The Singer-Moye Mounds

Columbus Museum board of trustees president Ken Callaway, left, watches University of Georgia senior vice president for external affairs Tom Landrum as he signs the agreement document that transfers the Singer-Moye Mounds from the museum to the university Monday afternoon.

Today was a gorgeous day. The skies were a bright blue, the sun was shining, the leaves were brilliant yellow, amber, orange, red and brown.

And I spent the afternoon in rural Stewart County with a bunch of giddy archaeologists.

Stewart County has probably the second largest American Indian mound area in the state.

I guess I've always known that the Columbus Museum had been given the Singer-Moye Mounds. I just always had them confused with the Rood Creek Mounds.

Everyone kept asking me if I'd been there before. I kept saying, yes I had, but that I had been there by boat. You see, a ranger who used to be at the Florence Marina State Park took me and L-E photographer Mike Haskey to Rood Creek.

One person said he didn't think the Singer-Moye Mounds were accessible by boat. I shrugged and said we did.

I didn't realize that these mounds were very unusual because they are not near water.

I finally figured out that there were two sets of mounds in our area. The Rood Creek Mounds are pretty accessible.

These are not. I bet I couldn't find them again.

There are eight of them. Don Gordy, who has spent 40 years of his life preserving these mounds, said he thought there were seven. He discovered the eighth mound about 15 years ago.

The area has been pretty well cleared. But I was very careful where I stepped. After all, I was in the country. And there are snakes in the country, right?

It is beautiful out there.

But I can't see myself digging out there. Garnett Stokes, the dean of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Georgia said it will be a great research lab for archaeology students.

No kidding. I bet 90 percent of the mounds are untouched.

But they have been carbon dated to the 1400s.

It's really pretty cool.

Mac Moye is hoping that it will become a tourist draw. Clason Kyle was joking when he said he sees a Ferris Wheel and a Disney-esque Indian village on the site

I hope not, but I can see busloads of schoolchildren visiting the area.

Of course, as it becomes more and more well known, there's the risk of looters or just hoodlums destroying the site. I hope that doesn't happen either.

On the other hand, it's so gorgeous out there and I wish everyone can see it.