Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site history · History of Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site
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History of Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site
History of Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site
Built by Mississippian Indians between 600 and 1300 AD, Cahokia was the largest prehistoric city in all of what became the United States. Then covering six sq mi (16 sq km), Cahokia was a melting pot of Indian groups. The city included large fields of corn, wooden houses for thousands of people, grand open plazas, and about 120 earthen mounds.
Though the city was abandoned in the 1300's, French and later American settlers arrived in the 17th and 18th century and again began growing crops. Even in the early 1800's, archeologists recognized that there was something unique here, but the land continued to be used for farming for the next 125 years. In the 1930's, the United States government considered making the site into a national park, but ultimately decided against the idea. The state of Illinois then purchased an initial plot of land including Monks Mound, and continues to expand and operate the park today through the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site remains one of the few World Heritage sites in the United States which is not run by the federal government.
Cahokia Mounds was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966, and named a World Heritage Site by the United Nations in 1982.
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Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.