Parkin Archeological State Park preserves the remains of a major Late Mississippian town at the meeting of the St. Francis and Tyronza rivers. Occupied from about 1350 to 1650 CE, it was a palisaded seventeen-acre village with a central plaza, one large mound, six smaller mounds, and a moat linked to the river. Parkin was a leading center of the Parkin phase, a network of fortified river villages shaped by farming, hunting, fishing, and conflict. Many researchers identify it with Casqui, visited by Hernando de Soto’s expedition in 1542, and artifacts such as a glass bead and brass bell connect it to that early Spanish intrusion.