RIVER WALK, HILLSBOROUGH, NC: Reliving History at Occaneechi Village

Historic replica of Occaneechi Village, Hillsborough, NC

In late November, on a cool but bright fall day, we took a walk along the Eno River in Hillsborough, North Carolina, with our family. The Riverwalk path follows the river bank through the town park and links with other hiking trails. Not far from where we joined the trail near the Weaver Street Market we came upon Occaneechi Village, a historic replica of a native American village as it would have been in 1701.

Thatched dwelling.

At that time the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation lived on the land, growing food and hunting in the surrounding forest. The village was an important trade location where the Occaneechi people traded with Europeans as well as nearby tribes such as the Tuscarora. Many descendants of the Occaneechi tribe continue to live in Hillsborough.

Village surrounded by stockade of wooden posts.

Inside a stockade of wooden stakes are several thatched dwellings, open air shelters, places to build fires and prepare food, and other work areas.

Sample of caulking along the lower part of the stockade.

Openings between the wooden stakes could be filled with a lattice of sticks caulked with mud.

River Park path.

After exploring Occaneechi Village we continued walking along the paved path through River Park. 

Map of the Oxbow archeological site.

Signs further along the trail explained the historic significance of this location. Toward the end of our two mile walk we learned that archeological research of the ten-acre site within the oxbow bend of the Eno River has revealed that it was home to Occaneechi villages going back to 1000 A.D.

Footbridge across Eno River at Oxbow.

At the bridge near the oxbow, the trail veers away from the river bank and heads into the forest. We turned around here and headed back to our car. (A large parking garage is located near the trail head.) On our way back we passed a deer busy browsing, who paid little attention to us or other walkers.

Deer.

Occaneechi Village is located along the Riverwalk, within River Park, behind the Farmer’s Market Pavilion in Hillsborough. It is open 8am to 7pm. Hillsborough is about a half-hour drive from Chapel Hill, where our daughter and her family live.

MONGOLIA’S WILD PRZEWALSKI HORSES: Guest Post by Caroline Hatton

Przewalski horse, Mongolia

My friend and fellow children’s book writer Caroline Hatton visited Mongolia in June of 2015. Caroline has always been fascinated with horses and shares here a memorable experience she had with the rare Przewalski horses in Hustai National Park. To find out more about Caroline and her books, visit her website, www.carolinehatton.com . She took all the photos in this post, except for the one in which she appears, which was taken by her husband Bill.

Freeze. Nathalie’s silent body language was clear. As an eco-volunteer recording observations for the wild horse scientists of Hustai National Park in Mongolia, she knew how to follow the animals without disturbing them. Across the gully, a small horse, who looked like a live prehistoric cave painting, grazed peacefully.

Przewalski horses in the wild

This was no ordinary horse. It is called takhi in Mongolian (pronounced ta-chee with the ch as in the Scottish loch), Przewalski (pronounced prez-vahl-ski or sheh-val-ski) horse in English, and its scientific name is Equus przewalskii. It belongs to the same genus as the domesticated horse, Equus caballus, but it is a different species.The takhi are small horses. Average adult size is 135 cm (more than 13 hands, or 4 feet 5 inches) at the withers (the point between the neck and back).

The takhi once roamed the steppes of Central Asia in large numbers. It became extinct in the wild in the 1960s. But thanks to tremendous international efforts, it was re-introduced in 1992-2000, at sites including Hustai National Park, located roughly 100 km (62 miles) southwest of the Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar. 

Although the takhi existed only in captivity for thirteen generations, it has never been domesticated. This makes it the only true living wild horse. In contrast, the American Mustang, a descendant of domesticated ancestors, is technically not wild, but feral.

As we watched the horses, Nathalie wrote down her GPS coordinates, the temperature, wind speed, and main activity of the band: grazing.

Caroline Hatton (left), takhi, and eco-volunteer

The takhi’s social life and behaviors are essentially the same as those of free-roaming Equus caballus such as “wild” Mustangs. Nathalie and I exchanged smiles when a foal took a peek at us, then suckled a few sips.

Mare and foal

The other mares and youngsters in the band grazed as they strolled uphill. The stallion brought up the rear. To drive one of his harem members, he “snaked” her by lowering his head, with his ears laid back.

The mare ran along well before the snaking stallion got near her.

Stallion “snaking" to herd a mare

Nathalie stood up when the takhi moved out of sight, up the gully. She followed them quietly at a distance. Every ten minutes, she filled out one line on her data form.

Mutual grooming between friends

The band of takhi now stood below the top of the mountain, resting. Nathalie’s anemometer whirred as the wind rose. The temperature dropped even in full sun.

At eleven thirty, we ran down the mountain to meet the park minivan on the dirt road for our ride back to camp at noon. My husband and I thanked Nathalie and her boss, Nara, a park biologist, for letting us accompany Nathalie all morning.

While at the park, my husband and I stayed in our own ger [the Mongolian word for a yurt] at the Hustai Tourist Resort (camp) and enjoyed the simple, tasty food at the camp restaurant. We hiked along gullies, up the low mountains, through steppe grasses and birch forest. Of the estimated 40,000 resident marmots, we saw an average of 14 per day.  We also spotted deer, squirrels, a hare, a gray fox, magpies, steppe eagles, and demoiselle cranes. We did not take advantage of the available domesticated-horse rides or visits to local nomads.

Foal nursing

Even when the takhi had gone extinct in the wild, it had remained alive in the hearts of the Mongolian people. Seeing takhi roam free in its homeland again was a moving experience.

For more on Hustai National Park (also spelled Khustain), visit http://www.hustai.mn.

To arrange a car ride from Ulaanbaatar to visit and reserve lodging, e-mail takhi@hustai.mn.

Watch the video, Hustai National Park part 1 of 2 (8 minutes) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkkaRe6u4C0.

Watch the video, Hustai National Park part 2 of 2 (9 minutes, including takhi info) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgKbZhq5ChY.

Watch the video, Hustai National Park’s ecovolunteer program (5 minutes) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AdA-bGHc7c

For information on takhi, visit http://www.treemail.nl/takh.