A new tourist attraction unveiled Wednesday in Macon seeks to highlight a culturally-rich region of Georgia.

U.S. House bill would establish the Ocmulgee Mounds in Middle Georgia as a national park and preserve, upgrading the site from its current status as a national monument.

The flag of the Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma now flies atop Macon’s City Hall. 

Many residents of middle Georgia had hoped for one big gift by the end of this holiday season: a new National Park. But fighting in Congress means more waiting for the Ocmulgee National Park and Preserve. 

Georgia Corrections Commissioner Tim Ward will leave will leave his post and join the state Board of Pardons and Paroles. 

Hundreds of Native Americans returned to their historic capital in Macon, Georgia, this weekend for the 30th annual Ocmulgee Indigenous Celebration. Nearly 200 years after the last Creek Indians were forcibly removed to Oklahoma to make way for slave labor in the Deep South, citizens of the Muscogee Creek Nation are celebrating their survival. They're also supporting an initiative to put the National Park Service in charge of protecting the heart of the Creek Confederacy.

More than 22 years ago, Chris Sheridan and others started dreaming of an Ocmulgee Heritage trail lining the Macon banks of the river.

“That’s the way improvements go in the urban core go,” he said. “It’s a long game and we need to think 20 and 30 years down the road.”

More than two decades later and by the end of this year, an important new link will begin connecting the trail network across the waterway.

The Ocmulgee Mounds are an archeological treasure in Middle Georgia. The Native American earth lodges that are part of the mounds date back to 900 A.D....