Misplaced Pages

Towosahgy State Historic Site
(23 MI 2)

Towosahgy Site main platform mound
Location in Missouri todayShow map of MissouriTowosahgy State Historic Site (the United States)Show map of the United States
Alternative name	Beckwith's Fort Archeological Site
Location	Mississippi County, Missouri, United States
Region	Missouri Bootheel
Coordinates	36°41′36″N 89°14′08″W / 36.69333°N 89.23556°W / 36.69333; -89.23556
History
Cultures	Mississippian culture
Architecture
Architectural styles	platform mound
Architectural details	Number of monuments: 4
Beckwith's Fort Archeological Site
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Area	116 acres (47 ha)
NRHP reference No.	69000113
Added to NRHP	July 29, 1969

Towosahgy State Historic Site (23MI2), also known as Beckwith's Fort Archeological Site, is a large Mississippian archaeological site with a Woodland period Baytown culture component located in Mississippi County, Missouri, United States. It is believed to have been inhabited from c. 400–1350 CE. The site is maintained by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources as a state historic site. The name Towosahgy is an Osage word which means "old town". It is not known if members of the historic Osage people, who dominated a large area of present-day Missouri at the beginning of the 19th century, ever occupied the site. The site was acquired by the Missouri state park system in 1967 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1969 as NRIS number 69000113.

History of Towosahgy

The earliest portion of Towosahgy State Historic Site is in the southern half, where a Late Woodland period village once stood. Wilkie dates this component to about 400 to 700 CE.

Later the site was fortified and built up as a Mississippian village with seven platform mounds, most surrounding a central plaza area. During this time, the site was surrounded by a palisade wall of vertical logs and a moat. Like other Mississippian mound centers, Towosahgy also had a borrow pit from which earth was removed to create the mounds. The largest remaining mound in the complex is Mound 2, also known as the "temple mound". Excavations on this part of the site were conducted in 1989 by James Price. The site was abandoned during the late 14th century for unknown reasons, as were many similar Mississippian sites in the region.

Ceramics from the site represent typical pottery found in the Missouri Bootheel region. Sherds from the Woodland occupation are typically grog tempered. The later Mississippian culture pottery is shell tempered. Type varieties identified include Baytown Plain and Mulberry Creek Cordmarked. Mississippian ceramics were also both plain and decorated. Punctuated, incised, fabric impressed, and red, black, and brown painted/slipped sherds, typical decorating methods, are all present. A large collection of ceramic vessels from the site are part of the Beckwith Collection displayed at the Rosemary Berkel and Harry L. Crisp II Museum at Southeast Missouri State University.

See also

• Kincaid Mounds
• Ware Mounds
• Wickliffe Mounds

References

1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
2. "Towosahgy State Historic Site: Data Sheet" (PDF). Missouri Department of Natural Resources. November 2017. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
3. "Towosahgy State Park". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
4. ^ "State Park Land Acquisition Summary". Missouri State Parks. August 25, 2011. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
5. "Missouri State Park Attendance For January - December, 2022" (PDF). Missouri State Parks. February 3, 2023.
6. ^ Duncan Wilkie (1988). Field Work at Towosahgy State Historic Site. Cape Girardeau, Mo.: The Center for Regional History and Cultural Heritage, Southeast Missouri State University. OCLC 68738164.
7. "Towosahgy State Historic Site". Missouri Department of Natural Resources. December 10, 2010. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
8. Missouri Archaeology Society (n.d.). "Towosahgy Site 23MI2". Missouri Archaeology Society. Retrieved January 1, 2017. (includes 7 photographs)
9. John W. Cottier and Michael D. Southard (1977). An Introduction to the Archaeology of Towosahgy State Archaeological Site. Missouri Archaeologist. pp. 230–268.
10. ^ James E. Price; Cynthia R. Price (1990). Archaeological Investigations in Three Areas of the Towosahgy State Historic Site, 23MI2, Mississippi County, Missouri, 1989. Columbia, Mo.: University of Missouri. OCLC 68738170.

External links

• Towosahgy State Historic Site Missouri Department of Natural Resources
• Towosahgy State Historic Site Map Missouri Department of Natural Resources
• Beckwith Collection. Rosemary Berkel and Harry L. Crisp II Museum, Southeast Missouri State University
• The Wilkie Collection, Southeast Missouri State University Special Collections and Archive

v t e Mississippian and related cultures
List of Mississippian sites Timeline of Mississippi valley
Middle Mississippian	American Bottom and Upper Mississippi Aztalan Big Eddy Cahokia Monks Mound Mound 34 Mound 72 Ramey state Woodhenge Cloverdale Dickson Mounds Emerald Acropolis Emmons Cemetery Horseshoe Lake John Chapman Kuhn Station Larson Lunsford-Pulcher McCune Mitchell Orendorf Sleeth Starr Steed-Kisker culture Sugarloaf Mound Lower Ohio River and Confluence area Adams site Dogtooth Bend Mounds Kincaid Mounds Marshall Site Millstone Bluff Orr-Herl Rowlandton Mound Towosahgy Turk Site Twin Mounds Ware Mounds Wickliffe Mounds Middle Ohio River Angel Mounds Angel phase Annis Mound Bone Bank Caborn-Welborn culture Ellerbusch Hovey Lake-Klein Hovey Lake District Murphy Prather Slack Farm Tolu Welborn Village Yankeetown Tennessee and Cumberland Backusburg Beasley Mounds Brentwood Library Brick Church Castalian Springs Dunbar Cave Fewkes Group Hiwassee Island Link Farm Mound Bottom Riverview Sellars Obion Old Town Swallow Bluff Central and Lower Mississippi Belle Meade Boone's Boyd Campbell Carson Chucalissa Denmark Eaker Janet's Menard-Hodges Murphy Nodena Nodena phase Owl Creek Parkin Quigualtam Tipton phase Tunica Koroa Yazoo Walls phase
South Appalachian Mississippian	Adamson Avery Beaverdam Creek Bell Field Mound Bessemer Biltmore Blair Bussell Island Chauga Chiaha Chota Citico Coosa Dallas phase Dyar Etowah Garden Creek Hoojah Branch Irene Jere Shine Joara Joe Bell King Lamar Lamar phase Liddell Little Egypt Long Swamp Mabila Mandeville McMahan Moccasin Bend Moundville Mouse Creek phase Mulberry Muscogee (Creek) Nacoochee Nikwasi Ocmulgee Park Mound Pisgah phase Punk Rock Shelter Rembert Roods Landing Rucker's Bottom Savannah Shiloh Sixtoe Summerour Taskigi Tomotley Toqua Town Creek Waddells Mill Pond Wilbanks
Fort Walton culture	Anhaica Apalachee Apalachee Province Cayson Corbin–Tucker Fort Walton Mound Lake Jackson Leon-Jefferson culture Letchworth Velda Yon
Pensacola culture	Bottle Creek Dauphin Island Fort Walton Hickory Ridge Cemetery Naval Live Oaks Cemetery Pensacola people
Plaquemine Mississippian	Anna Atchafalaya Basin Emerald Fitzhugh Flowery Fosters Ghost Glass Grand Village of the Natchez Holly Bluff Jaketown Jordan Julice Mangum Mazique Medora Mott Natchez Taensa Pocahontas Routh Scott Place Sims Transylvania Venable Winterville
Caddoan Mississippian	Battle Belcher Blue Spring Shelter Bluffton Caddo Caddoan Mounds Gahagan Hughes Ka-Do-Ha Indian Village Keller Spiro
Upper Mississippian cultures	Oneota Anker Beattie Park Blood Run Carcajou Point Fifield Fisher Mound Group Gentleman Farm Grand Village of the Illinois Griesmer Hartley Fort Hotel Plaza Hoxie Farm Huber Juntunen Knoll Spring Mero site Moccasin Bluff Oak Forest Palos Plum Island Roche-a-Cri Petroglyphs Schwerdt Summer Island Fort Ancient culture Alligator Effigy Mound Clover Dodge Leo Petroglyph Serpent Mound SunWatch Indian Village
Culture	Agriculture Beans Chenopodium Little barley Maize Marshelder Pumpkin Squash Sunflower Three Sisters Tobacco Artwork Emmons mask Copper plates Rogan plates Spiro plates Wulfing cache Duck River cache Long-nosed god maskette Mill Creek chert Pottery Shell gorget Stone statuary Languages Caddoan Central Algonquian Cherokee Mobilian Jargon Muskogean Natchez Taensa Siouan Timucuan Tunican Yuchi Religion Ballgame (Southeastern) Northern Black drink Burial mound Ceremonial pipe Chanunpa Chunkey Earth/fertility cult Green Corn Ceremony Horned Serpent Platform mound Red Horn Sacred bundle Village bundle Southeastern Ceremonial Complex Stone box grave Thunderbird Underwater panther
Related topics Chevron bead Clarksdale bell Mound Builders de Soto Expedition

v t e U.S. National Register of Historic Places in Missouri
Lists by county	Adair Andrew Atchison Audrain Barry Barton Bates Benton Bollinger Boone Buchanan Butler Caldwell Callaway Camden Cape Girardeau Carroll Carter Cass Cedar Chariton Christian Clark Clay Clinton Cole Cooper Crawford Dade Dallas Daviess DeKalb Dent Douglas Dunklin Franklin Gasconade Gentry Greene Grundy Harrison Henry Hickory Holt Howard Howell Iron Jackson: Downtown Kansas City Jackson: Kansas City other Jackson: Other Jasper Jefferson Johnson Knox Laclede Lafayette Lawrence Lewis Lincoln Linn Livingston Macon Madison Maries Marion McDonald Mercer Miller Mississippi Moniteau Monroe Montgomery Morgan New Madrid Newton Nodaway Oregon Osage Ozark Pemiscot Perry Pettis Phelps Pike Platte Polk Pulaski Putnam Ralls Randolph Ray Reynolds Ripley St. Charles St. Clair St. Francois St. Louis (city): Downtown and Downtown West St. Louis (city): Northwest St. Louis (city): Southwest St. Louis County Ste. Genevieve Saline Schuyler Scotland Scott Shannon Shelby Stoddard Stone Sullivan Taney Texas Vernon Warren Washington Wayne Webster Worth Wright
Other lists	Bridges National Historic Landmarks
Keeper of the Register History of the National Register of Historic Places Property types Historic district Contributing property

• Middle Mississippian culture
• Mounds in Missouri
• Native American history of Missouri
• Missouri State Historic Sites
• Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Missouri
• Buildings and structures in Mississippi County, Missouri
• Protected areas established in 1967
• Protected areas of Mississippi County, Missouri
• 1967 establishments in Missouri