When visiting Poverty Point, there's a $6 entry fee. The museum features a short video on the history, and the building is full of Indian artifacts discovered at this location, including arrowheads, atlatl weights, decorated objects, figurines, scarce bone awl tools and plummets used as fishing weights.
Behind the visitors center is the Bayou Macon overlook. The signage says that the Mississippi River was probably closer during the time period (1700 B.C. to 1100 B.C.) and may have formed a shallow backwater lake here.
The earthwork complex includes a series of C-shaped concentric ridges, which varied in height up to 6 feet and are thought to have been used for living areas. Excavation found cooking pits, hearths and numerous artifacts, including cooking balls, knives, blades and other tools.
To see the five mounds, visitors can take a hiking trail (2.6 miles total), drive your own vehicle on a paved road or take the open-air tram with a park ranger guide. The tram runs Wednesday through Sunday for $4 per person and takes approximately 45 minutes. On those days, you can also try throwing an atlatl.
Parts of the ridges and mounds at Poverty Point have disappeared due to farming and erosion, but what remains is worth seeing.
The tallest mound, Mound A, stands at 72 feet and can be viewed from the ground. Or visitors can take the wooden walkway with about 35 stairs on a slight elevation to go to the apex, with a view of the surrounding forest and farmland. From above, the mound is shaped like a bird in flight, though researchers debate the "bird effigy" idea.
It was looking at this mound, from afar, surrounded by flat land, with a car driving in front of it, when I was struck by the magnitude of the size, the effort to build it and how unimaginably long ago it was: 1350 BC.
Mound B is conical in shape and measures about 21 feet in height, while Mound C is 6 feet high and is thought to be originally loaf-shaped. Mound D is small, built by a later community of the Coles Creek culture, and Mound E is flat-topped and stands at about 13 feet high.
My husband and I love both history and the outdoors, so this was a great outing for us. We drove the route to each mound, which was nice because we could keep to our own schedule. We took our time, and our whole visit — including watching the video, touring the museum, asking several questions, and driving and stopping at each mound — took less than two hours.
Poverty Point is handicap accessible if visitors ride in their own vehicles, and each mound is easy to see from the road. The walkway from the street close to each mound is a mowed grass path.
Interestingly, no bones have been recovered, so researchers do not think the Poverty Point mounds were burial sites of Indigenous people.
Mound D has the 1851 headstones of two women, almost illegible: Sarah Wilson Guier and Amanda Malvina Dawson Van Rensselaer. A brochure says that early Euro-American settlers often used Indian mounds for their cemeteries. The Guiers owned Poverty Point plantation, but there was no grand plantation home there. Van Rensselaer lived on property across Bayou Macon.
The why of the Poverty Point mounds still remains a mystery, but we came away debating our own theories on what the mounds were used for. The area is still under archaeological discovery, and a sixth mound, Mound E, is expected to open in the future, according to museum office staff.
Poverty Point Reservoir State Park is about 10 miles south in Delhi, which has a few locally owned restaurants. We opted for home-cooking style food at Tammy Fay's Restaurant, a tiny brick building one block south of Interstate 20 off La. 17, open for lunch and dinner.
The special of the day was grilled or fried pork chops, mashed potatoes and gravy, yams, field peas, cornbread, dessert and a drink. We asked what they were known for, and our sweet and funny server said burgers, so that's what we ordered with cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles and onions.
The burgers were 8 ounces, which was more than I could finish in one sitting, and the buns were outstanding. They were square, with the option of sourdough or jalapeno, which was flavorful but not spicy. The onion rings were homemade and huge and deliciously lightly battered. I tried another customer favorite — fried mushrooms — and loved them too.
Tammy Fay's Cafe is located at 113 Rundell Loop, Delhi.
The state park also has waterfront cabins that are great for fishing, lodges in the wooded area and a campground. Just up the road at the marina in the state park, there's a beach that incudes a separate entrance. The Black Bear Conference Center, at the Black Bear Golf Club in Delhi, is open to the public and has a restaurant.
Poverty Point is located at 6859 La.577 in Epps, and is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day.
318-322-2223
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