Barbed wire emerges from tree stump, Little Mulberry Park. 26 Dec. 2013
Mid 20th Century stacked rock piles, Madison County, North Carolina. From Early Georgia article by Thomas Gresham (1990).
What do the stone piles of Little Mulberry Park in Gwinnett County have to tell us about the past history of the area? If they are not prehistoric burial and ritual sites, what other possibilities remain? In this final blog post in my series about this stone mounds, I will explore another explanation for their origin, one that relates them to the past agricultural history of the area. Evidence that the land was once open pasture can be found in the large pasture trees that follow former fence lines (see my post from 12/28 for an example), and bits of barbed wire that emerge from old tree stumps in the park.
But why would settlers choose to pile up rocks on the property in the first place? Patrick Garrow, the archaeologist who did the initial investigation of the site in 1988, argued that the stone piles locations and structure argued against the stones having been piled up by farmers clearing the ground for planting. Indeed, since the land was never tilled but only used for pasture, that explanation seems unlikely. Perhaps the farmers wanted to clear the ground so that there would be more graze for their animals, or so that the animals would be less likely to injure themselves? Why, then, go to the trouble of stacking the rocks?
It is the fact that the rocks were stacked which convinces many people that the mounds are evidence of a prehistoric origin. Clearly, someone (or someones, plural) went to considerable effort to place the rocks in layers that can still be seen today. In fact, as archaeologist Thomas Gresham argued in an Early Georgia article in 1990, southern farmers have stacked rocks into cylindrical piles like these within recent history. In his paper, entitled, “Historic Patterns of Rock Piling and Rock Pile Problems”, Gresham included photographs of such rock piles. Before 1940, Gresham explained, flat rock and flagstone quarrying in Georgia was “small scale, localized, and done by hand.” Stones found close to the surface of the ground would be pried up with crowbars, sorted, and stacked for temporary storage until being sold for use building chimneys, terraces, foundations, and steps. Why, then, would so many such stone piles have survived in Little Mulberry Park? Perhaps, Gresham proposed, the stone proved inferior for use, and did not sell, or there was some other event that prevented a sale from going forward, or alternative building materials (such as brick) become widely available and prevented the stone from being sold.
Beyond the documented historic occurrence of such piles on North Carolina farms, is there other evidence to support the idea that the structures are historic stone piles rather than prehistoric Indian mounds? In fact, there is archaeological evidence to support this idea. In 1995, Thomas Gresham excavated eight stone piles at the Little Mulberry Park site. He found no prehistoric artifacts, but he did unearth early 19th century artifacts (ceramics, glass, and metal, including an 1838 penny) beneath two of the piles, conclusively showing that both were constructed in historic times. During the excavation, Gresham’s team also found evidence of a former small-scale rock quarry in the vicinity of the piles, lending further credence to the idea that stone was being cleared from the land and stockpiled in the area.
Ultimately, we will probably never know for certain what cultural forces shaped the stone piles at Little Mulberry Park. In my own explorations, both on-ground and via the Internet, I am satisfied that the piles are not prehistoric at all, but were built by settlers gathering field stone for future construction efforts. I suspect that this explanation will be less than satisfactory to many who have visited the park or who read enthusiastically about Mysteries from the Past. There is a certain allure in thinking that the stone mounds were constructed by Native Americans thousands of years ago as part of a mysterious ritual. Many human beings are hungry for the sacred, and find solace in the mythical prospect of a distant time when people lived in harmony with nature, leading lives deeply connected to their communities and to the forces animating the cosmos. To say that the stone piles are actually Indian mounds is, I will admit, a much more enticing story. And maybe that is why the information sign at the park, rather than proposing several different theories behind the stone structures, instead declares to this day that they are “almost certainly associated with native american cultures.”
Maybe the farmers were Welsh?
Mike,
Perhaps. I grew up in an area settled by Welsh farmers, actually — “The Welsh Tract” of Pennsylvania, with nearby settlements with names like Lower Gwynydd, Lower Merion, North Wales. Here is a colorful brochure about Welsh settlement there: http://www.lowermerionhistory.org/texts/325_for_web_small.pdf
Clifford
There are actually several sites around the Chattahoochee Hills area that have stone stacks. Along the road back to the creek behind our house, there are some excellent preserved stone terraces, where the fields were cleared for cotton, and stacked in walls to help hold the soil as the land was terraced. Even in this area there are some examples of small stone stacks at the top of one of the hills. Most of the rock in these stacks appear to be quartz, with some granite types mixed in. However, if you go all the way to the back, there is a single hilltop that sticks up above the wetlands and has dozens of stone stacks on it. Most of them have a tree growing up through the stack. The rock is entirely granite in composition with no quartz. My father used to plow the flat area next to the creek, so that after rains, us kids could go look for flint and quartz arrowheads and scrapers that had been exposed by the rains. At the same time, there are also a number of civil war entrenchments along the creek, with the remains of both rock and wood dams placed in the creek to raise the waterlevel, evidently, to provide an additional barrier or fortification for the soldiers encamped on the large floodplane island. I had always been told growing up in North Carolina that farmers stacked their rocks in walls to help with soil retention during rains, and the indians stacked rocks in piles as guides when travelling, and as memorials for the dead. (Not necessarily a burial site, but a memorial site.) As they passed through areas on travels, they would add a stone to the pile to honor the dead and show their passage through the area. Therefore the more travelled indian trails often had the larger stone cairns as found in many of the valleys of North Carolina. In the case of the park you visited, with the rock type being more rectangular in shape, I think you are correct that the early landowners sold the rock for construction, and therefore these were piles waiting to be used that were eventually abandoned. I believe if you look at some of the older stone structures built during the 1800s, you will find a lot of that type rock being used. There are many examples of stonework from that time all across Georgia, including a nearby stone bridge at the bottom of the hill below Sardis Baptist Church near Serenbe, where the original dirt road was diverted and a new bridge built when Hutcheson Ferry was straightened and paved. Excellent article. Thanks.
Stanley,
Thank you so much for your thoughtful and informative reply. I would love to see the stacks and entrenchments and stone bridge at some point.
Clifford
I would love to show you. This week is kinda busy, but I will set aside some time for a local walkabout.
Thank you, Stanley! I will look forward to it. Message me on Facebook and let me know what time would be good for you.
I recently had the opportunity to visit Mulberry Park for the first time, since it became a park. I visited this property many many years ago, and was just started by a distant relative of mine back in those days. He is no longer with us unfortunately. At the time I was doing family history work. he showed me some of the rock piles in the distance, but we didn’t really venture too far into the woods as there was a thunderstorm approaching at the time. A few years later, again, I got involved in some shall we say political stuff with some friends of mine, and some of these people were native American. That was when all of the hubbub started although the time I did not realize it was the same area. I had not been back to this area in over 30 years. This time I took my teenagers with me. They were impressed and so was I, but in a different way. You see, I have actually visited Places like this in the northeast and all the way over as far as Tennessee and what I saw reminded me very much of those places. So here’s what I’m going to say. This is a third theory which I think is altogether plausible and indeed very probable. This theory gives weight to both sides. There is both historic and prehistoric stone structuring in the ravine and also up near Poole mountain as well. I’ve seen some of the places up there as well although I was escorted by local resident I was asked to keep it on the down low because of current disagreements and litigation that are ongoing. However, I have seen what I have seen, and I recognized it for what it is. I would also like to point out that Patrick Garro is a well respected and amazingly qualified archaeologist and anthropologist and author. He has experience in multiple disciplines, and has had a who’s whose list of clients which he has done work for across a number of states including areas where I have lived. Mr. Gresham, although qualified does not have nearly as much experience, especially when it comes to surveying large plots and stone structures. The ones that you pointed out that he found in North Georgia May indeed have been cylindrical, and yes, there are similar structures in North Carolina, but there are also prehistoric stone structures in North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Where is the line of differentiation? It all comes down to what you know about the way someone thinks. European Americans, and early settlers as a general rule tended to think in a very different way than pre-contact native Americans/indigenous North Americans did. They thought in terms of spirit. Many of the piles I saw are not burials at all. I know what they are.
I have visited a number of sites, including Fort Mountain, track rock gap, Rock Eagle, rock, hawk, and other places which I will not disclose because they are protected. I also have visited sites in my current state of residence South Carolina, and previously in North Carolina as well. Some of these sites are more recent and possibly historic and others are very ancient indeed. Some are a mixture of both. I believe Mulberry Park is one of those sites. It contains historic and prehistoric stone structures. I say structure instead of pile, because if you understand the thinking of the people that put them together, then you would understand what they mean. These things are considered to be sacred, and they don’t talk about these things to outsiders, and they certainly don’t discuss them with members of the public so I will leave it at that. I should also point out that there is more contained in the park than just piles of rocks. A ceremonial stone landscape always incorporate all aspects of the landscape. Water is a key part of this particular landscape, stone is as well, and of course, there are ancient trees , still standing that are part of this landscape as well. Some of these trees have been shaped deliberately. Some of them long ago, others more recently by descendants quite possibly of some of the people that might have been buried here. I will also say that there is a difference between a burial mound, and a memorial cairn. In biblical terms, one might call them and alter of remembrance made up of a pile of stones. So, on that note, I will end my comment. all the evidence I saw presents three dimensional proof that this is indeed, both a historic and prehistoric site. Oh, yes, as a sidenote… I have done stonemasonry in my life and the type of stone that you find out at this particular place, although beautiful, to look at, would be fairly difficult to work with from a stonemasons point of view. If you’re going to build with stone, you need something that you can actually shape easily. The layering, hardness and patterns of the stone, all contribute to or obstruct, a mason from being able to do that efficiently. I do think you wrote a good series of articles, and I’ve had a look at some of your other ones, it’s nice to see other people take an interest in local history. My family were some of the first settlers in the colony of Georgia, they had both war and peace with the local inhabitants, which were mostly Muskogee. Eventually, they became friends and neighbors. Once they moved to South Georgia and what is now Merriweather and Coweta county. In fact, some of my family are buried in the same area that some of the Muskogee were buried although separately. That is a long way to travel Both, physically, and socially. I tend to take a balanced view of both sides. Keep up your posts. They’re very interesting.