Sulphur Dell

The Nashville Sounds stadium opened here in 2015, but this very spot has been drawing crowds for centuries. Long before it was a ballpark, this was the site of Sulphur Dell, home to natural springs that made it one of the region’s earliest and most important gathering places. Indigenous peoples have long recognized the value of this place for its salt deposits.

The Mississippian peoples, who lived in this area more than 800 years ago, settled near these springs to harvest salt, a vital resource used for preserving food and traded across long distances for items like copper, marine shell, and galena. To process the salt, they created large ceramic pans, strengthened with crushed mussel shell, filled them with spring water, and slowly evaporated the water over heat. The resulting salt crystals were scraped out—possibly with mussel shells—and stored in pots.

Excavations in 2014, ahead of stadium construction, uncovered evidence of this industry: burned soil stained red and orange from intense heat, postholes from temporary shelters built around processing areas, and more than 1,000 artifacts, including ceramic sherds, stone tools, and shell and bone fragments. The salt springs were used even earlier by people from the Archaic and Woodland periods, confirming this area’s long significance.

Nearby, stood a Mississippian town complex with several earthen mounds—once 10 feet tall and 90 feet wide. Though the mounds have been flattened by modern development, excavations in the 1990s revealed preserved hearths, trash pits, postholes, and stone box graves. These findings show that this village was part of a larger Mississippian community spread across both sides of the Cumberland River.

Today, the springs are covered, but try to imagine what stood here and the Indigenous people who once lived and worked here—people talking, people gathering, and people laughing. Is that different than what you see at the park today? The record of their lives lies under the ground, and it is our job to preserve it.

**The Augmented Reality (AR) models will only work in specific points at the site. Open the link and hold your phone up to allow the model to calibrate to the landscape. You should see the model projected in front of you.

Stand along the Greenway behind Left Field where you will see interpretive panels in front of the metal fence. Face the panels and outfield for the AR model. You will have a better view if you move to the west on the Greenway closer to the scoreboard.

Next, stand at the intersection of Third Ave North and Junior Gilliam Way on the same side of the street as the stadium. Open the link and look directly across the intersection to the northeast for the AR model.**

To reach the next stop, you can walk along the greenway to Bicentennial Mall State Park then reach the Tennessee State Museum in the northwest corner of the park. If you choose to drive, head north then turn LEFT  onto Jefferson Street. Turn LEFT onto Rosa L. Parks Boulevard then turn LEFT to park at the state museum. Feel free to enter the museum (admission is free). Restrooms are also available in both the museum and the Farmer’s Market.