The McMahan Indian Mound

The platform mound rose inside a large palisaded village on the Little Pigeon, occupied in the Dallas phase of South Appalachian Mississippian culture. A party tied to the Smithsonian, led by William H. Holmes, dug there in 1881. Among the finds were engraved shell gorgets in several regional styles, a marble pipe, and European brass pins and glass beads that suggest people still lived here after contact. The site is named for the McMahan family, who owned the farm in 1881. Ownership and access today are not confirmed here.

What the plaque says

The McMahan Indian Mound This Mississippian substructure,16 ft. high and 240 ft.in circumference, built during the Dallas phase (1200-1500), was first excavated in 1881, with artifacts being sent to the Smithsonian. Later excavations exposed nearby villages of the Woodland Indian dating from 200 A.D. to the Cherokee who roamed this valley when pioneers settled in the late 1700s.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Newfound Gap — 19 mi
  The lowest drivable pass through the Smokies, at 5,046 feet on the Tennessee and North Carolina line, where Roosevelt dedicated the park in 1940 and Kuwohi's Cherokee name was restored in 2024.
• Beck Cultural Exchange Center — 20 mi
  Knoxville's Black history museum and archive, opened in 1975 in the 1912 Dandridge Avenue house the community bought for $22,500.
• Blount Mansion — 21 mi
  The 1792 frame house of William Blount, governor of the Southwest Territory, Knoxville's only National Historic Landmark, where the people he enslaved are named.
• Cades Cove — 22 mi
  A Smokies valley ringed by mountains, once the Cherokee hunting ground of Tsiyahi and later a farming community of 685 people, kept by the park after its families were bought out.

More markers nearby

• John Porter McCown — 0.3 mi
• Isaac Dockery — 0.3 mi
• New Salem Baptist Church — 0.8 mi
• Lewis C. Buckner — 1.4 mi