Lake Jackson Mounds Archaeological State Park
| Lake Jackson Mounds Archaeological State Park | |
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IUCN category V (protected landscape/seascape)
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Mound 2, the largest earthwork at the site
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| Location | Leon County, Florida, USA |
| Nearest city | Tallahassee, Florida |
| Coordinates | 30°30′00″N 84°18′49″W / 30.50000°N 84.31361°WCoordinates: 30°30′00″N 84°18′49″W / 30.50000°N 84.31361°W |
| Established | May 6, 1971 |
| Governing body | Florida Department of Environmental Protection |
Lake Jackson Mounds Archaeological State Park (8LE1) is one of the most important archaeological sites in Florida, the capital of chiefdom and ceremonial center of the Fort Walton Culture inhabited from 1050–1500. The complex originally included seven earthwork mounds, a public plaza and numerous individual village residences.
One of several major mound sites in the Florida Panhandle, the park is located in northern Tallahassee, on the south shore of Lake Jackson. The complex has been managed as a Florida State Park since 1966. On May 6, 1971, the site was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places as reference number 71000241.
The site was built and occupied between 1000 and 1500 by people of the Fort Walton culture, the southernmost expression of the Mississippian culture. The scale of the site and the number and size of the mounds indicate that this was the site of a regional chiefdom, and was thus a political and religious center. After the abandonment of the Lake Jackson site the chiefdom seat was moved to Anhaica (rediscovered in 1987 by B. Calvin Jones and located within DeSoto Site Historic State Park), where in 1539 it was visited by the Hernando de Soto entrada, who knew the residents as the historic Muskogean-speaking Apalachee people. Other related Fort Walton sites are located at Velda Mound (also a park), Cayson Mound and Village Site and Yon Mound and Village Site.
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