South Appalachian Mississippian Burial Mound at Hardman Farm
143 Georgia Highway 17, Sautee Nacoochee, GA 30571
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free to view from the public right of way at the intersection of GA 17 and GA 75. The adjacent Hardman Farm State Historic Site charges a small admission for guided tours.
Access
Limited Access
View from the public roadside; the mound itself is on private pasture
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1350 · Mississippian Platform Mound · 1915 Smithsonian Excavation · Nacoochee Valley NRHP District · Hardman Farm State Historic Site
The Nacoochee Mound is a documented Mississippian-period platform mound on the floodplain of the Chattahoochee River, two miles south of the town of Helen in White County, Georgia. The site was first occupied between approximately 100 and 500 CE by Woodland-period peoples and was used more intensively as a ceremonial and burial site by South Appalachian Mississippian culture peoples from roughly 1350 to 1600 CE.
A 1915 joint expedition of the Museum of the American Indian, the Heye Foundation, and the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution excavated the mound between May and October of that year. The excavation documented 75 human burials, including 56 adults, seven adolescents, and four children, with eight additional burials too degraded to age. Roughly one-third of the burials included grave goods indicative of social status, including hammered copper, stone celts, conch shell beads, and elaborate Mississippian-period pottery.
The University of Georgia conducted further archaeological work at the site in 2004, which confirmed that the mound predates Cherokee occupation of the valley and was used as a community burial ground rather than as the burial site of two individual lovers. The Nacoochee Valley Historic District, which encompasses the mound and surrounding farmland, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The mound is on private land within Hardman Farm State Historic Site pasture and is best viewed from the adjacent state highway intersection.
Sources
The romantic legend of Sautee and Nacoochee is the most-widely retold story associated with the mound and gives the surrounding township its name. In the legend Sautee, identified as a Choctaw brave, falls in love with the daughter of a Cherokee chief named Nacoochee, translated in the retelling as the Evening Star. The lovers are said to have fled together to Yonah Mountain, been found by a Cherokee search party, and died together when Sautee was thrown from the mountain and Nacoochee leapt after him. They are said in the legend to have been buried together in the mound.
Georgia state interpretation and the 2004 University of Georgia archaeological survey both identify the story as European-American romantic invention rather than documented indigenous history. The 1915 Smithsonian-affiliated excavation recovered 75 burials, indicating that the mound functioned as a community burial site rather than as the joint grave of two individuals. The Cherokee did not occupy the Nacoochee Valley during the period when the mound was constructed and used.
A secondary folklore tradition warns that trespassing on or disturbing the mound will bring misfortune from indigenous spirits associated with the site. The mound sits on private pasture within Hardman Farm State Historic Site; visitors are asked to view the mound only from the adjacent public right of way. Statements about the spiritual significance of Mississippian and later indigenous occupation of the site are properly the province of descendant communities and their cultural offices.
Notable Entities
View the gazebo-topped Nacoochee Mound from the public right of way at the intersection of Georgia Highways 17 and 75, immediately south of Helen. The mound is located on private property within Hardman Farm State Historic Site pasture; do not walk onto the mound. Adjacent Hardman Farm offers guided interpretation of the broader landscape.
Tour the adjacent Hardman Farm State Historic Site to learn the documented archaeological context of the mound, including the 1915 Smithsonian-affiliated excavation that recovered 75 burials and Mississippian artifacts. The Nacoochee Valley Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
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