Text From Interpretive Sign At Laurel Hill: Native American Site
“The archaeological investigation of the Laurel Hill property by the College of William and Mary’s Center for Archaeological Research in 1993 revealed the presence of Native American activity on this crest during the Archaic and Woodland Periods (circa 12000 BC to 900 A.D.). This site appears from the recovered artifacts to have been occupied and reoccupied by Paleo-Indian and Archaic Native American groups exploiting the resource rich Ararat River Valley to the north. The Paleo-Indian peoples may have used the site on the high ground above a water source, the Ararat River, as a hunting campground. The Archaic peoples were hunter-gatherers, and the majority of artifacts found are from this period.”
Thus, this prehistoric site appears to have been the site of intermittent Native American activity spanning some 13000 years, ending with the Woodland period ending circa 900 A.D. No evidence of occupation existed in the Late Woodland period circa 900 to 1600 A.D.
The Native American site extends approximately 300 feet north and south and approximately 60 feet east to west of this point. The site was defined by the recovery of prehistoric lithic tools and projectile points through controlled surface collection methods. Photographs of the recovered artifacts are shown.”
J.E. B. Stuart complained in his early days in the United States Army while in Texas that he never saw an Indian, a Native American, an Indigenous person, or whatever label you might want to use to describe those people who were here before the British arrived in Virginia. He never saw one at his birthplace in Ararat, Patrick County, Virginia. Still, they were there long before his family came to the banks of the Ararat River, and that body of water brought them to the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Archaeology by the College of William and Mary revealed the presence of Native Americans along the Ararat River, which flows into the Yadkin River in North Carolina, well known for its many native sites. “The Yadkin River area in North Carolina was home to Native American settlements from the Archaic period through the Woodland period, with evidence suggesting the area was inhabited by Siouan-speaking tribes like the Saura and Tutelo and possibly related to the Saponi tribe.”
This story begins long before the first European people came to the region. Evidence of peoples from Asia, we call Native Americans or Indians, crossed the Bering Strait between Siberia and Alaska over 20,000 years ago when the oceans were several hundred feet lower than today. Archaeology at Laurel Hill stretches back to 12,000 B. C. in the Paleo-Indian era. These were the first of many interesting people to live on this land along the Ararat River. They lived in small groups within caves or in the open while gathering plants and hunting. Archaeological surveys conducted by the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, found evidence from the Archaic era circa 8,000 B.C. to 500 B.C. People from this time lived in primitive shelters while hunting, gathering, and fishing.
Inhabitants from the Woodland era, 500 B. C. to 1600 A. D. spoke a variation of the Siouan language. The Tutelo people lived to the north in places such as present-day Salem, Virginia. The Sauras lived to the east along the Dan River. The Catawba lived to the south, and the Cherokee and Shawnee to the west. These were conservative family groups in which the women owned property and passed it on to their daughters. Men married into the women’s families. These peoples did not follow boundaries like the state line near Laurel Hill but the region’s rivers. They survived farming the three sisters: corn, beans, and squash while living in villages, trading local soapstone for copper and pottery. Other crops these people grew included gourds, sunflowers, peaches, watermelon, and a green leafy tobacco plant. Most of these people died due to disease or left the area before anyone settled at Laurel Hill. Signs of these people are still with us. Highway 220 between Roanoke and Greensboro was the Tutelo-Saura Path and later the Great Wagon or Carolina Road. Local tradition has it these native peoples used a trail along the Ararat River for travel and lived nearby in a village.
One North Carolina historical website states the following under the heading, “Native Americans on the banks of the Yadkin. The first humans arrived in this region at least 12,000 years ago. They largely followed the big game and were drawn to the Shallow Ford in search of those animals. Over millennia, they developed extensive trail networks through the region.
About 3000 years ago, during the Archaic Period, humans in this area changed from highly mobile hunter-gatherer lifeways to living in semi-permanent villages. They also developed innovations such as pottery and horticulture. Around 800, gardening began to be prioritized, especially with the introduction of maize. Larger, more permanent villages started to grow along the banks of the Yadkin River. By the year 1000, the beginning of the Late Woodland Period, large villages like the Donnaha Site developed every three to seven miles along the Yadkin River. Smaller settlements, such as the McPherson Site, lay in between. The Yadkin’s banks were at one time home to the largest population of Native Americans in North Carolina.
Around 1450, the indigenous inhabitants began moving elsewhere due to depletion of the soil, lower game populations, and possibly warfare. It is believed that the population shifted northeastward to the Dan River. Archaeologists link the Yadkin River population with the Saura Indians who inhabited the area from the Sauratown Mountains to an area near modern-day Eden, North Carolina. The Saura moved to South Carolina around 1715, where they became known as the Cheraw. Their descendants survive today as part of the Catawba Nation.”
Thirty years ago, I began to see Laurel Hill as more than just the birthplace of James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart. I saw it as an outside classroom where our nation’s history could be studied by a leisurely walk along the banks of the Ararat River from prehistoric times to the modern days we live in today. These are Laurel Hill’s Many Histories.
