Georgia’s Ocmulgee Mounds May Be America’s Next National Park
Georgia’s Ocmulgee Mounds is home to one of the U.S. National Park Service’s (NPS) largest archaeological collections and dates back millennia. Now the landmark, currently classified as a national historical park, could become the USA’s newest national park, as well as the first one in the state of Georgia.
Conde Nast Traveler reports on what is in store for the Ocmulgee Mounds as a decades-long movement to turn the archaeological site into a national park is almost at its goal.
The push for national park status means the destination is lingering in that sweet spot: when new infrastructure and experiences are being put in place, but the national park-size crowds haven’t quite landed.
If Ocmulgee Mounds were to become a national park—the crown-jewel status of the NPS—it could expand to protect anywhere from 50,000 to 80,000 acres of land. Congress, who ultimately will determine the park’s fate, would draw the final boundaries. And they could get the chance to do so as soon as mid-2022, after the last step in the national-park process, the NPS’ special-resource study, concludes in March.