445 Poplar Hill Rd.
Self-Guided Tour
1 1/2 mile Loop Trail, Easy Skill Level, Dirt Path
I’m turning down a rural road off two-lane Sparta Pike, just a few miles from the square in Lebanon, but already a world away. As I pull into a small gravel lot past the sign marking "Sellars Farm Archaeological Park," a field stretches far on my right and glows under the midday sun. Pulling on my hiking boots I see my first stop nearby - a kiosk with a wealth of information on the inhabitants of this part of Tennessee, and the Sellars Farm site in particular. (Please take a few minutes to read the boards to familiarize yourself with who these inhabitants were, and their place among the Native settlements in Middle Tennessee. It will give you some much needed context for your explorations! But if you want my experience and read some research, read on.)
As I walk along the trail and spot Spring Creek, I hear nothing but rushing water and birds, and this is to continue the entire time I’m visiting the area. I have come on a Friday and find that I am the only person here – this is amazing, and so rare! Sometimes public sites like these are a haven for walkers and hikers, but today it is just me, the birds, a rushing creek and an open prairie. Wildflowers are in bloom, and I spot a butterfly lighting on tall grass.
As far as trails go, it is a very easy hike along a dirt path, perhaps a mile and a half long round trip, roughly following the slopes of Sandy Creak which surrounded the ancient village on three sides. From around 1100 AD to sometime before 1400 AD this site was a settlement surrounded by fortifications. Its position suggests to archaeologists that this was a strategic and direct land route from the Cumberland River to the Eastern Highland Rim. Although there were larger settlements in these areas such as Mound Bottom and Castalian Springs with populations in the thousands, smaller communities such as Sellars and farmsteads were also trying to thrive, although perhaps lacking the structure and safety of the larger communities.
It is only after I’ve walked a ways in that I finally spot a mound on my left, about 15 feet high. It is trapezoid in design, with the top being 95 to 75 feet wide, and the base 138 to 120 feet wide. I’m amazed at how high the mound is! You don't always see mounds of this size, since farming has destroyed much of the evidence of what was once a thriving culture here in Middle Tennessee (and probably in most places). In fact, this unassuming curve of the river and the artifacts that were found within are of vital importance to our understanding of the Mississippian culture in Tennessee, which has been carbon dated from about 1000 AD to 1500 AD.
As I make my way toward the mound I see a stand of trees where approximately 60 stone box graves were found – a typical burial custom for this period. There were likely a number of small family cemeteries scattered throughout the site, rather than one big cemetery.
Standing in front of the platform mound I imagine it with a house for the Chief, or a Sacred shelter for ceremonies, looking out to the East and the open plaza in front of it. Since I’m all alone I decide to sit behind the mound on the West side facing East, with the mound in front of me and the trees behind me, and I give in to some prayer and meditation time. I invite the ancestors of this amazing place to help me understand what life was like for those who lived, died, worshipped, played, suffered, and loved here. I make an offering of tobacco and chocolate and marvel at the songs of the birds which I don’t normally hear. The forest is alive with cracking sounds, becoming louder and more frequent as I sit there, even though it has not become more noticeably windy. What would these people say about their past and how it connects to our future? They were only here 300 years. What became of them, and are we likely to find a similar fate? I strain to hear their voices. The cracking sounds in the woods is insistent and I suddenly wonder if I should be scared? Just then the sounds die out, and I take that as reassurance that they mean me no harm, and I am at peace.
As I stand to leave, I face the woods where the noise was mostly coming from, in the direction of the North. I thank the Ancestors for their presence, for allowing me to be there, and if appropriate if I could have something to leave with. I hear a noise and look up to see a hawk fly over my head, and I’m so grateful, knowing that the hawk is a sign of protection and a spiritual messenger for Native Americans.
I follow an opening in the field to the river where you can sit on a bench near the water. It seems to me that the pile of stones in the creek is similar to the man-made formations I've seen in rivers at other Native American sites which made it easier for people to trap and catch fish. But I'm here to walk, so I stay on the trail, hoping to find six low mounds along this stretch of the creek, but I find them hard to see with the overgrown brush. Oh well, I'm loving the walk among the trees alongside the water, listening to the hoot of an owl and other bird calls.
The Sellars Farm site was part of a 1786 Revolutionary war land grant given to Nathaniel Lawrence. His heirs, the Lindsley family, invited an archaeologist from Harvard’s Peabody Museum to study the site in 1877. Putnam removed skeletal remains and the burial artifacts and took them to the Peabody Museum. This was fortunate (although removing remains is pretty sensitive business), as the Sellars family who took over in 1909 extensively farmed the land and in the process destroyed evidence of the wooden palisade and most of the low mounds. All around this area there were once at least 100 low circular ridges of earth – houses, with wooden posts, and cane matting plastered with mud and thatched roofs. The State of Tennessee acquired the site in 1974, and in 2004 the land became an archaeological area, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
I imagine the fortifications circling this bend in the creek and wonder what life must have been like for the people who lived here. There’s a dichotomy between what the kiosk says about happy, thriving people, and the fact that there are defensive walls. Who were they protecting themselves from? Did they themselves seek warfare with surrounding tribes? Were there at least long stretches when they could relax here among the trees, living off mussels and fish and the corn they grew? What led to their demise? By all accounts the settlement was abandoned by the time the Europeans first arrived as were the rest of the Mississippian cultures.
I had a chance to visit the site a second time on a field trip with the Middle Cumberland Archaeological Society led by Dr. Kevin E. Smith, one of the most prominent and published Anthropologists in the state of Tennessee. He explained that those who lived in the Sellars Farm site did not always have an easy time of it, especially towards the end of their civilization. Drought likely forced the inhabitants away at least three times. (The 'Vacant Quarter' theory states that a 50,000 square mile area of land across eight states, including portions of Tennessee, suffered a terrible drought and forced people to move.) Also, in the last years there were intensified raids and warfare from tribes from the North. The palisades that were constructed for defense were some of the most incredible ever found - with deep trenches and a coating of plaster to keep them from burning. In addition to warfare, malnutrition, high childhood mortality rates and the death of women during childbirth would have severely dwindled the numbers of those who lived here. I was so saddened to think that this was the case.
I mentioned earlier that Sellars Farm Archaeological Area is of great importance to the State of Tennessee, and this is one big reason why: four painted stone statues were found between 1922 and 1939 and are considered some of the finest examples of effigy statues -and the largest- north of Mexico. (The only two other painted statues ever found were at the Etowah Indian Mounds in Georgia and were likely made at the same time.) Known as Tennessee-Cumberland Style stone statues, they reside permanently in the Tennessee State Museum at the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture in Knoxville. In 2014 Governor Haslam signed into law a bill making one of the statues, nicknamed “Sandy,” the official state artifact!
I asked Dr. Smith why the statues were buried here, and he believes that either the individuals couldn't take them with them when they left, or they were kept here intentionally as they were part of this land and the sacred stories they represented.
We don’t know the name of the tribe who lived here only 700 years ago, but I feel that this settlement has something to teach us about impermanence. The quiet essence of this place, with only nature to call it home, could quickly happen to our own society if people were to suddenly leave. The people who lived here thought of themselves as important, just like we do, yet we now don't even know their names. Change...the only constant. The Universe will go on, creating something else in its place, with only a memory of what has been. What will we be remembered for?!
Before leaving I thank the Sellars Farm site once again for allowing me such a special visit, by myself, in this Sacred place with only the ancestors for company. I am blessed.
For other posts on prehistoric Native American sites in Tennessee, see the Fewkes Group Mounds in Brentwood and Pinson Mounds near Pinson.
RESOURCES WITH LINKS:
If you’re unable to come to the site you can find a virtual tour here: Sellars Farm State Archaeological Area (arcgis.com)
Books, found on Amazon:
Speaking with the Ancestors: Mississippian Stone Statuary of the Tennessee-Cumberland Region by Professor Kevin E. Smith and James V. Miller. An examination of 42 Mississippian stone statues, including those found at the Sellars Farm site.
Mastodons to Mississippians: Adventures in Nashville's Deep Past by Aaron Deter-Wolf and Tanya M. Peres. An overview of Nashville, Tennessee's Native prehistory, from the Paleoindian to Mississippian periods.
In addition, consider going on the Lebanon/Wilson County Historic Sites Driving Tour to see other important sites just a few miles away! www.hldrivingtour.info.
Friends of Long Hunger State Park is an organization that maintains upkeep of the Sellars Farm site. To become a member join at this site: Friends of Long Hunter State Park - Membership.
To join the Middle Cumberland Archaeological Society please contact Dr. Kevin E. Smith at Kevin.Smith@mtsu.edu.