rate, it took about 15 million loads of dirt to complete the full project. But then again, there was no TV or Internet, so what else did they have to do other than drag basket after basket of dirt!

I arrived at 9:00 on a Friday in February. The Visitor’s Center had just opened. Though it was a beautiful day, with temperatures that would eventually reach into the 70s(F), I was the only visitor for the duration of my two-hour stop. I expect it gets more visitors in the summer months and perhaps on weekends, but this was the first park unit I’ve visited where I was the only one.

The visitor center is very nice (again, it is a state facility, not federal), with a museum attached holding many relics found on site along with many informational posters. There is also a short, well-produced video about the site, the people, and the project. After chatting with the employee at the information desk, watching the movie, and wandering through the interesting exhibits of the museum, I headed back to my car to go visit the actual mounds.

The park had a one-lane road that winds around the areas of the mounds. One can also walk around the same route, which I personally would have preferred, but my legs told me otherwise. There are marked stops corresponding to a brochure available at the Visitor’s Center. The original concentric semi-circular mounds are still visible, but very eroded. However, as mentioned, the large “bird” mound has a boardwalk to the top. Pain be damned, I made the climb to the top (and back down again) getting great views of the surrounding area.

The auto tour continued back to the Visitor Center parking lot, passing some of the side mounds along the way. The work that must have been needed to create all of this is mind-boggling.

Most people probably associate National Parks with stunning scenery, and for many full National Parks, this is true. Poverty Point National Monument reminds me that many of the less well know park units, in lieu of great scenery, provide a fascinating history of the land and peoples, which can, in some cases such as this, date back over 2500 years. Though I love a great view as much as anyone, it is parks like these that I truly enjoy visiting. I see areas of the country I may never have visited and learn something new with every visit.

Steve