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Toltec MoundsArcheologicalState Park

Children’s Guide toThe Knapp Trail

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Arkansas Department of Parks and TourismState Parks Division

1 Capitol MallLittle Rock, AR 72201

501-682-1191www.ArkansasStateParks.com

Revised, 2009

ARCHEOLOGICAL STATE PARK

TOLTECMOUNDS

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You are about to go on a very special tour of a 1,200-year-old NativeAmerican site. The Knapp trail is almost a mile long and will take youabout 45 minutes to walk. A map of the trail is located in the center ofthis booklet.

In order to preserve scenic beauty, it is important that you stay on thetrail and do not disturb any of the plants, animals or the site. There-fore, do not dig on the site or climb any of the mounds. This is not onlyfor the protection of the site but for your safety as well. Have fun onyour tour!

Welcome to Toltec MoundsArcheological State Park!

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Marker 1The land you are standing on is a ceremonial center where NativeAmerican people lived, worked, and played long ago. The peoplethat lived here have been named the Plum Bayou Culture by arche-ologists. Many of the tools, weapons and pottery that they usedhave been found on this site. These objects are called artifacts.Archeologists spend manyhours excavating or diggingfor artifacts to gain informa-tion about the people whomade them.

Cataloging

Excavating

Artifact and pot sherd

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The Plum Bayou people built 18 mounds but today you canonly see three of the taller mounds easily. We call them MoundA, B, and C. Farming over the past 150 years has cut downthe smaller mounds. We put red signs on the mounds so thatyou can see where they were.

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Soil Layers

Marker 2The Plum Bayou people dug a ditch and piled soil to form anearthen embankment around the site on three sides (see themap on page 5). Archeologists think the embankment andditch was a boundary marker. Native Americans who walkedthrough the forest and came upon this clearing in the woodssaw the ditch and embankment first. It separated this cer-emonial center where the leaders lived from the outside areaswere the common people lived.

The embankment, like the mounds, was made of soil. That’swhy we call them earthworks. The people who lived here builtthe mounds by piling thousands of basketloads full of soil onthe ground. Archeologists sometimes can see where eachbasketload was placed as they excavate because the basketswere filled with soils of different colors.

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Marker 3Most of the moundsat the site were low,had flat tops andwere used in a vari-ety of ways. Themounds you findhere are built arounda flat rectangulararea called theplaza. The plaza mayhave been used fordances, festivals, feasts or ceremonies.

A Native American game called “Chunkey” was played by many tribesthroughout the southwest and could have been played by several peoplein the plaza here at Toltec. Two men played against each other—some-times representing two clans within a tribe. One person rolled a roundstone called a chunkey stone and both men ran after it with long stickscalled chung-kes. The men had to throw their sticks as close as pos-sible to the stone before it stopped rolling to win the game. Imagine atribal leader standing on top of one of the mounds leading a ceremonyto a crowd of people gathered in the plaza. Music, dancing, chanting,games, eating and socializing were a few of the things that could havebeen happening where you are standing now.

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Mound

Pond

Boardwalk

Plaza

KNAPP TRAIL

0.8 milesPlaza

Superintendent’sResidence

Embankment

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B

C

D

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F

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H

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J

KL

M

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Plaza

Plum

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ou T

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Toltec MoundsArcheological

State Park

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DestroyedEarthworks

Earthworks

VisitorCenter

MaintenanceArea

TRAILHEAD

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North Little Rock 16 mi.

England 9 mi.

U.S. Hwy. 165

Ark.

Hwy

. 386

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Behind you is the location of Mound S. This was a low platform moundthat was excavated several years ago. A large amount of animal bone,mostly deer, was found. In fact, there was more food butchered on thismound than was needed by the few people living here any one time.This discovery leads archeologists to believe that Mound S was a loca-tion for ceremonies that included feasts.

From excavations we know that the people here fished and collectedturtles and other aquatic life from Mound Lake. In addition to huntingand fishing, the Plum Bayou people gathered greens, squash, gourds,nuts and berries. Maize (corn) is rare and was not commonly eaten atthis site. They also made pottery or clay bowls that were used to holdand store food.

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Marker 4The water you see in front of you is called Mound Lake. It is an oxbowlake. This waterway is a U-shaped lake that was formed when a chan-nel from the Arkansas River was running through here several thousandyears ago. Over time, rivers and their channels meander (move) andlakes are formed.

Waterways such as the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers were an impor-tant part of life for Native Americans at this site. They used dugoutcanoes, such as the one in the visitor center and similar to the one onthe observation deck, to travel the waters to trade goods with othertribes. We know that the Native Americans who lived here may havehad contact with people along the Mississippi River because we foundfragments of a conch shell that would have come from the Gulf ofMexico (South) and copper which would have come from the GreatLakes area (North). The Plum Bayou people would have arrived at thissite for their gatherings by way of dugout canoes. Imagine standingon Mound A and watching canoes make their way here for an approachingceremony.

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Marker 5Mound B, on your left stands 39 feet tall and is called aplatform mound because it is flat on top. The shape andlocation (the North end of the plaza) suggest that ceremo-nies would have been held on top of this mound. Archeologistspartially excavated this mound in 1979 and found trash calledmidden in several layers of the mound. This trash tells arche-ologists that this mound probably had a house on top wherea leader might have lived.

Platform Mound

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Marker 6The Plum Bayou people at Toltec built the mounds in special places.Mound H was used as a place for observation or for looking at othermounds. On the first day of summer you can stand on Mound H and seethe sun set behind Mound B. On the first day of fall and on the first dayof spring the sun will set behind Mound A. In the winter, the sun willset behind Mound S. So, by standing on Mound H, the Native Ameri-cans here could tell what season it was by looking where the sun set.This “natural calendar” was important to the Plum Bayou people andwas possibly used to mark the time to have the gatherings and ceremo-nies that took place here. It would also be useful in telling them whento plant and harvest their crops.

Every year Toltec Mounds Archeological State Park encourages visitorsto experience the Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice and Fall Equinox onMound H the way the Plum Bayou culture did over 1,200 years ago.

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We hope that the tour through this piece of your Arkansas history wasfun! If you have any questions please ask park staff at the visitorcenter or call (501) 961-9442. Toltec Activity Books for children aresold in the visitor center. Also inquire about other educational activi-ties for children offered at Toltec including Exhibit Explorer, Site Explorerand Junior Naturalist. Special programs for groups are available uponrequest.

Contact the park for reservations or additional information.Toltec Mounds Archeological State Park490 Toltec Mounds RoadScott, AR 72142toltecmounds@arkansas.comwww.ArkansasStateParks.com

Notice: To preserve scenic beauty and the ecology, fences and warningsigns have not been installed in some park locations. Caution andsupervision of your children are required while visiting these areas.

Park Hours:Open: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Tuesday–Saturday);

1–5 p.m. (Sunday)

Closed: Monday, except Monday holidays; New Year’s Day, ThanksgivingDay, Christmas Eve through Christmas Day

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16ARCHEOLOGICAL STATE PARK

TOLTECMOUNDS