History

Making history. Then & now.

The Rice Center has a long and rich history. The land that makes up the center has been occupied for the better part of 10,000 years. Today, archaeological digs, physical earthworks and remains of structures continue to tell the story of the land and its occupants.

Those who once called the area home include mobile Paleo-Indian hunter-gatherers, late-prehistoric Native Americans who engaged in rudimentary agriculture and extensive trade, European colonists, enslaved African-Americans, Union troops and 20th-century teenage campers.

All of these inhabitants represent distinct cultural traditions and have left behind distinctive marks on the landscape that archaeologists are using to tell the history of this unique land.