Poverty Point, Vicksburg, Brandon

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Refer back to the Hurricane Isaac posting.

Neither one of us slept well due to the noise of the air conditioner, but we were cool and dry.  It didn’t even rain last night and still calm.  Made our usual breakfast and headed for Monroe.  We actually drove to another ATC house just to see where they lived.  They live right on this amazing looking Bayou.  We did try to call them but there was no answer.  Their paper was in the driveway so maybe they were not home.  We then called Bill and Cynthia in Brandon (next to Jackson) and they graciously agreed to take us tonight even on this very short notice.  We drove on the interstate and went to Poverty Point State Historical Park and took a guided tour of the park.  Again, we were the only ones on the tour so we were taken out in a golf cart.  There are mounds and huge semicircular ridges where an ancient civilization lived right near the Mississippi. 

They are dated from 1650 BC to 1100 BC and were a hunter/gatherer society.  It is rare to have permanent structures in this type of society but these people did, undoubtedly due to the richness of the area. There are not many artifacts remaining as this was a cotton field for 100 years from the 1870-1972.  Mound A was a huge bird mound, all dirt.  They believe that they did it with 50 pound baskets of dirt, that it took over a million basket loads and that it was done in one season!  They believe it was for ceremonial purposes.  The ridges showed evidence of housing structures and they believe at least 500 houses were here.  The bird mound is the 2^nd largest mound in the US second to Cahokia (the horrible campground).  Unfortunately we survived the campground but missed the mound in Cahokia.

Headed to Vicksburg.  We did not think we had time to see the battlefield and do it justice so went to the Old Courthouse Museum.  It was fascinating.  We found the Confederate room to be the most interesting.  Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy, sounds like he was a wonderful person.  He is highly regarded in the South and is from this area.  We just keep learning all sorts of new things.  There were murals downtown of his life, so we will try to see them tomorrow.  Vicksburg is a beautiful town with lovely old homes.  There is a definite Confederate bias here, which is good for us to learn about, being Yankees and all.

We are beginning to understand Southern Hospitality.  Our hosts, again, were delightful.  We arrived at their home in Brandon and visited.  They just returned from an 86 day trip with their trailer to Alaska.  Another adventurous couple! Out to dinner, and then watched Paul Ryan speak at the Republican convention.