Senator Warnock Tours Proposed National Park Site at Ocmulgee Mounds
Tuesday, November 28th, 2023
Capitol Beat is a nonprofit news service operated by the Georgia Press Educational Foundation that provides coverage of state government to newspapers throughout Georgia. For more information visit capitol-beat.org.
Legislation will be introduced soon in Congress to create Georgia’s first national park, U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock said this past week after touring the Ocmulgee Mounds in Macon, a prehistoric Native American site.
Ocmulgee Mounds was established as a national historical park during the 1930s to preserve an area occupied by various native cultures for thousands of years. The mounds were built during the Mississippi Period, which began around 900.
“Ocmulgee is not just an expanse of land,” Warnock said. “It is a living testament to our intertwined histories, and a source of economic and cultural vitality.”
Warnock’s tour came less than a week after the National Park Service sent a study to Congress concluding that the Muscogee Creek Nation’s historic homeland in Middle Georgia warrants protection. But the study also declared the area contemplated for a park, stretching for more than 50 miles, includes so much private property it wouldn’t be possible to acquire.
To get around that problem, the report recommended reducing the area to be preserved along the Ocmulgee River.
Warnock is working with Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., and U.S. Reps. Austin Scott, R-Tifton, and Sanford Bishop, D-Albany, to craft legislation designating the Ocmulgee Mounds as a national park.
This week’s tour of the site was led by Tracie Revis, a citizen of the Muscogee Creek Nation.
