About 50 miles northeast of Monroe on Hwy 557 near the town of Epps, the Poverty Point National Monument has a remarkable series of earthwork and mounds along what was once the Mississippi River. A two-story observation tower gives a view of the site's six concentric ridges, and a 2.6-mile hiking trail meanders the grassy countryside. Around 1000 BC this was the hub of a civilization comprising hundreds of communities, with trading links as far north as the Great Lakes.
