archeologists and those two men oversee a work force of 800 men. so pretty difficult for two archeologists to oversee that large ofworkforce. but they basically ran trenches various locations on this site, did some trenches on top of the great temple mound and they found here that huge continuum. we ended up with over 2 1/2 million items that this dig found in this location. we discovered it had a time period that goes back to the ice age manmouth hunters. this site was ausused since the first arrival of humans. the park is so much more than mounds. it is once again the whole

prehistory of the southeast. the mounds were built by a group that the archaeologists called mississippian people. mississippian culture is a very widespread culture. it is actually hub is near st. louis in a place called cahokia. that mound building religion or whatever it was spread throughout the eastern half of the united states. ocmulgee is considered the hub of the mississippian culture here in the southeast, like a subcapital through the main capital there at cahokia, and the society, the mississippians existed on this site for over 300 years. now, after that period of time, some reason, they left this site. we have no idea why, what happened, if it was, you know, a change in climate, a change in, you know, religious beliefs, or,

you know, or what. maybe it might have been warfare, who knows? but this site was abandoned, and then about 100 years later, the park service has a site just about a mile and a half south of here, along the ocmulgee river called lamar. a little different culture, still a mound-building culture. the lamar culture then is the one who desoto came in contact with in 1540. and then, unfortunately, with the rival desoto, that greatly affected the prehistoric peoples. some archaeologists i heard talk as much as 70%, 80% loss of life. after that great loss of life, that according to the muskogee creek oral tradition is the remnants of the various groups touched by desoto came together here at ocmulgee and set down together and created a new confederacy of tribes, and

they're going to call themselves muskogee, and that's now who later on the europeans called the creeks. and so, now they call themselves the muskogee-creek people. so this area once again not only has the huge prehistoric history, but sacred to the historic tribes and has a very long historical period, also. this site has seven mounds on it, but the one in back of me we refer to as the great temple mound. it's the largest mound we have. it's 55 feet high on the front side. that is where we believe the chief of the society, the tribe, lived. archaeologists did find evidence, three structures up on top of there. and that's where we believe there was a ramp that went up the front of it, and we believe that the chief basically ran the society from on top of there. and then, just down from that, you'll see a smaller mound. that's called the lesser temple mound. there was a structure up on top

of that, also. and unfortunately, we're not really sure how big that mound was. the railroad in 1830s came through and took off the entire side of that mound. now, height-wise, it may be close to the original height. but as far as width, we have no idea, because the railroad took off a whole side of it, and, of course, they didn't care to photograph it or mention it, so we have no idea how much they removed. also up here, just a way from the great temple mound, another one of our famous mounds is we refer to as the funeral mound. the funeral mound is here. it was places for burial, but only apparently of the high-ranking people. the number of burials found in the funeral mound definitely would not account for all the deaths in this size of a society. so it was very evidenced, also some of the artifacts found with the burials, that the funeral mound was reserved for certain high-ranking individuals.

where the other people were buried, we're not really sure. we're always very careful about any ground disturbing we do here. i work with the tribes on that, because we never know when there might be a chance that we might while digging a post hole for a sign might hit a burial. so we're very conscious of that, because somewhere around here there probably are literally thousands of burials. we are standing on the top of what we call the great temple mound. we believe this is where the chief lived, there were three structures in evidence up here, and we're guessing a limited -- only certain folks were allowed to come up on top of this mound for, you know, meetings with the chief, or various religious meetings or activities. so not everybody was probably allowed to come up here. so this society probably covered 20 or more miles up and down the river. so they would have controlled a very large area.

the main reason we feel this area has been used for the millenia that it has been is because it is right -- it's evidence of two ecological areas combined. the edge was called the fall line, which is the area between the coastal plain and the piedmont plateau. this mound is literally on the edge of the fall line. the piedmont plateau drops off at the base of the mound, and from here on out becomes the coastal plain. with these two meeting areas, you have both the plants and the animals from that -- those ecosystems, all -- both here. you had a great variety of animals to choose from, plants to eat from, and, of course, the river was right there with all of its foodstuffs and transportation. so you really had the ideal

place for these people to be over all these thousands of years, because of that meeting of the two ecosystems right in in location. we are inside our earth lodge, and we're looking at -- the original 1,000-year-old earth lodge floor. this is a very interesting structure. there will 50 seats in this room. from the entrance at the door, it comes around in the circle, each seat is slightly higher and wider than the preceding seat. and 47 seats come up, and then on this bird-shaped effigy are the three main seats. the measurements they used to build this are extremely accurate. it is within an inch -- a few inches of being a perfect

square. -- perfect circle. it's -- the four pillars that held up the ceiling are also within a few inches of being a perfect square. the fire pit is directly in the direct center of the structure, so they indeed did have ways of making some very, very accurate measurements in building these structures. the only archaeological items that were found was a conk shell which we assume was used for scooping, and a pot. so what else initially may have been in here, who knows? it ended up being burned. we have no idea if it was a ceremonial cleansing or a closing or if indeed it may have been an accident, a fire got away. but ended up fire was in here. the ceiling and everything collapsed. and then that ended up preserving the floor.

i guess the roof and the soil and so forth came down and preserved the site as we see it. we think it's very important to interpret this tour for visitors so that they cannot only understand this great prehistory -- and that, indeed, well before, you know -- decades, millenia, before the arrival of columbus and the europeans, they had very well established, very successful societies here on the north american continent. so it was not an empty place. it's important to show people that these were very organized societies of artists, craftspeople, leaders, organized societies. and then, we want to show once again effect of the arrival of europeans and establishment of the country on these people, and

to show, yeah, they were not all wiped out. the creeks, you know, out in oklahoma are still very vibrant, have a great society out there. very well organized government. you know, with a great story to tell of their culture and their history. it's important for people to understand that part of the united states history and also understanding that part of native american culture. 100 years ago today, president woodrow wilson signed legislation creating the national park service. join american history tv tonight at 7:00 p.m. eastern time when we are live from arlington house. the robert e. lee memorial in arlington national cemetery. it's the park service's most visited historic home. this is american history tv, only on c-span3.

today we're at petroglif national monument, specifically at the vlg's day use area. the vlog's day use area provides trails to five vlogs and it looks out over the city of albuquerque out towards the sand ya mountains. the petro glyph tells the story. hot molten lava poured out in a series of six vloggic eruptions, some spreading a couple of miles to the east. as these eruptions took place, they flowed out over layers of soil that was here in the rio grande valley. as these layers hardened, they harded