The Marksville Site

Marksville gave its name to a whole culture. It is the type site for Louisiana's Marksville culture, the first of its kind scientifically excavated, and was named a National Historic Landmark on July 19, 1964. Potters here added grog, crushed pottery, to the clay and incised curved geometric designs, sometimes with birds, that echo ceremonial ware in Ohio, Michigan and Illinois. The one burial mound dug held 36 people and two dogs, with few grave goods. Local legend that de Soto came this way is not supported by the expedition's route.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tunica-Biloxi Museum — 0.2 mi
  The Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana's own museum at Marksville, built around the Tunica Treasure that the tribe won back in court.
• Avoyelles Parish Courthouse: Solomon Northup Marker — 0.9 mi
  The Marksville courthouse where Solomon Northup was freed in January 1853, with a marker and a 2026 bronze that shows him rising from the mud.
• Epps House: Solomon Northup's Gateway to Freedom — 21 mi
  The Creole cottage Solomon Northup helped build for the man who enslaved him, moved twice and now a small museum on the LSU Alexandria campus.
• Arna Bontemps African American Museum — 26 mi
  The restored Alexandria house where the Harlem Renaissance writer Arna Bontemps was born in 1902, on the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail.

More markers nearby

• Tunica-Biloxi Indian Reservation — 0.3 mi
• Presentation Academy — 0.6 mi
• Holy Ghost Catholic Church — 0.7 mi
• Holy Ghost Catholic School — 0.7 mi