GPS
Coordinates: Latitude: 31.626694 Longitude: -91.8165
Driving Directions:
— In Jonesville, from US 84 (Fourth Street), head north
on Willow Street. View one marker at corner of Willow and
Third Street, on left; second marker at corner of Willow and
Second Street, on right. |
| Number
of Mounds: 5, 1 embankment |
Number
of Visible Mounds: 5, 1 embankment |
| Summer
Viewing: Fair |
Winter
Viewing: Fair |
 Before
it was destroyed for bridge approach fill in 1931, Troyville was
one of the most impressive mound groups in North America. The
site is at the confluence of the Ouachita, Tensas, and Little
Rivers; it contained nine mounds and a perimeter embankment. William
Dunbar (of the Hunter-Dunbar expedition sent out by Thomas Jefferson)
described the site in its pristine state in 1804. A “Great
Mound” (Md. 5), at 82 feet high, was the tallest mound in
Louisiana and one of the largest in North America. Eight smaller
platform mounds were about 12 feet tall and 150 by 60 feet at
the base. The embankment was 10 feet high and 100 feet across.
The Great Mound had been reduced to a height of 50 feet by Civil
War times, and Smithsonian archaeologist Winslow Walker excavated
it in 1931 and 1932. He uncovered woven cane matting, palmetto
fronds, and wooden planks within the mound: evidence of the complex
engineering used to build this AD 700 mound. Its modest remains
are on Willow Street and Second Street. Another mound is visible
near Front Street and Second Street, while the embankment can
be seen at Willard Street and Front Street. Troyville is listed
on the National Register of Historic Places.
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