It’s not every day the U.S. gets a new national park, but 2024 could see this central Georgia destination enter the fold. Presently managed as a national historical park, Ocmulgee is home to large earthen mounds, including temple complexes, created by numerous Native American peoples over thousands of years. Should Congress approve the new designation in 2024, Ocmulgee will become the first national park in the state and the first in the U.S. to be co-managed by a nation whose ancestors were removed from the area: the Muscogee (Creek) were forcibly relocated from central Georgia as a result of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. “We now have an opportunity to come back and not feel like we are visiting, but to feel like we are coming home,” said Tracie Revis, a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and the director of advocacy for the Ocmulgee National Park & Preserve Initiative, a community group. The gateway to the park is the city of Macon, where the Muscogee (Creek) Nation flag flies alongside the Stars and Stripes, and the street signs are being replaced with ones written in both Muscogee and English. A particularly opportune time to visit will be in September, for the town’s annual Indigenous film festival. — Liz Cantrell