Cahokia (St. Louis Day 3)

St. Louis from atop Monk's Mound at Cahokia.

Sam and I play quite a bit of one the older version of Sid Meier's Civilization on the computer at home. It's no wonder the theme from that game franchise, "Baba Yetu," was on my mind so much as we visited our last site in the St. Louis area, Cahokia.

Sherry and the kids at Monk's Mound. 

Sam atop Monk's Mound. 

Cahokia is the location of an ancient Native American city. Before it's collapse sometime around 1300 or 1400, it boasted a population that may have been as great as 30,000. According to our guide, it wasn't until 1800 that another city north of Mexico had a population that large.

Not much remains of the city. None of the structures. However, several prominent mounds remain. These mounds had been either flat-topped hills the were platforms for important buildings or round-topped mounds used for burial. A few peaked-roof mounds were also there. The state of Illinois has made it a State Park and has an interpretive center there.

Cahokia in Civ IV. 

Certainly this is a site right down Sherry's alley. It's also a wonderful place to explore with my Civilization sidekick. This goes beyond the cute fact that if one plays as the Native Americans in that game the capital is named Cahokia. The site shows what geography made possible: the city was situated on bottom land, or a flood plain, where agriculture was feasible for a civilization before 1000. The tale of these people also show the limits of what geography could provide. The mounds there are earthen: stones and rocks weren't sufficiently abundant to build structures that were more permanent. The site is also a great testament to how extensively people and goods could move in the centuries before Columbus.

A recreated village at Cahokia.

The interpretive center there was well done though a little dated. Displays did a very good job explaining what made the metropolis important and connected the emergence of a city there to a sophisticated sense of culture. One display, in particular, intrigued me with an explanation of what nutritional content different early crops provided. The museum's neatest exhibit was a sample reconstruction of a village.

The park there also makes it possible to climb the most prominent mound, called Monk's Mount. Sherry, the kids, and I had a chance to go up there.

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Our visit to this site marked the end of our time in the St. Louis area. We were there about an hour more than we intended (what else is new) but then had time to make our way to Kansas City that afternoon.