Will Macon be home to GA’s first national park? This bipartisan bill would make it happen

The effort to make Macon home to Georgia’s first national park now has bipartisan support in Washington, D.C.

U.S. Reps. Austin Scott (R) and Sanford Bishop (D), alongside Sens. Jon Ossoff (D) and Raphael Warnock (D), introduced bipartisan legislation to establish Georgia’s first National Park, the politicians’ offices announced Wednesday.

The group of lawmakers introduced the bipartisan, bicameral Ocmulgee Mounds Park and Preserve Establishment Act, which would establish Ocmulgee Mounds and surrounding areas in Middle Georgia as a national park and preserve, according to a news release from Rep. Austin Scott’s office.

The area is the ancestral home of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and has been inhabited continuously by humans for over 12,000 years. American Indians first arrived in the area during the Paleo-Indian Period hunting Ice Age mammals.

Around 900 CE, the Mississippian Period began, and Muskogean people constructed mounds for meeting, living, burial, agricultural, and other purposes, many of which remain today and would be encompassed in the new U.S. National Park and Preserve.

Late last year, the U.S. National Park Service released a Special Resource Study that was initiated in response to a bill authored and passed into law.

The new bipartisan bill incorporates information from that study to define the boundaries of the proposed National Park and Preserve. The proposition comes with input from the Muscogee (Creek) Nation; local elected officials; business, faith, agricultural, environmental, and community leaders; Robins Air Force Base; and others.

Scott said the Ocmulgee Mounds are of invaluable cultural, communal, and economic significance to Georgia.

“Designating them as the first National Park and Preserve in Georgia is a great bipartisan and intragovernmental effort, and I thank Rep. Sanford Bishop, Senators Ossoff and Warnock, the Muscogee Creek Nation, and all local stakeholders for their efforts to preserve this remarkable cultural site,” he said in a statement.

Warnock said the Ocmulgee Mounds is a living testament to intertwined histories and a robust source of economic and cultural vitality.

In a Facebook post Monday morning, Mayor Lester Miller said Macon-Bibb has taken a giant leap ahead in its effort to make Ocmulgee the state’s first national park.

“This is the moment we have been talking about for decades and finally everyone has United to make this a reality. This bipartisan effort is what we so desperately need all across America,” the post read. “I am extremely proud of our Georgia delegation and local leaders coming together to make this happen.”

David W. Hill, principal chief of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, said the Muscogee (Creek) Nation has worked closely with Sens. Ossoff and Warnock and Reps. Scott and Bishop to help develop and review the draft Ocmulgee Mounds National Park and Preserve Bill.

“We are in full support of the draft text and proposed boundary of the Ocmulgee Mounds National Park and Preserve unit,” he said. “We are thrilled to see this bill introduced and stand ready to support this legislation every step of the way.”

In February 2017, the Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park Boundary Revision Act was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, officially setting in motion a plan to expand and protect the Ocmulgee Mounds under federal law, according to Telegraph archives.

The designation would put the Ocmulgee Mounds under National Park Service protection.

The full text of the legislation can be found online.