By: Alicia Gray
We had a some real fun on our outing on Saturday, August 17 to both Seller's Farm Archaeological Park and Cedars of Lebanon Hidden Springs Trail! This was a combined outing for Tennessee Trails Association (TTA) and the Sierra club with seven participants from TTA and nine from the Sierra Club for a total of 16 participants. We participated in a two hour guided walking tour of Seller's Farm Archaeological Park, a 70-acre park located south of Lebanon and not open to the public, led by Historian James Miller, Historian, and a member of the Friends of Seller's Farm.
This area is much more vast than I had anticipated, though most of it has been undeveloped and unexcavated, although some recent work has been done by individual members of the Friends of Sellar's Farm. James provided extensive background on the original inhabitants of the area who lived there during the Mississippian period of Native American habitation of Tennessee in a town at a bend of Spring Creek between 1000 and 1300 A.D.. The settlement developed around a platform mound which was fortified with an earthen wall. The inhabitants were farmers and hunters.
The State of Tennessee bought 70 acres in 1974 with the intention of developing an Archaeological park. Unfortunately little has been done on a state level to further implement that plan and a $20,000 Federal Grant has been applied for to use toward Local Park and Recreation Use. There are ecological issues involved with the project, and the plan is to keep the area outside the mound/village area as natural as possible. There are also possibilities for involvement for both Tennessee Trails and the Sierra Club to assist in the development of a Nature Trail and identify natural features along the trail. The plan is for the trail to be unpaved to be in keeping with the original nature of the site.
For those who missed the outing there will be a The Tennessee Archaeology Awareness Week tour Saturday, September 21 at 2:00 and open to the public. Several participants have also expressed an interest in participating in a work day at Sellar's Farm. Announcements of any future club activities at Seller's Farm will be posted in the club newsletters, or contact Alicia Gray at aliciagray@earthlink.net or 615-453-5138 to let me know of your interest in participating in any future events at Seller's Farm.
After our outing, seven people from our outing group continued on to Cedars of Lebanon for a 5-mile hike on the Hidden Springs Trail. Yes, it was the middle of summer, but we were blessed by overcast skies the entire morning (but no rain!) and an actual B-R-E-E-Z-E! which cooled things off for us. This gave us the opportunity to explore some of the several sinkholes along the trail at Cedars and provided a nice ending to an educational morning which ended a little after noon (just before the sun came out full blast). We timed it just right!