Upper Mauldin Mill Creek Village Site and Stickball Stadium

6
Written by alekmountain

Habersham County, Georgia

34°40’53.5″N 83°37’47.9″W

by Richard L. Thornton, Architect & City Planner

This multiple village site is on the north side of Alec Mountain Range, approximately 1.25 miles north of the Alec Mountain Stone Oval. The human occupation area covers approximately 70 acres. A small brook, which is the headwaters of Mauldin Mill Creek, flows to the south of the archeological zone. Running approximately north-south to the west of the archaeological zone is GA Hwy. 255A.

This archaeological site is privately owned and on a gated tract of land. It is not visible from GA. Hwy. 255A. No professional archaeological work has been done at the site. However, local residents stated that it was common to find potsherds and stone tools in nearby gardens and cultivated fields.

Many Native American occupation zones can be found in this area.

This U-shaped ballcourt is the exact shape and size of a ballcourt in front of the Nacoochee Valley Community Center that was identified by archaeologist Robert Wauchope in 1939.  The newly discovered ballcourt is 2.68 miles east of the Sautee ballcourt.  Unfortunately, the Sautee archaeological site has since then has been heavily damaged by grading and the construction of a pavilion.

This high contrast image, rotated 90 degrees clearly delineates the stadium.

The newly discovered ballcourt has a flat playing field, which is approximately 315 feet (96m) north-south and 145 feet (44m) wide.  The east and west sides of the field are earth berms, which are approximately 3 feet in height today.  They probably were 8-10 feet high at least five centuries ago, when the field was in use.  Like the site in nearby Sautee, the north end of the ballcourt is a series of semi-circular terraces, cut into the side of a ridge.

This is the northern end of the stadium, which was cut into the slope.
The pond was dug at about a 15 degrees angle off true North-South.

6 Comments

  1. I love the new website but cannot print it either print to pdf or via printer direct; the little image with the “o” in it at the top left of the first page explodes and blocks the page any way I try. When I save to web file, the file won’t open at all. I use Windows 10 Chrome and have not had this problem before.

    Thought I should let you know and don’t know how to contact you otherwise.

    Thank you for all your research. I look forward to life without all those horrific ads which seem to double in size overnight.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Hey Beth, the problem is with WordPress. I will check with the Tech Assistance people to work on it. In the mean time they said that you could cut and paste to MS Word. Probably can also cut and paste to Adobe PDF also. I decided that I will get more professional commissions with a clean looking website that looks like an Architect’s report than with having any ads. The People of One Fire site was sold without our permission by the web host then the new owners added more and more ads. Also, I couldn’t have the size graphics that I needed for some archaeological sites. Thanks – Richard Thornton . . . a real person, not a computer or troll . . . although I do resemble the Creature of the Dark Lagoon some mornings. LOL

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  2. The new site looks great, Richard, and also, reads well. I also use WordPress (as you might remember, since you’ve visited my site on occasion). As with everything else online, the format has some drawbacks, but for the most part, it has definitely served its purpose over the years. The ‘no-ad’ option is worth the price, too.

    I wanted you to know that since the articles at People of One Fire’s old site are no longer available, I had to delete the links I had included in the Fort Mountain piece at Real Spooks. At some later date, I may have time to go back and create links to direct my readers to articles here. In the meantime, I have simply directed them to “The Americas Revisited,” in the hopes they will visit your new site (and the YouTube Channel) to take advantage of all the wonderful information you’re posting.

    Thanks, again, for all you do to set the record straight.

    C. Kinkel

    Like

    Reply

  4. Well, I’m really embarrassed to see that I just mistakenly referred to your site using the wrong name, and there doesn’t seem to be any way to edit or delete the comment. Please, rest assured, I did NOT direct anyone to “The Americas Revisited,” but to “The Americas REVEALED!

    Sorry, about that. 🙂

    Like

    Reply

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