The Angel Mounds State Historic Site, in Evansville, IN, has just completed a two-year clean up and site restoration project. The site will officially open to the public on Saturday, Nov. 16.
The project work was completed in collaboration with relevant tribes, artists and historians. The Miami, Osage, Quapaw and Shawnee nations helped work on the project. The mounds stretch over 600 acres, and include 11 original earthen mounds ranging in age from the late 11th – 15th centuries (late 1000s to 1400s). The mounds originally elevated important buildings in the city where early Mississippian people lived.
When the public gets to the exhibit there will be the opportunity to explore palisade walls and to visit a new interpretive center that will highlight the stories of Mississippian society. The Angel Mounds highlight the cosmological acumen of the people.
Visitors will discover how the mounds were created according to celestial events like sunrise and solstices.
The transformation of the site was made possible by $4 million in funding from the state and 2.5 million from the Lilly endowment.
This article appears in Nov 4-19, 2024.