Etowah Indian Mounds

Just west of the confluence of Pumpkinvine Creek and the Etowah River a V-shaped rock wall impedes the water of these two rivers. At least 500 years old, this wall is one of the lasting reminders of the Mississippian Culture which controlled this portion of Northwest Georgia.

A few feet from the wall are three much larger reminders of this culture, huge mounds that gave these Indians their common name, Moundbuilders. The culture that began in the Mississippi Delta perhaps more than 4,000 years ago spread to this part of northern Georgia as early as 850AD and flourished at this site from 950AD to 1450AD. By the time Hernando deSoto visited the area in 1540-41, the Moundbuilder population was in steep decline in general and the Etowah Mounds site was abandoned.

White settlers understood the Creek and later the Cherokee to call this site "Hightower," possibly for Itawa or Italwa city. The name Etowah may also be a corruption of this word. A Cherokee village took its name from these mounds. The "Hightower" Road was used to transport the saltpeter from the area of present-day Kingston, Georgia to Savannah after 1808 and it ran by the ancient Mound Builder city. Today, many people believe that the Creek Indians are descendants of this earlier culture.

In 1838 Colonel Lewis Tumlin purchased the land that contained the mounds. It would remain in his family for 125 years and he and his family served as caretakers of the mounds. He permitted people who wanted to see them access to his property. A book published by the Works Progress Administration in 1938 featured directions on getting to the mounds, advising readers to stop at the Tumlin residence (a yellow house at the time) and ask permission before entering the mound area. The area was purchased by the state of Georgia in 1953. Henry Tumlin was superintendent of the Etowah Indian Mounds from 1953 until 1981. His interest in preserving the mounds continues to this day; he donated additional land to be included in the park in 1994 and 1995. In 2000, the park was named as one of the most threatened in the nation.

A museum in the visitors center serves as an introduction to the Moundbuilder culture and the society that lived at this site. The most notable pieces in the Etowah collection are "Ike" and "Mike," the two largest effigies ever discovered in a Moundbuilder site. Visitors cross a bridge over one of the "borrow pits" that encircle the mound. Once believed to have been moats, these pits were excavated to create the three predominant mounds roughly in the center of the park. Stairs allow access to the largest of the mounds, known as Mound A. Once on the top of this mound, you can see the ceremonial plaza much as one of the culture's religious leaders might have viewed in the 1400's. From this vantage point you can also see the other, smaller mounds, near the outskirts of the plaza.