Bartow County

Date Established: 1953

Original Acreage: 54

Current Acreage: 68

In 1838 Colonel Lewis Tumlin purchased the site after the sixth Georgia land lottery, which removed the property from the Indians. Colonel Tumlin and his descendants served as caretakers of the mounds for almost 120 years. Henry Tumlin sold the mounds and the surrounding property that comprised the ancient Indian city of Etowah to the state of Georgia in 1953. Tumlin, who also became the site's first superintendent, later donated adjoining property to the state. In 1973 Etowah Mounds and 18 other state historic sites and monuments were turned over from the Georgia Historic Commission to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Parks and Historic Sites Division.

The story of the first Georgians spans thousands of years. As the Mississippian Indian culture came to an end, one of its last great cities lay near the juncture of the Etowah River and Pumpkinvine Creek. Ancestors of the current day Muskogee Creek, the mound builders, arrived at Etowah some time about 900 A.D. The Etowah chiefdom featured advanced agricultural techniques, a government based on lineage, religion, commerce and highly developed ceremonial art. The two 125 pound marble effigies found by archaeologists in the 1950s represent some of the finest Indian art in the country. Artwork on Etowah pottery show incredible attention to detail with patterns becoming more elaborate with time. Typical of most Mississippian towns, the Etowah people erected huge mounds topped with temples for the chief and his family. Mound A at Etowah is believed to be the second highest mound in the country. A burial mound was also constructed as the final resting place of the ruling class. Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto visited the town in August of 1540. Not long after this date the introduction of European diseases decimated most of the population.

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