Six hundred years ago a group of Native Americans settled on a spot overlooking the Little River and constructed a ceremonial center. The Town Creek center served as a fortified refuge and a sacred ritual ground.
The area once inhabited by people of the Pee Dee culture now contains an earthen mound with a major temple on top, a mortuary hut, and an enclosed minor temple all surrounded by a palisade fence. These reconstructions were based on fifty years of intensive archaeological excavations that began in the 1930s.
A visit to Town Creek Indian Mound offers a glimpse of pre-Columbian life in Piedmont North Carolina. The visitor center contains interpretive exhibits, as well as audiovisual programs that bring alive a rich cultural heritage from the buried past. Self-guided tours of the rebuilt structures and mound and other group activities are available.
