Hardaway Archaeological Site
Badin, Stanly County, North Carolina
Marker Inscription
Hardaway Site. Archaeological site key to understanding earliest native population. Its occupation dates to ca. 10,000 B.C. One mi. N.E.
Erected by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
The Story
On a hill above the Yadkin River lies one of the most important early sites in the American Southeast. The Hardaway Site preserves traces of some of the first people to inhabit the region, with occupation reaching back roughly 12,000 years to the close of the last Ice Age. Its distinctive stone tools have helped archaeologists define the earliest cultural sequences of eastern North America.
Why it matters
Hardaway anchors the human story of the Carolinas in deep time, documenting Native peoples in the region millennia before European contact.
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Nearby & related markers
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