Ocmulgee Mounds closed amid federal government shutdown

Melissa Oppermann and her dog traveled a couple hundred miles to visit the Ocmulgee Mounds, but when she wheeled in at the entrance late Monday morning, she — along with dozens of other visitors — turned around upon meeting locked gates. 

“I’m super sad,” Oppermann said. “I drove down from South Carolina just to see this.” 

Despite a red banner at the top of the U.S. National Park Service website indicating national parks would remain open during the federal government shutdown, the Ocmulgee Mounds are closed to visitors. 

The park remained open during previous shutdowns. For example, in January 2018, visitors could still enter the park during regular hours but did so at their own risk because no park employees were being paid to work. 

Messages left for staff of the National Park Service were not immediately returned Monday afternoon.

Oppermann said she planned to visit the Kolomoki Mounds State Park in Blakely on Tuesday, but she worried it too would be closed. The Kolomoki Mounds remain open because it is a state park.

Oppermann parked, pulled out her phone and looked for other places to visit in Macon, including the The Big House Museum for the Allman Brothers Band, The Tubman Museum and Barks N Brews dog park and bar. 

Within minutes of Oppermann’s arrival, Andre Ross wheeled in and parked with a confused expression on his face. He frowned upon learning the government shutdown was the reason for the locked gates.

“It disappointed me,” said Ross, who said he is researching the Mound Builders.

Noelle Acevedo and her husband Ariel Acevedo, along with Ariel’s mother, later rolled up to the gate and paused. 

Noelle Acevedo said she thought, “Dang it. We drove 30 minutes for nothing.” 

The couple recently moved to Macon and had hoped to show Ariel’s mother some attractions in the area. Instead, the trio went to visit Amerson River Park. 

It is unclear what, if any, guidance the National Park Service has provided to national park staff or who and how it is determined what can remain open to the public. 

However, the U.S. Department of Interior published guidance late last month that says the Assistant Secretary for the Fish and Wildlife and Parks has discretion on whether to close parks with “sensitive natural, cultural, historic, or archaeological resources vulnerable to destruction, looting, or other damage that cannot be adequately protected.”

Other national parks in Georgia are apparently still accessible to varying degrees. 

Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park closed its main parking lot and visitor’s center, but its open-air sites remained accessible as of Oct. 2 with U.S. Park Rangers and maintenance workers on duty for safety and upkeep reasons, according to a report from WSB-TV. 

An automated answering machine at Jimmy Carter National Historic Park in Plains said, “due to a lapse of appropriations, I am out of the office and not authorized to work during this time.” The recording said national parks would remain open and “as accessible as possible” during the shutdown but some services “may be limited and unavailable.”