Oakville is an unincorporated community located in the southeast corner of Lawrence County, Alabama, United States. The community has two parks, one dedicated to 20th-century African-American athlete Jesse Owens and the other to Middle Woodland period and Cherokee Native Americans.The Jesse Owens museum was opened in 1996. Owens was born and spent the majority of his childhood in the community before his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio. The Jesse Owens Memorial Park and Museum is at the intersection of county roads 203 and 187.Oakville Indian Mounds Park and MuseumThe Oakville Indian Mounds Park and Museum is an 83acre state park dedicated to ancient Native American monuments and the historic Cherokee nation of the Southeast. It preserves twenty 2,000-year-old mounds built by Middle Woodland-era (1-500 CE) prehistoric indigenous peoples. The Copena culture developed out of the Hopewell tradition. They were named for their distinctive use of copper and galena, a lead ore mineral. The most significant earthworks are a burial mound and the Copena Ceremonial Mound, the largest ceremonial mound surviving in present-day Alabama. The latter is 27ft high, with a base of 1.8acre. The platform top has an area of 1acre. The Copena culture developed from the complex Hopewell tradition, whose people had a wide regional trading network across the continent.
