Wow, did I have that wrong!

Today, I went to Angel Mounds which is one of the best preserved prehistoric Native American sites in the nation - this was on my list of things to do before I left Evansville. I thought that the mounds would be large man-made hills that the Native Americans lived inside of but I was so wrong. Now it might have been interesting if they were burial mounds or trash heaps but that wasn't the case either. Instead the Mounds are man-made hills that the Native Americans built their important buildings on. This picture on the right is one of the mounds. The picture on the left is the view from the top of the tallest mound. Angel Mounds is a large piece of land and the four or five mounds are spread out and not that big. And they are named Angel Mounds after the farming family that donated the land to the state of Indiana. They are doing a dig on the land right now but they haven't found much in terms of ancient relics and no one is sure why the Native Americans that lived there moved away. It was a nice walk though and I chatted with a man from St. Louis who told me that the Cahokia Mounds near St. Louis are the same thing - at least I know not to go there!

Not one of the mounds had a building on it! I think Angel Mounds has potential to be a real interesting place. They believe from the digs that the site was surrounded by a large wall to protect the inhabitants. They had reconstructed one little piece of the wall but it would be neat to see it all reconstructed. This picture on the right is of the bridge to enter the site that went over a moat which was cool. I just think they need to reconstruct the site more but it probably is a funding issue which wouldn't surprise me because Indiana does not care about the environment, natural resources, or anything not directly linked to money (hey it's a RED state!). What a shame!