Is government shutdown to blame for temporary closure of Ocmulgee Mounds? What we know

Visitors to Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park in Macon were met with chained gates Wednesday morning.

The closure comes as the federal government shut down after Congress was unable to agree on a bill to keep the government funded before their Tuesday night deadline.

The National Parks Service — the federal agency responsible for managing the mounds — was unable to immediately confirm that the closure was because of the shutdown. This is in part due to the lack of government funding impacting the agency’s communications with the press. But the closure is consistent with contingency plans released by the U.S. Department of the Interior ahead of the shutdown.

According to those plans, “if a facility or area is locked or secured during non-business hours (buildings, gated parking lots, etc.) it should be locked or secured for the duration of the shutdown.”

The Telegraph was unable to reach the park’s visitor center over the phone. A call to the visitor’s center was met with a recorded message explaining that due to the lapse in funding, the voice mailbox was only being monitored for urgent inquiries regarding visitor access, safety and essential operations.

It is unclear how long the shutdown will last. While the House passed a stopgap funding bill on Sept. 19 to keep the government open through Nov. 21, the bill stalled in the Senate without the necessary 60 votes to pass.

Senate Democrats have said they will not vote for any bills that do not restore Medicaid funding that was cut in President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill passed in July, and that do not extend Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire in December.

The Senate attempted another vote Wednesday morning on the House-passed bill, only for it to fail again, The New York Times reported.

This story was originally published October 1, 2025 at 2:20 PM.