Emerald Mound & Desoto

"Today we'll take a close up look at Emerald Mound, the huge Indian temple mound just north of Natchez, Mississippi. It was built by Indians from the Mississippian Culture.

"On top of the large mound and at the west end, there is a secondary mound. At one time this smaller 30 foot tall mound had a temple on its top and it housed sacred Indian images. There's also a smaller mound located on the east end of the huge platform and there's evidence that from 4 to 6 even smaller mounds once stood along the top sides of the big mound.

"Near the end of the Mississippian era, at the time Spanish explorer Hernando DeSoto came through this area in the 1540s, these flat-topped Indian mounds were still being used. The next Europeans came 160 years later when the Frenchman, D'Iberville, claimed the Mississippi Valley for France (this was right about the year 1700). By then, almost all the Mississippian Indian villages had been abandoned. The Indians D'Iberville traded with were the Natchez Indians. The reason the Mississippian decline happened so rapidly is possibly because of disease brought here by DeSoto and his band. The sick and weakened Mississippians were then more easily driven out by other Indian groups and they also fell to internal strife.

"Join us next time when we'll visit LOESS BLUFF. For Natchez Trace: A Road Through the Wilderness, I'm Frank Thomas."

For more about Natchez Trace: A Road Through the Wilderness, visit eddieandfrank.com