Brown?s Mount is a 189 acre ecological feature that rises steeply above the Ocmulgee River basin just south of the City of Macon, Georgia. It forms the northeast boundary of Bond Swamp National Wildlife Refuge and is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Currently this tract is closed to public access. Questions about Browns Mount should be directed to the Refuge office at 478-986-5441.
History of Brown?s Mount
Brown?s Mount is named for its original owner George A. Brown. However the importance of this site to the region comes from its lengthy history of human occupation.
The site was occupied ca. 950-1000 A.D. Brown?s Mount is a contributing property to the Ocmulgee Old Fields, a well-documented traditional cultural property associated with the Creeks. The Creeks established a number of towns on the Ocmulgee River in the late 17th century. Although these towns were abandoned by 1730s, the area continued to play an important role in Creek culture and trade. The Creeks were pushed from this land by English and American settlers by 1835.
In the early 1800?s Daniel and Nancy Moon Rogers lived here. Their family cemetery is still on the northeastern side of the Mount. In 1840?s Charles Lyell came to research and document the surrounding environments. In 1846, Lyell called Brown?s Mount a place of ?great siliceous casts of fossil shells and corals? that belong to the Eocene Period.? The famous central Georgia poet, Harry Stillwell Edwards built a writing cabin on the Mount in 1918 calling it ?Mt Talemeco?. He is believed to have written the famous poem, ?On the Mount?, from his cabin during the first World War as he listened to the soldiers below at the military training base, Camp Wheeler. His cabin burned down in the 1950?s but its chimney and foundation can still be seen on the top of the Mount.
Browns Mount was bought by Myrtle and Henry Simmons in 1938. Mrs. Simmons farmed the land until her husband died and then she sold the property to the Macon Museum of Arts and Science in 1993 with the understanding that it would be preserved and not commercialized. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources, through the River Care Funding, purchased the property in 2000 and designated it as a Natural Heritage Preserve. Through a management agreement between the State of Georgia and the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service, 165 acres of Browns Mount became part of Bond Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in July 2006.
More information on cultural and historic preservation for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife can be found at http://www.fws.gov/historicpreservation/