About 5 mi (8 km) east of Wilson, at the Nodena site, archeological artifacts from an aboriginal village of the Nodena people dated 1400-1650 CE were found in the first half of the 20th century.
A collection of these artifacts is on display at the Hampson Museum State Park.[4][5] The museum documents the culture of the civilization of the Nodena people, who lived in a 15-acre (6.1 ha) palisaded village on a horseshoe bend of the Mississippi River in the Wilson, Arkansas area. Cultivation of crops, hunting, social life, religion and politics of that ancient civilization are topics of the exhibition.[4][5]
The Parkin Indian Mound is the site of another Indian village contemporary with the Nodena people, located in Parkin, Arkansas, about 30 mi (50 km) southwest of Wilson.
The museum is named after James K. Hampson (1877-1956), owner of the Hampson Plantation on which the Nodena site is located, and archaeologist to excavate and preserve the artifacts from the Nodena site.[5][6]
In 1900 James K. Hampson documented the discovery of a prehistoricmastodonskeleton 2 mi (3.2 km) south of the Nodena site.[9]
Mastodons are members of the prehistoric, extinctgenusMammut, they resemble modern elephants. Native to North America they are said to have lived on the North American continent from almost 4 million years ago until their eventual disappearance about 10,000 years ago.[10]
In 1900, archaeologist James K. Hampson documented the find of skeletal remains of a mastodon on Island No. 35 of the Mississippi River, 2 mi (3.2 km) south of the Nodena site and 23 mi (37 km) south of Blytheville, Arkansas.[9]
In 1957 the site was reported as destroyed.[9] Fossilized bones from the find are on display at the Hampson Museum State Park.
The museum was closed in 2017 to move into a new building on the Wilson city square. It is scheduled to reopen some time in the summer of 2018. Call 870-655-8622 for further information.
^ abcWilliams, Steven (April 1957). "The Island 35 Mastodon: Its Bearing on the Age of Archaic Cultures in the East". American Antiquity. 22 (4): 359–372. doi:10.2307/276134. JSTOR276134. S2CID163904639.