I might have mentioned this before, but I’m a seasonal employee at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. This place is amazing, and I’ve discovered a lot of people have never heard of it. Even some local folks haven’t actually visited, not even on school field trips.
If you’re one of those folks who haven’t heard of Cahokia Mounds, allow me to give you some fast facts! Cahokia is considered the first actual city in the United States, but it predates the actual country of the United States by hundreds of years. It was permanently settled by a Native American culture that archaeologists call the Mississippians around 800 A.D. They flourished and built a city in this location until the site was abandoned around 1350 A.D. They didn’t have a written language, so we don’t know what they called themselves (although there’s a lot of evidence that it was probably multicultural) or what they called the city. Cahokia came from a tribe that was living here with European settlers came in, the Cahokians. So it’s a bit confusing.
Anyway, population estimates say that at it’s peak, the numbers could be anywhere from around 10,000-20,000 people living on about 4,000 acres. They also built the largest earthen mound in the Western Hemisphere, Monks Mound. It’s 100 feet high and has an estimated 22 million cubic feet of earth contained within it, give or take.
I’m tempted to spout all of my tour information right now, but I’ll spare you since it’s not a general post about Cahokia, but about one specific event, which I’ll get to in a minute. I’ve loved working here since 2021 and I wish my job was a permanent one. I may not be able to work there next summer since I’m applying to grad school, but I’ll definitely volunteer!
Painting by William Iseminger. I see Bill at work regularly and he’s an amazing archaeologist and I’m very lucky to rub elbows with him. This is what Cahokia might have looked like during its initial occupation.
This is the view from the top of Monks Mound. The two mounds you can see through the trees are the Twin Mounds.
One interesting aspect of Cahokia is Woodhenge. Generally acknowledged as a solar calendar, this structure was discovered during “salvage archaeology” in an area that was set to be demolished by highway 70/55 in the 60’s. Dr. Warren Wittry conducted an excavation and discovered, among neighborhood homes that predate it, post pits that formed circles. I’ll spare you the technical details, but these pits corresponded with significant sunrises, and also Monks Mound itself. Those sunrises happen to be the Equinoxes and the Solstices. The equinoxes line up with Monks Mound quite nicely. And this past Saturday was the Autumnal Equinox. At Cahokia, we hold observances of these astronomical events on the Sunday closest to them. So the very next day we held an Equinox Observance. Bill Iseminger gave a little talk, and we got to watch the sunrise. It was a bit cloudy, but the sky was beautiful. Keep in mind, out of respect for Native Americans, we don’t do any rituals or ceremonies or anything, we just watch the sunrise and enjoy it.
I was slightly peeved this person wouldn’t turn off their headlights because the sky was soooo pretty. This was around 6:15, half an hour before the talk started. You can see that flat line in the middle of the trees there? That’s monks mound. Hard to see if you don’t know what you’re looking at.
More headlights, but you can see the poles from our reconstruction.
Selfie!
Y’all, the sky gave us its all that morning. It was so intensely beautiful! Monks mound again just barely visible.
Bill on his Ladder.
Monks Mound is a little easier to see in this photo. It’s just off center.
Now you can start to see the mounds in the lightening sky! There’s a smaller mound right behind the Woodhenge poles, and Monks Mound behind that to the left.
My apologies to Angela for the photo of her messing with her sleeve and her coffee on the ground (and Bill again). BTW she’s wearing the same sweatshirt I was wearing, our new Cahokia Mounds sweatshirts that were being sold at the event. They’re warm and handsome.
The clouds look so beautiful.
And this was the shot! You can see the glowing sun just to the front of Monks Mound! A day earlier, and the sun would be right at the front of the mound, but because of the rotation of the Earth it was slightly off. Regardless, I was very excited to get this shot. There’s a cloud right above where the sun is so we couldn’t see the whole of the sun once it rose, but I didn’t mind. The sunrise was so beautiful nonetheless.
And the sun has risen and a new season has begun.
If you’re ever in the St. Louis area and want to know more about Cahokia, give us a visit! Sadly our interpretive center has been closed for renovation, but we’re running tours through the middle of November, and hopefully we’ll be reopen next year. There’s also a lot of information online about the site. Some random blogs (like mine haha) don’t always have accurate information, so definitely take some with a grain of salt. Also our website has a lot of resources as well. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I can provide documentation to prove I am an employee if you’re concerned (again, always gotta be careful if you’re not sure if someone is telling the truth or not!), or you could always call the site or contact the site through the social media avenues.
Okay, I’ll leave you with one final video, if you would like to watch! It’s an award winning video we play in our theater (well, when we’re open!) and it’s less than 15 minutes long. It doesn’t have quite the same effect watching it on a computer as opposed to our theater, but I like it anyway! Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed my sales pitch about Cahokia. 😉
The Solo Geographer 