Indian Mound

History of Greenwell Springs & Central

HISTORY

An Indian mound which still exists on Greenwell Springs Road gave its name to the community of European settlers who came here in the early 1800’s.  But long before the Europeans came, the Amite and Choctaw tribes lived here. Dr. Jesse Fairchild, life long Greenwell Springs resident, found many relics of this civilization. Farmers along the Amite River regularly plowed up artifacts as they prepared their fields. It would be wonderful to recover some of these artifacts for a museum in Central.

From the Choctaw Nation website, one learns “The Choctaw are native to the Southeastern United States and members of the Muskogean linguistic family, which traces its roots to a mound-building, maize-based society that flourished in the Mississippi River Valley for more than a thousand years before European contact.  Although their first encounter with Europeans ended in a bloody battle with Hernando de Soto’s fortune-hunting expedition in 1540, the Choctaw would come to embrace European traders who arrived in their homeland nearly two centuries later. By the time President George Washington initiated a program to integrate Southeastern Indians into European American culture following the Revolutionary War, many Choctaw had already intermarried, converted to Christianity and adopted other white customs. The Choctaw became known as one of America’s Five Civilized Tribes, which also included the Chickasaw, Cherokee, Creek and Seminole.”  Sadly, despite signing 9 peace treaties with the United States Government, the Choctaw were the first tribe to be forced to relocate from their ancestral land along what is called today “The Trail of Tears”. 2,500 members of the tribe perished along the way. Despite this, the Choctaw are the third largest tribe in the nation today, having overcome much adversity, and even served in World War I as the famous “Code Talkers” who used their native tongue to help defeat the Germans in France.

Mound building, maize based Native American societies were settled communities that flourished in the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from about 800 B.C. to 1500 A.D. They shared several cultural traits, including construction of platform mounds that had houses, temples , or burial buildings built on top of them. This is why disturbing an Indian Mound can be a serious offence to Native Americans. These communities were based on maize agriculture, which allowed them to settle in one place and develop trade routes (in some cases as far as the Rocky Mountains) and art forms such as shell tempered pottery.  They were typically ruled by a chief. They followed the traditions of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC) which included a fairly uniform use of ritual items, weaponry, and artwork.  This culture had no system of writing, no stone architecture, did no smelting, but worked naturally occurring copper to create many beautiful artifacts. They were known for using a striped pole (Baton Rouge!), bi-lobed arrows, maces, copper masks, and pottery.

Greenwell Springs is an unincorporated community in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, United States. The zip code for this area is 70739.

In the 1850s, Robert W. Greenwell purchased land in the area of what is now known as the community of Greenwell Springs. Greenwell began developing the area into a rural resort. The resort was built around 10 medicinal springs. Despite the springs being in close proximity to each other, each spring was said to have very different and distinct mineral properties from the others. It was believed that this indicated the springs each came from different levels beneath the ground.

The resort area became known as the Greenwell Springs Hotel, and was used during the American Civil War as a headquarters and staging area by Confederate General John Breckinridge. Prior to the Battle of Baton Rouge in April 1862, Breckinridge's forces marched west to attack Union forces that had occupied the city. After the battle, Confederate forces retreated back to the Greenwell Springs Hotel and used it as a hospital for wounded troops. Both Union and Confederate troops were buried on the grounds of the hotel in unmarked graves. During the war, Robert W. Greenwell joined the Confederate Army, and served as a Captain. He was the commander of the East Baton Rouge Guards which was then Company F, 3rd Louisiana Cavalry, during the Battle of Port Hudson.

After the war, most of the resort village known as Greenwell Springs, as well as the Greenwell Springs Hotel, was torn down. The lumber from these buildings was used to help rebuild structures in Baton Rouge that had been damaged or destroyed during the war. In 1910, a new Greenwell Springs Hotel was built on the site of the old hotel. A new spring house was built at the same time as the new hotel. A short time after construction was completed, the springs stopped flowing. The loss of the springs was believed to be because the mouths of the springs were opened too wide which resulted in a loss of water pressure. With the absence of the springs, the new hotel soon lost appeal and was closed down. In 1920, the Greenwell Springs Hotel burned down. The State of Louisiana later bought the property to use as a tuberculosis hospital and eventually as a mental hospital known as Greenwell Springs Hospital. It was during this time that the springs began to flow again.

In April 2005, the unincorporated community of Greenwell Springs became part of the territory of the newly formed incorporated city known as Central City.

City of Central is a city in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, United States. The newest city in Louisiana, it is the 12th largest city in the state. It is part of the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population of Central, as it more commonly referred to, was 26,864 as of the 2010 Census.

Despite opposition from the parish government, the citizens of Central voted to incorporate Central as a city in an April 2005 vote. The U.S. Postal Service allows residents to use "Central, LA" with their current zip code.

Former Central Middle School principal Shelton "Mac" Watts became the temporary mayor. Formal elections were held on April 1, 2006, in which voters chose incumbent Watts with 86 percent of the 18,000 votes cast.

In November 2006, the voters of the state passed a constitutional amendment authorizing the creation of the Central Community School District, which allows Central to govern its own public schools.

On January 9, 2007, Governor Kathleen Blanco appointed the interim members of the new Central Community School Board. The board appointed Mike Faulk as the first superintendent. The new school system began operation on July 1, 2007.

Central Speaks Newsletter is a weekly newspaper in Central. The Advocate is the official journal of the city.