Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center - Spiro, Oklahoma

Spiro Mounds is a major Indian mound site in eastern Oklahoma that is ranked as one of the four most important prehistoric sites east of the Rocky Mountains.

Although it seems far removed from the large Mississippian era mound groups of Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia and the other Deep South states, Spiro played a critical part in the development of the Native American culture that spread across much of the Southeast and Midwest between A.D. 900 and A.D. 1540. The town maintained vast trading networks and archaeologists have found artifacts at the site that originated as far away as the Great Lakes and Florida.

Spiro Mounds also seems to have played a major role in the development of the ceremonial or religious beliefs of the Mississippian people, a culture that received its name because it is thought to have spread from the Mississippi River throughout the Southeast in around A.D. 900. Spiro is believed to have been occupied as early as A.D. 850 and research there has revealed a dramatic quantity of high quality ceremonial artifacts and artwork.

Research at the site has also revealed that the extensive complex of mounds was designed to coincide with key celestial events. The inhabitants of Spiro could mark the changing seasons by the way the sun and stars aligned with their mounds on key days of the year.

Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center is a major park owned and preserved by the Oklahoma Historical Society. It is open to the public five days each week and features a museum, walking paths, interpretive exhibits and more. To read moer about Spiro, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/SpiroMounds1.

Lake Jackson Mounds - Tallahassee, Florida

As we roam the highways and byways of the South, we are occassionally reminded that we were not the first to build cities on this land. Native American sites dot the landscape.

Among the most impressive of these sites are the long abandoned ceremonial centers of the Mississippian era (A.D. 900 - A.D. 1540). These mound complexes can be found in every Southern state and have survived for more than 500 years as silent reminders that an advanced civilization once stretched from Oklahoma to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Gulf of Mexico to the Midwest.

Lake Jackson Mounds Archaeological State Park in Tallahassee, Florida, preserves the surviving mounds of one of these ceremonial complexes. Probably occupied by the ancestors of the Apalachee that the Spanish found living in the Tallahassee region when they first entered Florida, the Lake Jackson Mounds comprise one of the most impressive Native American heritage sites in Florida and the Deep South.

Our new Lake Jackson Mounds page is now online at www.exploresouthernhistory.com/lakejackson1. To learn more, just follow the link.

Owl Creek Mounds - Natchez Trace Parkway

The Owl Creek Mounds, located off the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi, are among the dozens of signficant historic sites to be found along the route of the unique national park.

The Parkway stretches from Natchez, Mississippi to the outskirts of Memphis, Tennessee and commemorates the original Natchez Trace, an important roadway used primarily during the late 1700s and early 1800s.

The Owl Creek Mounds, now maintained by the National Forest Service, are located just off the parkway south of Tupelo, Mississippi. Constructed during the Mississippian Era, they date back more than five hundred years.

To learn more, please visit our new Natchez Trace section at www.exploresouthernhistory.com. The section is not completed yet, but a number of sites - including Owl Creek - can now be explored online.