With a flight cancellation in the morning on Wednesday, I found myself in St. Louis for an extra 6 hrs, 4 of which without a hotel room. So instead of burning the evening oil and working all afternoon to then be followed by a 1.5 hrs flight, time spent clearing customs in Toronto and then a 1.5 hr drive to Peterborough I decided to make the most of the nice spring weather and do some exploring. My destination - Cahokia Mounds just across the river in Illinois.
The mounds were the site of the largest community in the US until 1800 when Philladelphia had more than 30,000 residents. Pretty amazing that such a native community was built in the mid-west.
The State Park spans several hundred acres where you can stroll along paved sidewalks on 1, 6.5 and 10 mile loops. As I only had an hour and a half to kill, I opted for an abbreviated hike around to see some of the mounds.
The mounds range from burial mounds to the footings for large structures used by the most important residents.
The tallest mound is Monks Mound and rises 100 ft above the surrounding landscape.
Here are some pictures.
No comments:
Post a Comment