Kevin Morgan, a well-known resident, photographer, and historical enthusiast, took a deep breath as he began to explain the long past that paved the way for today’s vibrant community, Excelsior Springs. Over the years, he has unearthed numerous artifacts that tell the story of early settlement in the area.
Excelsior Springs, built around the “Valley of Vitality,” where mineral waters bubbled up from the ground, has a history far older than its 19th-century founding. Kevin noted evidence suggests that thousands of native inhabitants may have occupied the area where we now live, since 9000 B.C., through historical periods, including Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian cultures, and long before any European settlement.
Each period of inhabitants in the area was unique in the way they thrived in Excelsior Springs. The Archaic population was an ancient culture that flourished in the region from 6000 BC to 750 AD, living in small groups known as bands. Most of the artifacts from that time period were made of stones.
However, according to Morgan, the woodland cultures, described as Indigenous Native American tribes, lived in the dense forests along the fishing river around 800 BC, thriving into the 1st millennium AD. Remnants of artifacts from their existence consist of bits of pottery as well as knives, spear points and arrowheads.
Mississippian culture, similar to woodlands, thrived in the Excelsior Springs area from 900 to 1450 AD. Most were farmers growing corn, beans, and squash in fertile, loose soils. Their artifacts indicate the use of stone, ceramic, and even traces of metal.
Most modern-day Native American cultures are believed to be descendants of the Mississippian culture and include a variety of tribes, including the Alabama, Apalachee, Caddo, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Muscogee Creek nations.
“Their cultures were sophisticated,” Morgan said, “most of them had continuous occupations until Columbus arrived and disease began.”
The area would have been prime real estate for each early settlement due to the Fishing River, which provided sustenance for both the cultures and their farms. Other resources in the region consisted of deer and turkey, as the Indigenous cultures in the area would hunt and gather much-needed resources. In forging, they would find Paw-Paw trees, American Elderberry, various varieties of mushrooms, and other wild plant life.
While only inhabiting the area seasonally, Morgan noted trails had also been created for those early native settlers to migrate to warmer climates such as Arkansas and Oklahoma. Some remained in areas near Nebo Hill in Liberty and closer to the Missouri River where they established trade sites.
He explained, that the trails the native inhabitants created were also later used by other explorers, including Lewis and Clark, as they cut through unexplored land with remnants of native trails that were left behind.
Morgan pointed out through discoveries made by J. Mett Shippe, an archeologist, that one of the biggest settlements in Excelsior Springs has been documented near N highway at the east end of town. The new highway was once part of a Native American trail going southbound to the Missouri River.
“This would have been where the O’Dell family observed the Indians passing by,” he said. “It was a trail, a part of their migration.”
Yet, in the 1800s, the town’s history started to change as the Native Americans were exposed to European diseases and violence. The number of occupants in the region began to slowly decline as settlers came in droves on the Missouri River seeking new land for themselves.
Morgan said he still searches for and finds evidence of early settlement through his discoveries of arrow points from as early as the 1100s through 1400s associated with Mississippian cultures, along with 1500s-1600s artifacts, reminding him that these artifacts are much greater than just fascinating discoveries, but a piece of history worth sharing.
He encourages others in the community who find artifacts to contact the Missouri Archaeological Society and to stay curious about the history within Excelsior Springs.
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