Town Creek Site (N.C.)

Town Creek Indian Mound (31 MG 2) is a prehistoric Native American archaeological site located near present-day Mount Gilead, Montgomery County, North Carolina, in the United States. The site, whose main features are a platform mound with a surrounding village and wooden defensive palisade, was built by the Pee Dee, a South Appalachian Mississippian culture people (a regional variation of the Mississippian culture) that developed in the region as early as 980 CE. They thrived in the Pee Dee River region of North and South Carolina during the Pre-Columbian era. The Town Creek site was an important ceremonial site occupied from about 1150—1400 CE. It was abandoned for unknown reasons. It is the only ceremonial mound and village center of the Pee Dee located within North Carolina. The Pee Dee people shared the Mississippian culture that was characterized in part by building large, earthwork mounds for spiritual and political purposes. They participated in a widespread network of trading that stretched from Georgia through South Carolina, eastern Tennessee, and the mountain and Piedmont regions of North Carolina. The Town Creek site is not large by Mississippian standards. The earthwork mound was built over the remains of a rectangular-shaped earth lodge. The site was declared a National Historic Landmark on October 15, 1966, and is identified as reference number 66000594. The site is the only national historic landmark in North Carolina to commemorate American Indian culture. It is owned by the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources and is operated by the Division of State Historic Sites. Today the Pee Dee people are based in South Carolina, where the state has recognized four bands and one group.