Etowah
While driving between Chattanooga and Atlanta I stopped in at Cartersville Ga to see the Etowah Mounds. Unfortunately the Museum was closed and would not open for a couple of hours. This was once quite a city of the Creek Nation. Dates vary by which web site you visit, but all agree this city was abandoned by 1550. It seems obvious that prior to De Soto' arrival there had been a sudden population decrease in the southeast. As to why this city became an abandoned site, I don't know.
It is thought to have been visited by the Spanish, being the principle town of the Chiefdom of Coosa. The Etowah River later joins another to become the Coosa River.
If you will notice, it had a moat. This moat appeared to be about 10 Ft. deep. All of the major towns, such as this one and the lesser sized towns had defensive works of some kind. I'm told Keowee, a Lower Cherokee town on Keowee River (now Lake Keowee)had earth works, but, I'm not aware of a mound. They were serious about keeping intruders out for obvious reasons. Yet, I think it displays that wars could be large scale among the inhabitants of the South East during the Mississippian time.
Here's a quick video of Etowah Mounds.
My title may confuse some local readers. This is not Henderson County. No.
It is good...
The Appalachianist
posted by Hill Billy Rave | Friday, July 18, 2008
6 Comments:
I too have been there--when it was closed! My in-laws live about 30 miles away and, when there, I often go up to Cartersville to escape and watch trains. I've always wanted to paddle the part of the Etowah river where they put a tunnel trough the hill of an oxbow to divert the water so they could mine for goal in the dry gravel bars
Hey, Sage. Yeah, I've meant to get by there for a long time, had a chance to do so (without making a special trip) and it was closed. For a minute I thought you were going to say they diverte water for the nuclear power plant. Altoona is a nice lake.
oh yeah, Sage. Ive paddled that tunnel. It was interesting.
exMI, if there was an emoticon for sarcasm I'd use it more often, or at least be sarcastic more often.
No, they did not live in peace, and made no claims to it. I believe in the southeast at least there was a period of total war. But, wars became something of keeping in check so to speak. They knew times of relative peace, a few months a year, and some times were more fierce than others.
And I believe me and you both know that is something the American People better learn to accept.
You'll have me interested in this tunnel. It sounds like the man made Bona's Defeat of Georgia. I don't think I've ever posted about Bona's Defeat.
Let me rephrase that...
And I believe me and you both know that is something the American People better learn to accept in the coming years.
Well, my experience with Etowah, if I may, was singing along with Jerry Reed's "Koko Joe"... they called him the Etowah River swamp rat and folks despised him.
Later in the song, not much later though as it is only 2:30 long, Koko Joe pulls a kid out of the mud, saves his life, becomes a hero, blah, blah, blah.
You Tube or google it if you don't believe me.
By the way, in the song he has a tendency to eat monkey meat and mashed potatoes. In the Philippines I used to eat monkey meat on a stick when I went out drinking, which just happened to be every night I didn't have duty. I felt pretty brave and exotic. Later on I learned that it was really just chicken.
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