Baton Rouge, LA
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| Francis' home is where his bed is. |
Indian Mounds
The other day I was doing my normal Google Searches about the place I am in and one of them is pretty much, "Things I don't know about Baton Rouge" or something like that. Usually the list is filled with known things but sometimes gems come that spark interest like, The Six Pack Was Invented in Baltimore, The Oyster Wars of the Chesapeake Bay, and The LSU Indian Mounds.
The Indian Mounds on the LSU Campus are on the National Register of Historic Places and the oldest known human made structure in North America dating back at least 5000 years (older than the pyramids and Stonehenge) and maybe up to 11,300 years (older than the oldest known structure in the world). Even the most conservative age estimates have the mounds being built well before America was even discovered which is pretty amazing! (that was sarcasm). The two mounds sit protected in the middle of the LSU campus. There were estimated to be more 800 similar mounds across Louisiana at one point but many were destroyed. It's thought that these mounds were used for navigation waypoints because the 2 mounds align about 8.5 degrees from true north but this is just a guess. They are a really cool feature in the middle of a really cool campus.
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| This is The Northern Mound or Mound A which was built after Mound B (don't argue with science!) |
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| Which one is your favorite? I like them both! |
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| I have included the compass in this shot so you can see their alignment |
Until recently (recent as compared to 11,000 years) the mounds were unprotected and people would use them to tailgate on before the big games and students would walk on them. In the 80s a sun bathing student was tragically run over and killed by a person driving a pickup truck while on one of the mounds. This helped start the protection by adding barriers around the mounds to block vehicles from driving over them.
That's it for today. If you missed yesterday's post you can find it here.
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