Visitors tour Ocmulgee National Monument

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT)- Saturday was the perfect opportunity for the Ocmulgee National Monument to show off its history.

Park Rangers showed tourists the historic great mounds, bricks and railroads.

They also informed them why the United States decided to preserve this historic park more than a hundred years ago.

“Local folks realized that this beautiful site was slowly being lost,” said Jim Brannan, a park ranger. “A lot of it is gone already and they wanted to try and preserve it. So they talked with the Smithsonian, got them to send their chief ethnologist here to review the site and give his opinion. His opinion was it was a very important Indian land and it should be investigated and preserved.”

Congress is debating a bill that would turn the Ocmulgee National monument into a national park.