Despite the government shutdown, bills are still moving in Washington. Senators Johnny Isakson, and David Perdue, along with Representatives Sanford Bishop, D-GA 2, Barry Loudermilk, R-GA 11, and Austin Scott, R-GA 8, announced on Thursday they are reintroducing the Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park Boundary Revision Act.
The bill would expand the current Ocmulgee National Monument from 702 acres to approximately 2,800 acres and change its name to “Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park.” The bill would also authorize a study to evaluate potential future park expansions. All of this would further protect vulnerable land and allow visitors more opportunities for recreation.
The Ocmulgee mounds date back centuries, the most prominent one being formed around 800 A.D. The Works Progress Administration (WPA), undertook the largest archaeological excavations in Georgia. Consisting of some 2,000 acres, it was the most extensive excavation in the country. Railway lines constructed in the nineteenth-century badly damaged the site but the excavation project still gleaned much information about pre-Columbian Mississippian Indian life in central Georgia.
“The Ocmulgee Mounds is a true cultural and archaeological treasure to Georgia and the entire nation,” said Bishop, in whose district the mounds actually lie. “I am confident that this important bipartisan legislation will soon get across the finish line so that it will strengthen the current Ocmulgee National Monument and bolster the economy and cultural life of Georgia and beyond.”
The Indians that lived in the area grew corn along the valley of the Ocmulgee River. The mounds they built had ceremonial purposes, there were burial mounds, defensive trenches and housing. The site has been found to have evidence of some 17,000 years of continuous habitation. The major tribes that built the mounds disappeared around 1100 A.D. for reasons that remain unclear.
Following the work of the WPA, President Roosevelt made the site a national monument in 1936 but only protected 678 acres. In 1997, it was named a Traditional Cultural Property, the first site to be so named east of the Mississippi River.
“Ensuring that the Ocmulgee Mounds receive the historical recognition they deserve will have a lasting positive economic and cultural impact in Middle Georgia,” said Scott. “It is for our constituents in Middle Georgia that we come together in a bipartisan, bicameral manner to reintroduce this legislation that will preserve our state’s history for future generations.”
“I’m glad to continue our efforts to ensure that Ocmulgee National Monument becomes a Georgia national historical park,” said Isakson. “I’m optimistic that both the House and the Senate will soon pass this legislation to preserve the rich historical and archaeological heritage of these lands.”
