Poverty Point State Historic Site - Epps, Louisiana

Home to the largest known prehistoric earthworks in the Western Hemisphere, the Poverty Point State Historic Site is located on a bluff overlooking Bayou Macon between the towns of Epps and Lake Providence in the northeastern corner of Louisiana.

The site is one of the most remarkable Indian mound groups in the United States. Not only does its primary mound (Mound A) still rise more than 72 feet above the surrounding area, it takes the form of a giant flying bird. Such effigy mounds would become common in the Midwest and were built at other locations in the South over the centuries that followed, but at the time Poverty Point was active, Mound A was the only known such effigy in the country.

The Poverty Point Culture reached its height more than 3,000 years ago, long before any of the other mound-building groups of the Southeast. They were a pre-ceramic culture, meaning that they did not make pottery vessels to use for cooking or storing food. Instead, they were a stone age people who raised the manufacture of stone tools to a new level. Trade networks developed connecting the Poverty Point people to other prehistoric Native Americans across much of the eastern United States. Excavations at the site have revealed  shells from Florida, copper from the Great Lakes region and quartz and other crystals from the Ouachita and Ozark mountains of Arkansas and Missouri.

The site today is extremely interesting. In addition to the towering Mound A, which may have been more than 100 feet high when it was in use, the site includes other mounds, a central plaza site that appears to have been the location of a prehistoric observatory, and unique concentric manmade ridges upon which the people of the town lived.

In addition to walking paths and a nice museum, the site also provides guided tram tours of the extensive mounds. To learn more, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/poverty1.

Spring Travel Part One: Poverty Point, Louisiana

Since spring is now here and everyone seems ready to shake off the winter blahs and explore a little, I thought I would take the next couple of weeks and share some of my favorite places in the South with you.

Poverty Point State Historic Site in northeastern Louisiana is one of the most impressive archaeological sites not just in the United States, but in the world. Located only about a half hour's drive north of Interstate 20 just west of Vicksburg, Mississippi, the park preserves the site of a Native American civilization that thrived some 3,000 years ago.

What makes Poverty Point so unique is that it preserves the mounds and earthworks of a civilization that thrived even before its inhabitants developed such things as pottery. The largest mound at the site rises over 72 feet above the surrounding farmland and was designed in the form of a giant bird. It overlooks a village site that was built atop a series of six semicircular concentric earthworks.

The park is extremely well maintained and offers a very nice interpretive center, paved walking trails, guided tours and a tram tour of the mounds. To learn more, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/poverty1.

Povert Point State Historic Site - Louisiana

Located in northeastern Louisiana near Lake Providence, Poverty Point is one of the most fascinating archaeological sites in America. More than 2,000 years ago, Native Americans built a massive ceremonial and trading center here. The site is particularly spectacular because it includes a series of massive semi-circles the form a giant design that can be seen only from the air.

To learn more about Poverty Point, please visit our new Poverty Point pages by going to: http://www.exploresouthernhistory.com/povertypoint1.

Lake Providence, Louisiana

Lake Providence, Louisiana is a little corner of the South that most people never see or even think of visiting, but it may well be one of the most picturesque places in the entire United States. Only about an hour's drive away from the attractions, historic sites, hotels and restaurants of Vicksburg, Mississippi, Lake Providence is a small town nestled on a huge oxbow lake left behind centuries ago when the Mississippi River changed course.

The lake provides spectacular views. Lake Providence is also noted for its Civil War history. During the Vicksburg Campaign, General U.S. Grant first tried to bypass the Confederate batteries on the Mississippi by digging a canal from the river into Lake Providence. The project failed, but a portion of the canal can still be seen today at Grant's Canal Park in Lake Providence.

The community is also the home of the Louisiana State Cotton Museum, a very nice center that interprets the history and importance of cotton with restored buildings, agricultural displays and museum exhibits. Poverty Point State Historic Site, a major prehistoric Native American ceremonial and trade center, is just southwest of Lake Providence.

To learn more about this fascinating community, please visit: http://www.exploresouthernhistory.com/, scroll down the page, and click the link for Lake Providence under the Louisiana heading.