Mississippi Mound Trail - Haynes Mounds Traditional Cache

This is a simple cache. It is a baby soda bottle around the corner from a significant historical site. This cache is along the roadside. You do not have to enter the mound area to find it. And you are trespassing if you do get on the mounds. The shoulder is plenty wide for parking at the cache site. Traffic is usually pretty sparse at this area, but there is a paper mill near so I imagine that traffic is rough at particular times.

Mississippi has many historical mounds.  The Mississippi Department of Archives and History has created the Mississippi Mound Trail to tell the story of these mounds. These mounds are believed to have been built by Native Americans some 300 to 2100 years ago.  The earliest of these mounds are believed to have been built in the Middle Woodland Period.  The building of mounds continued through the Late Woodland Period and into the Mississippian Period.  Most Mississippian mounds were ceremonial in nature, rectangular, flat-topped earthen platforms that had temples or houses of important people on them. 

The Haynes Mounds are thought to have had a period of construction that encompassed the ninth century to the eighteenth century.  Trade beads have been found in the mounds indicating trade between these Native Americans and European explorers took place.  There was one large mound and three smaller mounds at this location, but only parts of main mound and one of the smaller mounds remain today. Mound A stood some 30 feet tall and was found to contain burial goods of both Native Americans and European origin.  There are historic markers that tell the tale of the mounds.

You can learn more about Mississippi Mound builders and this site at: http://trails.mdah.ms.gov/mmt/haynesbluff/index.html

BuniBear65 from the coast makes the grab for the FTF. Great work Buni.