This important prehistoric town site is an annex of Ocmulgee National Monument located in the river floodplain about 2-1/2 miles South of the Monument's main unit.  The site was named for an early land owner and, in turn, lends its name to a distinctive Late Mississippian Period culture that was first recognized here. The Lamar Culture blanketed Georgia and portions of five neighboring states from about 1300 AD until at least 1650 AD.

The material culture of the people associated with the Lamar site included a pottery that incorporated decorative elements of both the ancient Southeastern complicated stamping tradition and later traits such as incised designs on the shoulders of "cazuela" bowl  forms. Aside from its unique ceramics, the culture is characterized by numerous compact towns, paired mounds separated by open courts, along with certain artifacts which are diagnostic of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex which reached its zenith around A.D. 1250.        

The Lamar Site was a fortified town near the river.  It was surrounded by  swamps and agricultural fields scattered throughout the floodplain. Here the people built two mounds for their temples, facing each other across a central plaza. Unique in all  of America is Lamar's spiral mound. The ramp to its summit  circles  counterclockwise in four complete traverses around the mound. Within the stockade of upright logs surrounding the town, rectangular houses were grouped about the mounds and nearby  court. Their construction consisted of a framework of light poles interlaced with cane which was plastered with clay and roofed with some variety  of grass thatch, sometimes covered with sod. Some of them, possibly those of the headmen or rulers, were raised on low  earthen platforms. Lamar cultural life continued in an uninterrupted fashion until the arrival of Spaniard Hernando DeSoto's expedition into the interior of the Southeast in 1540. This exposure to foreigners left a legacy of depopulation among native inhabitants. It is believed that epidemic diseases introduced by  the Europeans decimated as much as three-fourths of the original Lamar population. The survivors of this catastrophe and their descendants banded together to form the groups that historically were known to the early English settlers as the Muscogee Creeks.

Presently  the Lamar site is undeveloped and closed to the general public. This is both for the  protection of the site and the average visitor. The site lies within the floodplain river swamp and is annually flooded by the river during the rains of late winter and early spring. This condition leaves the area strewn with the debris caused  by flotsam deposited by  the receding floodwaters . Annual floods also increase soil fertility and the area is thus subject to a dense tangle of undergrowth on the floor of the forest. Low areas with standing pools of water provide many breeding places for the numerous mosquitoes and other insects that call the swamp their home.        

However, if a visitor wishes to further  investigate Lamar, personnel at the Ocmulgee National Monument's main unit will issue a special permit, similar to a back-country pass, to allow them access to the site. Due to the undeveloped conditions there, the visitor should be prepared for a round-trip hike of about two miles from the parking area to the site and back. Also to be considered are the additional hazards of water, mud, insects, snakes and thick vegetation.        

Many other Lamar Culture sites have been developed into various parks, monuments, and museums. These sites have easy public access and often contain excellent interpretive material on the particular site and the Lamar culture. Such sites include:  Fort Watson-Santee Mound, Summerton, SC, Town Creek Mound, Mount Gilead, NC, Etowah Mounds, Cartersville, GA, Lake Jackson Mounds, Tallahassee, FL, Mound State Monument, Moundville, AL.

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