LSU Indian Mounds

Two ancient Native American mounds on the LSU campus, believed to be over 5,000 years old and among the oldest man-made structures in the Americas. These sacred ceremonial sites predate the Egyptian pyramids.

The LSU Campus Mounds are the oldest known man-made structures in the Americas, with construction beginning approximately eleven thousand years ago, predating the Great Pyramids of Egypt by thousands of years. The two grass-covered earthen mounds, each rising nearly twenty feet tall, stand on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River floodplain on the campus of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Research led by LSU Professor Emeritus Brooks Ellwood using radiocarbon dating revealed a complex building history spanning millennia. Construction of the southern mound, known as Mound B, began around 11,000 years ago before being abandoned roughly 8,200 years ago during a major climate event when temperatures dropped approximately thirty-five degrees for about 160 years. Indigenous people then began constructing the northern mound, Mound A, around 7,500 years ago using mud carried from the floodplain, and both mounds reached their current height by approximately 6,000 years ago.

Sediment cores taken from the mounds revealed layers of ash from burned reed and cane plants along with thousands of microscopic charred mammal bone fragments, suggesting the sites served ceremonial rather than domestic purposes. The fires would have been far too hot for cooking, pointing instead to ritual significance. The mounds' crests align about 8.5 degrees east of true north, matching the position where the red giant star Arcturus would have risen in the night sky approximately six thousand years ago, suggesting the builders possessed sophisticated astronomical knowledge. The mounds were recognized as something special when LSU relocated to its current campus in the 1920s, and the university now serves as steward of these irreplaceable cultural treasures.

The paranormal activity reported at the mounds is different in character from the ghost stories associated with other LSU buildings. Rather than specific apparitions or dramatic encounters, visitors describe what many interpret as a spiritual or supernatural energy emanating from the ancient sites. Students report hearing the sound of drums around the mounds at night, particularly during quiet hours when the campus is still. Shadowy figures have been seen moving near the mounds in the darkness, though they dissipate when approached. Visitors report feeling an inexplicable presence or experiencing a heightened sense of spirituality when standing on or near the sacred grounds, a sensation that goes beyond simple atmosphere and enters the realm of the uncanny.

Some believe the spirits of the Native American people who built and used these ceremonial sites over thousands of years remain as guardians of the land. The mounds exist as a bridge between the ancient world and the present, a place where eleven millennia of human connection to this particular point on earth have left an impression that visitors can still feel. The LSU Indian Mounds are part of the broader reputation that makes Louisiana State University one of the most haunted college campuses in America, alongside Pleasant Hall with its Room 312 tragedy, Evangeline Hall's ghostly residents, and the Confederate soldiers said to walk Highland Road at night.