For the past several years (decades, really), there’s been buzz about the status of the Ocmulgee Mounds as Georgia’s first-ever national park. And now, a new proposal for the cause has taken its first step towards becoming a reality. Keep scrolling to learn more about the Ocmulgee Mounds and the park’s potential to become the state’s first national park.
Wait… what’s going on?
According to the new proposal, which you can read in its entirety, here, the goal is “to redesignate the Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park as the ‘Ocmulgee Mounds National Park’, and for other purposes.”
The bill, known as the ‘Ocmulgee Mounds National Park Redesignation Act,’ no longer seeks to expand the acreage of the park, like earlier versions of the proposal had.
According to Georgia Public Broadcasting,
The National Park Service had been on the record during the debate over the older bill as saying it didn’t want to be responsible for a swath of land extending south on the Ocmulgee River, much of which is already overseen by U.S. Fish and Wildlife or Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources.
This new plan for the Ocmulgee Mounds as a national park without the expanded landmass would make it the 2nd smallest national park in the country. The only smaller national park is St. Louis’ Gateway Arch National Park.
The cultural significance of the Ocmulgee Mounds
In 2025, TIME Magazine designated the Ocmulgee Mounds as one of the ‘World’s [100] Greatest Places,’ stating,
The mounds they [the Muscogee] built, which are currently a national historic site that includes a distinctive spiral mound, a restored Earth Lodge where tribal meetings occurred, and a labyrinth of walking trails, are set to become America’s 64th National Park and Georgia’s first. To honor the area’s indigenous past, the city of Macon in March added bilingual street names in Muscogee and English, and the park itself will be managed by both the National Park Service and the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, whose ancestors lived here before being displaced to Oklahoma in 1836.
The mounds, including Earth Lodge, on Ocmulgee Mounds Park and Preserve, have been a huge cultural center for the Muscogee people for more than 1,000 years, before their forced removal in the early 1800s. The mounds have been a protected monument since President Franklin D. Roosevelt was in office.
In past versions of the bill to make the Ocmulgee Mounds a national park, there was a provision stating that this would be the first ever National Park to be co-managed by a removed tribe, the Muscogee Creek Nation.
That provision is notably not included in the new bill, which went to a House hearing on June 24th.
Georgia Public Broadcasting explains,
But another provision remains which would place culturally important land that the Muscogee Nation owns nearby inside the nation’s sovereign borders.
So, what’s next?
This legislation is expected to move through the committee.
According to WMGT 41,
Gary Wheat, president and CEO of Visit Macon, addressed lawmakers in Washington, saying,
Madam Chair, members of the committee, our region has spent nearly a century preparing for this moment. We have built the partnerships, we have invested the resources, we have demonstrated the local commitment. Congress is not being asked to imagine what this designation becomes, it is being asked to recognize what Middle Georgia has already built. We respectfully ask for your support of H.R. 9416.
As we have more updates on the status of Ocmulgee National Historic Park as a national park, we will share them with you!
