"On the Harpeth River, in a bend of the river below the road which crosses near the mouth of Dog Creek from Nashville to Charlotte, is a square mound 47 by 47 at the base, twenty-five feet high, and two others in a row with it, of inferior size, from 5 to 10 feet high. At some distance from them, and near the eastern extremity of the bend, are three others in a parallel row, with a space like a public square between the rows. Near these mounds are other small ones, to the amount of 12 in all. All around the bend except at the place of entrance, is a wall on the margin of the river. The mounds are upon the area enclosed by the wall. There are besides the entrance two gateways; from thence to the river is the distance of 40 yards."
Judge John Haywood
Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee (1823)
In the spring of 1991, I moved over to Nashville to cast my lot with Tennessee State government. It ended up being a short cast; a general budget shortfall had prompted a statewide hiring freeze that seemed to coincide perfectly with my arrival in town. With no job and no real prospects, I gave free reign to my inner history geek and began to explore many of the incredible historical sites in and around Nashville. One site I was only vaguely aware of but particularly fascinated by was that of "Mound Bottom", a Mississippian Indian village which had, at least from 900-1300 A.D., been a fairly large settlement occupying a large bend in the Harpeth River a few miles west of present-day Nashville.
I'd first read about Mound Bottom in John Haywood's "Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee". The book is a fascinating historical account of the state that was first published in 1823 (yes, 1823!). Haywood, a barrister from North Carolina, was fascinated by history and kept meticulous records of the strange and wonderful things the settlers encountered or unearthed as they moved westward across Tennessee with the expanding population. His notes referenced mastodon bones and a roman coin uncovered by Tennessee farm plows, as well as the discovery of an ancient set of mummified bodies in a cave above present-day Carthage who had "blue eyes and light colored skin".
One morning, I decided to go in search of the Harpeth River, the "road to Charlotte", "Dog Creek" and/or anything else from Haywood's narrative that might give some clue as to the location of the Mound Bottom site. What I found was Tip-A-Canoe, a small canoe rental shop on Charlotte Pike near Pegram, just where the road crosses over the Harpeth River. The guy that ran the shop at the time was around my age, with long hair and really (really) bloodshot eyes. I asked him if he had any idea where "Dog Creek" was, and when he motioned to a small stream entering the river just across the highway from the rental shack, I knew it was pure providence. I rented a canoe for a half day, said a little prayer that the proprietor would be lucid enough to remember to come pick me up at the end of my 11 mile excursion, and set off down the river.
The Harpeth was beautiful and slow moving; full of large gar and snapping turtles, and I loved the experience from the moment I set out. After about 45 minutes of lazy paddling, I came to what was obviously a significant bend in the river and pulled my canoe over to the bank. I walked through a small line of trees and suddenly found myself in an expansive, sunlit clearing. I wasn't sure what I was looking for, but wondered if this field (or at least one nearby) could have once held the ancient unnamed city to which Haywood referred. I decided to walk across the field and climb an overgrown hill on the opposite side to see if I could make anything out.
When I reached the hill, I began to climb using a wide path that had recently been cleared by a tractor. The contour the path followed was ramp-like and curved slightly as it slanted toward the top of the hill. I was walking deep in thought regarding Haywood's description of the Mound Bottom site when one brief passage suddenly struck me- Haywood had described the largest mound (the temple mound) as having a ramp up the northen slope that was just wide enough for "two men to walk abreast". I realized at that moment that I was actually standing halfway up the temple mound itself, and as I turned and looked back over the field, the entire "plaza" became immediately visible just as Haywood had described it- the smaller, residential mounds; the earthworks that formed the straight edges of the rectangular plaza structure, the raised "redoubts" at each of the plaza's right angles. It was breathtaking and, on reaching the top, I immediately sat down and sketched out the entire visible mound system. I don't recall what else might have happened that day, but for a few shining moments, I felt like I had personally made the discovery of a lifetime.
I later learned, with some degree of disappointment, that I was in fact not the first person to recognize the site since Haywood's day, and that the area had actually been excavated by UT as recently as the 1970's. I also later learned that there is a bluff sporting several beutiful petroglyphs just across the river. The climb to the carvings looks somewhat daunting from below, but once you gain the vantage point that looks across the river to the Mound Bottom site (as illustrated in the photo above) as well as the proximity to the petroglyphs themselves, you are glad you made the effort. I recently revisited the site while on a business trip to Nashville and was pleased to see the area had remained just as I'd found it when I'd first come upon it all those years ago.
In the interest of historical preservation, I'm not going to include driving directions to the site. However, if you're ever in Nashville and want to spring for the cost of a canoe rental and a couple of cans of coke, I'll gladly guide you right to it.
