Archaeological Sites Across the U.S. to Stir Your Sense of Mystery

People love the mysterious; it’s what pulls us to certain people, or what drives us to go check out the creepy noise in the basement. (Although maybe we don’t like mystery so much when it comes to trying to find a place to raise a family, or the best places to retire. But other than that.) In terms of travel, people love to explore sites that evoke a strong sense of mystery or the mystical, like Stonehenge in England or Newgrange in Ireland. But many do not tend to think of America as having sites that stir our imaginations—which is simply untrue. Here’s a list of some of the most mysterious sites to visit across the United States.

photo not mine

Poverty Point, Louisiana

Dating back to before the city of Troy ever fell, Poverty Point was the result of a culture nearly forgotten by history. It is an engineering marvel: Over the course of 600 years (from about 1650 to 700 BCE), the people of the Poverty Point culture built up enormous earthworks in the shape of mounds and concentric rings, which take up more than 900 acres of land. It took more than five million hours of labor to build overall—but the purpose of the site as well as why it was abandoned is entirely a mystery.

The Blythe Intaglios, California

Found near Blythe, California in the Colorado Desert, the intaglios are America’s equivalent of the Nazca Lines. These consist mostly of enormous human shapes, which were carved into the desert by scraping away layers of dark rocks and pebbles to reveal the lighter soil underneath around 3,000 years ago. The largest human figure is 171 feet long, and there are several dozens of them in all. As to their purpose, it is suspected they were ceremonial in nature—but no one knows for sure, especially because they do not know who made them in the first place.

Roanoke Colony, Virginia

Bringing things forward about 2,500 years, the Roanoke Colony is one of America’s greatest mysteries, along with the location of Jimmy Hoffa’s remains and the fate of Amelia Earhart. 115 colonists were sent to North America to establish an English colony in 1587. The governor of the colony, John White, left later in the same year to plead for help from the government, and when he returned in 1590 with supplies, not a single person could be found. There were no signs of a struggle and all of the houses and fortifications had been dismantled—indicating they had not disappeared in a hurry. The only message left behind was the word “CROATOAN” carved into a fencepost. To this day, there is no conclusive evidence as to what happened to the colonists. The archaeological site is found in Fort Raleigh National Historic Site.

Casa Grande Ruins, Arizona

Casa Grande is one of the largest prehistoric structures ever built in North America. Constructed by the Sonoran people, it’s a four-story adobe building that’s part of a 470-acre compound built some 700 years ago. The Sonorans had extensive trade networks and irrigation canals, but left behind no written record—so currently no one knows what Casa Grande was used for.

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1 comment:

Annemarie LeBlanc3:21 AM
You definitely stirred up my need to go on an adventure trip with my family! These places are definitely full of mystery and I would love to visit them!
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