Cherokee Indian Grave Site?

Ozzie

Senior Member
Guys, while exploring a new area of our club in Ogelthorpe county this past week, I found several mounds of stacked rocks about 6 foot long and 4 foot wide along side a small creek. The mounds are obviously man made, and have been there a long time in an undistrubed state judging by the moss on the rocks, and the way they are settled in to the ground.

The 5 or 6 mounds are spaced equally apart and the whole thing has the look of being arranged by man, but obviously a long time ago. I know the property owner and he is unaware of any burials on his property, but I doubt he has ever seen this area before. What do y'all think? Have I found some Cherokee graves? Has anybody else ever seen anything like this in the woods?
 

jay sullivent

Senior Member
me and my dad were in a club in taliafero county (crawfordville) that had piles of rocks similar to what you are describing. they were on a hillside overlooking a creek. we found lots of arrowheads in areas that were clearcutted on this property. it is funny that you mention this becuse i was just thinking about those rockpiles not too long ago and wondering what we could have found out about them if we had of told the right person or people about them. we always suspected the were put there by indians.
 

MOTS

Senior Member
Snap some pics and post them on here. Someone on here(Nic,Vernon H.etc.) may know what they are.
 
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60Grit

Guest
This area of Georgia also had a good population of Creek Indians.

Cherokee graves are usually long stone piles, with status recognized by the size of the pile.

Creek Indians did make grave sized piles, and usually put them on the eastern side of a hill or slope overlooking or near a creek.
 

Ozzie

Senior Member
Interesting...these piles I found are on the eastern side of the creek slope. I'll take some digital shots next time I'm in that area. The mounds are kind of hard to see right now because they are covered with lots of leaves.
 
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60Grit

Guest
That is some cool stuff.

We have a burial sight on our hunting land in Jones Cty. The last dated headstone was in the early 1930's. The earliest marked stone is in a granite slab inclosed square, he was a soldier in the Revolutionary War.
All of the other sights are just field stone markers.
 

Ozzie

Senior Member
Yeah, I think so too. I'm always on the look out for sites like this while I'm out hunting and have found some pretty interesting stuff.

The graves you describe with field stones were probably slaves, although they could be white settlers who were too poor to afford a headstone.
 
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60Grit

Guest
They are all intermingled together, so I kind of think it might have been settlers too poor.
 

Hawkeye

Senior Member
Might be a septic tank ? You have all heard probably the fiasco with the Miami Circle ? that was found at the mouth of the Miami River, The city bought it because the circle in stone dated back 25000 years and it was supposed to have been a ceremonial place for Indians.
well it turned out to be an old septic tank area,LOL
The city paid millions of dollars for it.

Read about it: http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/miami/index.html
 
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60Grit

Guest
Might be a septic tank ? You have all heard probably the fiasco with the Miami Circle ? that was found at the mouth of the Miami River, The city bought it because the circle in stone dated back 25000 years and it was supposed to have been a ceremonial place for Indians.
well it turned out to be an old septic tank area,LOL
The city paid millions of dollars for it.

Read about it: http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/miami/index.html

That is too funny!!
 

Ozzie

Senior Member
I don't believe it's either of those. I Know where an an old Georgia gold rush sluce site is in Cherokee county, and this looks nothing like that. I've also seen lots of old stills and I don't think this looks anything like that either. (You can usually tell an old still site by the old hoop barell rings laying on the ground from where the barrells rotted away and left the rings.)
 

westcobbdog

Senior Member
I came across a group of what I thought were graves at the headwaters of Montgomery Creek years ago trout fishing. Based on where you were my guess if they are injun they would be creeks
 

limbhanger

Senior Member
Ozzie

There numerous rock piles loacted on the eastern portion overlooking a creek on my Douglas County Lease. Glad you brought it up..
 

flintdiver

Senior Member
Odds are they were put there by early settlers that farmed the land. They tossed the rocks into piles to keep from plowing them up over and over again. I have seen lots of piles like this through the woods, along creeks and on hillsides. I even went to the bottom of one to satisfy my curiosity, guess what , just field rocks !
 

Handgunner

Senior Member
Interesting to say the least.

I wouldn't recommend digging any up though...

If they are indeed indian graves, they were put to rest, and IMO, are best left that way.

I would like to see the pictures when you get the time though!
 

Just BB

Senior Member
I wouldn't dig into them if I were in snake country!:hair:
We also have similar piles on our lease near Juliette and most of them are on hills beside the creek. I always thought they were probably piles from earlier farmers. I guess they could be buried injuns:yawn: Always look too snakey for me to dig around but I'm going to snoop around for arrow heads next time I'm down.
 

Ozzie

Senior Member
I don't think farmers would go through the trouble to carry the rocks down a slope and then arrange them in eight evenly spaced, 4 foot by 6 foot piles along the creek bank. What also makes me think this site is special is that these mounds are situated right by the only easy creek crossing for a hundred yards in either direction. The rocks in the mounds also all appear to be roughly the same size, like somebody went through a lot of trouble to handpick the rocks to make it look nice.
 
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