Photo: Dsdugan, public domain (CC0), via Wikimedia Commons
Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park, on the east side of Macon, protects more than 12,000 years of continuous human history on the Macon Plateau. Its best-known sights are a reconstructed Earth Lodge with an original clay floor dated to about 1015 CE, the 55-foot Great Temple Mound and seven mounds in all, linked by 8 miles of trails through forest and river wetlands. It is the ancestral homeland of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and admission is free.
The park was created as Ocmulgee National Monument in 1936. Congress expanded it and renamed it Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park in 2019, so you will still see the older name on some signs, maps and websites.
- Address1207 Emery Hwy., Macon, GA 31217
- Park hoursGrounds and trails 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily
- Visitor centerVisitor center and Earth Lodge 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily
- ClosedThanksgiving, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day
- AdmissionFree; no entrance pass required
- Phone478-752-8257
What to See
Earth Lodge
A reconstructed council chamber built over an original Mississippian floor carbon-dated to about 1015 CE, with a raised clay platform and seats for about 50 people. You can walk inside; it is a short walk from the visitor center and open the same hours.
Great Temple Mound
The largest mound in the park, about a half mile from the visitor center along the main path. A stairway leads to the top for a view over downtown Macon. Please stay on the stairs and off the mound slopes.
Visitor center and museum
More than 2,000 artifacts from the 1930s excavations, covering 12,000 years of life on the plateau, plus a 17-minute orientation film. The building itself is an Art Moderne landmark of the New Deal era.
Lamar Mounds and Village
A detached unit downstream on the Ocmulgee River, with a rare spiral mound used from about 1350 into the 1500s. It is reached only on occasional ranger-led trips, so ask at the visitor center.
Trading post site and Dunlap earthworks
The site of an English trading post from around 1690, where Creek people traded deerskins, and one of the few surviving Civil War earthworks in Macon, from the 1864 battles of Dunlap Hill and Walnut Creek.
Ocmulgee Indigenous Celebration
The park’s biggest event, held each September with Muscogee (Creek) and other Southeastern tribal dancers, artists and storytellers. The 2026 celebration was September 12 and 13.
Trails and Nature
Eight miles of trails connect the mounds with hardwood forest, Walnut Creek and the emergent wetlands of the Ocmulgee River floodplain. Most trails are a mile or less one way and can be joined into longer loops, with benches along the way.
- Main path to the Great Temple Mound (1/2 mile): passes the Earth Lodge and the trading post site.
- Opelofa Trail (1 mile): a Creek word meaning “like a swamp,” with boardwalks through the wetlands and good bird watching.
- River Trail: through the floodplain forest to the Ocmulgee River, where bank fishing is allowed with a Georgia fishing license.
- Heritage Trail (1 3/4 miles, paved): connects to the Ocmulgee River Greenway into downtown Macon. Bikes and e-bikes are allowed only on the Heritage Trail, the River Trail and the park road.
- Dunlap and McDougal trails (1/4 and 1/2 mile): to the Civil War earthworks, the Dunlap Mound and the McDougal Mound.
Leashed pets are welcome. Picnic only in the picnic area, with no fires, and be out of the park by 5 p.m., when the gates close.
12,000 Years of History
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| Before 9000 BCE | Ice Age (Paleo-Indian) hunters camp on the plateau; a Clovis spear point found here in the 1930s was among the first found in place in the South. |
| 8000 to 1000 BCE | Archaic peoples hunt deer and gather wild foods as the climate warms; some of the first pottery in North America appears along the Georgia coast around 2500 BCE. |
| 1000 BCE to 900 CE | Woodland cultures make decorated pottery, begin gardening and build burial mounds and semi-permanent villages. |
| About 900 to 1150 CE | Early Mississippian people build a large town on the Macon Plateau, with the Great Temple Mound, other earthen mounds and the Earth Lodge, supported by corn, beans and squash grown in the floodplain. |
| About 1350 to 1600 | The Lamar culture, ancestors of the historic Muscogee (Creek), builds the Lamar Mounds and Village downstream. |
| 1540 | Hernando de Soto’s Spanish expedition passes through the region. |
| About 1690 | English traders from Carolina set up a trading post on the plateau; Creek towns along the Ocmulgee trade deerskins for European goods. |
| 1806 to 1826 | The U.S. Army builds Fort Hawkins nearby (1806), and treaties in 1805, 1821 and 1826 force the Creek to give up their lands east of the Chattahoochee; the Muscogee (Creek) Nation is later removed to present-day Oklahoma. |
| 1864 | Confederate earthworks on the plateau see action in the battles of Dunlap Hill (July 30) and Walnut Creek (November). |
| 1933 to 1942 | After railroad cuts and fill-dirt digging damage the mounds, Macon citizens and the Smithsonian start excavations. Using New Deal labor, as many as 800 workers recover about 3 million artifacts in what the Park Service calls the largest archaeological dig in American history; the CCC and WPA also rebuild the Earth Lodge and build the park road and trails. |
| December 23, 1936 | President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaims Ocmulgee National Monument. |
| 1960s | Interstate 16 is built through the park, cutting the main visitor area off from the river. |
| March 12, 2019 | Congress expands the park and renames it Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park. |
Field Trips and Teachers
The park welcomes school groups. Much of a visit is self-guided: classes can tour the museum, watch the 17-minute film (the theater seats about 50 students, so large groups split up and rotate), step inside the Earth Lodge and walk to the Great Temple Mound or the wetlands boardwalk. Ranger-led programs can be tailored to a class’s subject, and the park lends traveling trunks of reproduction artifacts, clothing, tools and games for classroom use. Call the visitor center at 478-752-8257 to schedule a field trip or borrow a trunk.
Planning Your Visit
From I-16, take Exit 2 (Coliseum Drive), follow it to Emery Highway, turn right and go to the third light; the entrance is on the right. Interchange construction around I-16 and I-75 has changed some traffic patterns, so follow posted signs if your GPS disagrees. Allow two to three hours to see the museum, the Earth Lodge and the Great Temple Mound, longer if you want to walk the river trails.
More nearby: the Historic Heartland travel region, Historic Heartland museums, Bibb County parks and other National Park Service sites in Georgia.
Sources we checked
Facts in this guide were checked against the agencies and operators that run these places:
- National Park Service: Ocmulgee Mounds basic information
- National Park Service: hours and fees
- National Park Service: trails
- National Park Service: park name and history
- National Park Service: directions
Spot something out of date? Email Contact@n-georgia.com and we’ll check it against the official source. Read how we research our guides.