Cahokia Indian Mounds Adventure!

So in another attempt to hit all the highlights of St. Louis in our last 6 months here, I asked my WUMCHA mom friend Amber -whose son Andrew is a favorite friend-if she had been to the Indian mounds.  She had not and also wanted to go, so we had ourselves a little roadtrip!

We were both surprised that it only took us 20 minutes to get there from our apartment (Amber graciously picked us up in her minivan with 2 carseats which was great as I'm getting tired of driving and sitting snugly in my Jetta).

Hux and Drew went racing off to scream at turkeys and deer behind the museum.

The inside of the museum had these awesome doors made out of copper!

This is what the mound civilization looked like back in its hey-day around 700-1200 C.E.

They had these awesome life size interpretations of life during the Cahokia Indian Civilization.

Notice the mirrored backgrounds to give the appearance of the village going on forever...

Hux, of course, did not want to look at the museum because he was hungry so we went to the "Cahokia Cafe" (just vending machines and booths for sitting in the winter) and ate our bagel (and Mama broke down and bought Hux cookies as a  bribe from the vending machines).  Amber and Drew toured the museum and found us about 20 minutes later.  Hux still didn't want to see the museum with Mama, so Amber and Hux went outside to run around while Drew toured the museum  again with me...so I could get some good photos.

Be impressed by "Woodhenge" (yes, that is what it is called) -where the cedar log placement is used as a calendar and for sacred rituals -alas, I didn't get much time to check everything out, but the website is really awesome and quite informative if you want more details: http://cahokiamounds.org/explore.  Notice this is Drew checking out a larger Woodhenge. Hard to see the tiny people in the middle performing a ritual, but they are there!

I liked that fact that there is great debate over whether or not the Cahokia civilization -hey they had   

10-20,000 people at its height! -could be considered a "city" or not (I can see scholars breaking into fisticuffs over that one!).  They had a fun chart with the criteria of a city -on the left is how the Cahokia's met those criteria, and on the right-how St. Louis meets the criteria.

Notice the symbol of the Cahokia versus the symbol of St. Louis-interesting they chose a cardinal rather than the arch (perhaps a better mascot?)

These heads were just a cool photo op-didn't have time to actually read their significance...

You can sort of see the copper doors engraved with eagles (I think?) -but there are handicap accessible doors you actually go in and out of; the lovely volunteer explained that each door is approximately 800 pounds, I think, and they didn't want little fingers to get caught in them-lawsuit anyone?-so thus, the new doors.  She also told us that the museum hadn't been around that long, but it seems like it would have been around long enough before handicap accessible and lawsuit frequency would have thwarted the original building of the doors ...

Note to architect/project manager: the thought of a huge copper sculpture as a stand alone mural-awesome!-as doors that could crush a small child and not be opened by someone in a wheelchair-not so much...

The museum is a decent size as Hux shows off here!

Hey, Hux says hi from upside down!

The billboard had a great shot of the civilization on the banks of the Mississippi...although I don't usually pay much attention to such drawings, if you actually look at it -it gives a good idea of the big mound in the background that we visited in the next few shots-as it was used during the civilization.

Again, pretty cool to think about how the civilization spread out.  Interestingly, they say it eventually collapsed due to several possibilities: internal political unrest or climate changes that affected crops or overuse of the soil for growing...hmmm...this doesn't sound like what's happening in America today or anything...

Hux and Drew discovered lots of arrowheads poop on the top of this little mound next to the museum...quite the explorers!

We drove across the street to explore the remains of the Stockades that surrounded the huge "Monks Mound"-named for the French monks who built on top of the mounds in the 1800's...such sacrilege-sacre blue! (sorry-I love bad puns)!

I love that Hux immediately saw this and said "Mama, three little pigs! You be the wolf, I be the pig!"...and then I pretended to "blow down the house of sticks."

More stockade...

 Hux and Drew begin the expedition to the Monk's Mound...

The first set of stairs Drew started climbing quickly...

...this is the second set of stairs-you can just barely see Drew on them he's so far ahead!

Hux was quite slow and didn't know if he was going to make it to the top.  This was just the first set of stairs, and he was ready to call it quits (luckily Mama still had a few cookies in the pack to bribe him with--I felt rather guilty for the sugar bribe but it worked).

This is at the top of the second set of stairs -you can barely see the railing for the first set of steps at the bottom of the path--seriously, I think we hiked up 100 stairs!

Everest ! The top of Monk Mount! We've made it!

You can see St. Louis in the distance!  The arch included...

Amber and Drew enjoying the awesome February weather at the top!

Hux, eating the cookie I bribed him with to get to the top of the Mound.  I also bribed him with "Daddy will be really proud!" Sure enough, he told Daddy about the climb as soon as he got home as ended with, "Are you proud of me?" :)

Oh look-a small mound close by and that big mound in the distance...the St. Louis landfill.   Definitely another interesting mound to dig around, I'm sure, but much longer to excavate and much more noisome.

Look closely and you'll notice on the far left the first flight of stairs and then a plateau and then you can barely see the second set of stairs reaching the top.  Yup! That was the workout for today.  Huxley even commented as we were going up, "This is exercise!"  Yes, buddy, especially to the gentleman who was running up and down the flights of stairs several times!

The nice gentleman told us how he used to bring his own kids when they were little-before this became a "sacred" site with stairs, and they would go sledding. 

Such is quite tabboo now as many signs warned throughout our trek.  Hux asked, as we were walking back, why there was no more sledding allowed.  Then he figured it out for himself: "Indians not allowed to sled, so we shouldn't sled." Yup!  That's about it...poor Indian kids, poor modern kids.

After our "hike" we headed off to Olive Garden, otherwise known as "the place with the grapes" according to Hux.  Amber and I had awesome soup and salad while Drew and Hux had shell noodles (Drew's with actual cheese).  A great time was had by all!