Ancient Midwest

 

THE earthworks left behind by the long vanished civilizations of the Midwest are harder to spot than the pueblos and kivas of Arizona and New Mexico. For a long time many of them were hidden in plain sight or dismissed as little more than heaps of soil. But the more today’s archaeologists learn about the Midwestern mounds, the more intriguing is the picture that emerges from 1,000 or more years ago: a city with thousands of people just a few miles from present-day St. Louis, a 1,348-foot earthen serpent that points to the summer solstice, artifacts made of materials that could only have arrived over lengthy trade routes.

 

The mound builders lived over a wide area. But on a road trip of a few days in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, you can get a sampling of their work — and, along the way, find some modern-day diversions. Start from St. Louis, which early European settlers called Mound City because of the Indian constructions that were soon flattened to build the modern city. Today the most prominent monument to human builders in St. Louis is Eero Saarinen’s Gateway Arch. Take the tram to the top and gaze out at the winding Mississippi. The river and its feeders, and the fertile land around them, figured as prominently in the lives of the Midwesterners of a millennium ago as they do in the region today. From the arch, head east over the Poplar Street Bridge and into Illinois on Interstates 55 north and 70 east. Take Exit 6, turn right onto Route 111 south and quickly left on Collinsville Road, and follow the signs to Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site.

 

Read full article here:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/08/15/travel/escapes/15mile.html

Interactive Map:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/08/14/travel/escapes/20080814_MILEPOSTS_FEATURE.html

I actually used to live only a few minutes from Serpent Mound and I've never seen hundreds of people there, ever

Somewhat related...

 

UC prof launches Web site to help explore the Ancient Ohio Trail

http://www.soapboxmedia.com/innovationnews/ancient0902.aspx

 

Building on his work to use virtual technology to electronically rebuild lost or damaged Native American monuments, UC professor John Hancock and others have put together a Web site that offers itineraries and directions 50 ancient earthwork sites in southern and central Ohio. Hancock and colleagues just launched the  Ancient Ohio Trail Web site, which features itineraries and directions leading to 50 fully extant or partial remnants of earthworks, directions on the most scenic routes to travel in order to arrive at these earthworks, places to eat and stay while exploring the earthworks, photos and descriptions about the construction and purpose of each site.

 

The project is a follow-up to Hancock's ambitious project called EarthWorks, which is now traveling museums across the Midwest. "In working on EarthWorks, I had a lot of fun tromping around the hills and valleys to find the earthworks or their ruins," Hancock says. "I wanted to share that feet-on-the-ground experience. That’s how the Ancient Ohio Trail project began."

 

Hancock and his team plan to continue adding features to the site. In the future, they plan to add audio and video tours as well as other information that users will be able to download to a cell phone, laptop or other electronic device when actually at a specific earthwork site.