Pottery Hill

The ground underneath Pottery Hill predates the British-era brick and charcoal kilns that gave it its name. The rise sits on high Ice Age deposits along the Lake Pontchartrain shelf — solid footing in a region where most earth is newer and softer. The Tchefuncte culture inhabited the site from roughly 500 BC, leaving pottery and shell middens. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited spots on Louisiana's North Shore. Lake Pontchartrain itself is an estuary, formed 4,000 to 2,600 years ago as the evolving Mississippi River Delta built its southern and eastern shorelines with alluvial deposits. Human habitation of the region began at least 3,500 years ago. The lake covers 630 square miles with an average depth of 12 to 14 feet, roughly oval, about 40 miles west to east and 24 miles south to north. It is crossed by the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, the longest continuous bridge over water in the world. The estuary connects to the Gulf of Mexico via the Rigolets and Chef Menteur Pass, and receives fresh water from the Tangipahoa, Tchefuncte, Tickfaw, Amite, and Bogue Falaya rivers. It is one of the largest wetlands along the Gulf Coast of North America. Pottery Hill is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Interpretive context is thin on-site — combine your visit with the Mandeville Trailhead Museum for fuller context on what was left behind and why this ground mattered.