Poverty Point National Historic Site in Poverty Point, LA (NE LA)
Its not like a Grand Canyon WOW, but still a wow!
Why: Because it is the remnants of a sophisticated civilization that existed in what's now northeastern Louisiana about 3,500 years ago -- somewhere around 1730 to 1350 BCE. Compared to the middle east where pyramids were built centuries earlier its new, but to us Westerners this is seriously older than how we perceive history. Now all that's seen are grassy mounds (so not a jaw dropping wow), and it wasn't discovered until folks could fly over it in the 1950s and see the pattern. (The straight line is just a modern road):
Wikipedia picture
Baby Boomer Conversation about our early education. Cindy's was parochial and definitely a little slanted; Bill's was public. As kids we were both left with the impression that our continent was full of big trees and wild turkeys and nothing much else. Only along our own ways did our own attitudes about being life-long learning bring perspective and critical thinking .... or something like that. What's happening now in places where books are banned and content is controlled is scary. Just saying -- and yep, that's just our opinion, but then, it is our blog and we are old, with crone-like wisdom. Comments are welcome...
C: Didn't you learn that Christopher Columbus discovered America?
B: Yep, and then we learned that Lief Erikson was there 500 years or so before...
C: I've been to Cohokia Mounds in Illinois;-- that's the Mississipean culture -- But that's CE and probably around the time of the Aztecs. Poverty Point is centuries earlier
B: Too bad they didn't have a written language
C: Some teasing ensued in which C made snide but loving comments about Bill's ivy league education which was definitely much more trade-school-like (engineering) than a true broad-based liberal education, like her own received at a middle-of-the-pack state institution!
Retirement Lesson: Still so much to learn...
VOYAYA ...
From our more northern than southern eyes -- Palmettos are an photo op
Bill on the stairs up the main mound -- evidently for ceremonial use -- at Poverty Point.
At the top of the mound
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