NPS Archeology Program: The Earliest Americans

The Southeast today is the product of many decades of farming, forestry, and waterways management. But when the first people came, it was a different world.

“The landscape looked a whole lot different,” says National Park Service archeologist David Anderson. “The mountains and plains were there,” he says, “but the rivers didn’t have 150 years of engineering as they do today.”


			The Southeast today is the product of many decades of farming, forestry, and waterways management. But when the first people came, it was a different world. Trees left untouched for their lifespans stretched to enormous heights, with trunks perhaps several feet across. As the climate warmed, deciduous varieties spread over the hills, mountains, and plateaus. Because much of the world’s water was still locked up in glacial ice, the coast extended for miles into what is now the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, a broad savannah dotted with streams and sinkholes. next >> “The landscape looked a whole lot different,” says National Park Service archeologist David Anderson. “The mountains and plains were there,” he says, “but the rivers didn’t have 150 years of engineering as they do today.” Swollen with meltwater, the Mississippi overflowed for miles, with swamps and wetlands a haven for migratory waterfowl and other animals, including now-extinct species. << back