By Conie Mac Darnell

The Macon Sketchbook is available for purchase at NewTown Macon or at other local bookstores.

In 1774 a solitary figure rode on horseback to the top of a great mound on the banks of the Ocmulgee River. William Bartram, the famous naturalist surveyed the remains of an ancient town. What human work and thought created such magnificent mounds, terraces, and fields?

Today, across the river from the Ocmulgee National Monument, tourists atop Coleman Hill ponder similar questions of the historic city of Macon lying below.

Like the Ocmulgee River that flows between the ancient mounds and modern Macon, the history and culture of this place cannot be described in straight lines of progression. In places the Ocmulgee’s impassioned waters rush through the piedmont, while in other places sleepy eddies meander through the plain, oftentimes bending back to repeat patterns of behavior. As Indian, European, and African tributaries converge to form this American confluence, the Ocmulgee River currents mix the blood of warriors and soldiers, the sweat of mound builders and city builders, and the tears of sacrifice of generations of Maconites striving for the American dream.

Macon’s Ocmulgee heritage is not a simple narrative with lists of dates and facts. We must experience the life and spirit of the times, share events in the character, habits, and manners of people who took part. From the “mounds of the ancients” to the “city in a park”, a story unfolds full of tragedy and glory, fall and redemption.

Come; take a walk with me along the Ocmulgee River at the fall line where the Piedmont plateau meets the Coastal plain.