C.H. Nash Museum at Chucalissa
Memphis, Tennessee, United States
A Mississippian-era town site with platform mounds on the outskirts of Memphis, discovered by Depression-era work crews in 1939 and run today by the University of Memphis as a museum and research site where a reconstructed village portrays the community around 1400 CE.
Chucalissa is a Mississippian-period archaeological site whose ceremonial and burial mounds were built between about 1000 and 1400 CE, arranged around a central plaza dominated by a large platform mound (Tennessee Encyclopedia). Recent research indicates people occupied the area over roughly three thousand years, from late Archaic and Woodland use through the Mississippian town. The site's modern history is unusually visible: Civilian Conservation Corps workers developing T.O. Fuller State Park discovered the mounds in 1939, a Works Progress Administration team led by George Lidberg excavated in 1940 before funding was cut, and the Memphis Archaeological and Geological Society resumed work in the 1950s before 187 acres passed to the University of Memphis in 1962. The site is a National Historic Landmark.
The name is a Choctaw word meaning "abandoned house," given because the town was abandoned after some five centuries of occupation (the C.H. Nash Museum's own account). Today the C.H. Nash Museum interprets the site with a reconstructed house, archaeology-oriented exhibits and the mounds themselves, and it works to connect the site with Native communities whose ancestors lived in the region. Chucalissa sits inside the larger T.O. Fuller State Park, so a visit can pair the mounds with the park's forest trails. The museum is careful to describe the village as a real community rather than a relic, which is the right frame for this entry too.
Visiting
The site is operated by the University of Memphis. The museum is open Tuesday to Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with last admission at 4:00 p.m.; it closes Sundays, Mondays and university holidays. Admission is $6 for adults 12 to 59, $4 for ages 4 to 11 and seniors, free under 4, and free for University of Memphis students, faculty and staff. A Family Day with a program and guided tour runs every Saturday with no reservation needed. The museum asks GPS users to navigate to T.O. Fuller State Park and follow signs rather than the street address. Contact: 901-678-5381, chucalissa@memphis.edu.
Photo: Thomas R Machnitzki, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons ([source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chucalissa_Memphis_TN_1.jpg))
Associated traditions & practices
Visitor stories