Coca Cola and Poverty Point

So what else is there to do in Vicksburg? The Biedenharn Coca-Cola museum. Mr. Biedenharn operated a confectionery in downtown Vicksburg that also had a soda fountain. At the time Coca Cola was only available as a syrup to be mixed with carbonated water. He was so successful selling it in the city that he tried to figure out how he could sell the beverage out in the country.  So, he came up with the idea of bottling mixed Coke.  He received the okay from Coke and set up a bottling facility, thus becoming the first Coca Cola bottler in the country. The original building is now a museum with great displays and some of the original equipment.

Very interesting and a Coke float to end it.

Today we drove about 50 miles west and north to Poverty Point state historic site, National monument and World Heritage Site as awarded by UNESCO. The site is an Indian Mound complex from Indians dated at 3,400 years ago. The amazing thing is that they were hunter-gatherers not farmers.  The site has numerous mounds where these people built homes for their upper class and for religious ceremonies. The complex is 37 acres and includes large open areas and concentric ridges where most of the people built their homes. The population was between 2,500 and 3,000 and remained occupied and active for over 1,000 years. 

Not much to photograph but a really important archaeological discovery. Hard to imagine that this was 1,600 years before Columbus. Contemporary civilizations were building Stonehenge and Nefertiti and was building pyramids. 

 Heading to Little Rock tomorrow.