Trip to the Dickson Mounds Museum

On September 16th, our p-day group took a trip to the Dickson Mounds Museum near Peoria, about a 2 hour drive from here. It is one of the major on-site archaeological museums in the country and a National Historic Site. There are many of these so called "mounds" in this area of the country, and they are the burial grounds of the ancient people who lived in this area. Many people think the Nephite and Lamanite civilizations were predominately here in this area of No. America. Anyway, it was very
interesting. We had a private tour (about 2 1/2 hours) with the director of the museum.
The story of the Dickson Mounds began in 1927 when Dr. Don Dickson conducted excavations on his family farm. He found the remains of hundreds of people and the artifacts that were buried with them. Dickson Mounds became a state park in 1945 when the state purchased the site from the Dickson family and in 1965 it became a part of the Illinois State Museum.
You used to be able to view many of the skeletons in an area in the museum that looked like an uncovered mound...but in the 80's and 90's many of the native Americans objected to this display of their peoples and the sacred burial spots, so the Governor of Illinois ordered them permanently reburied and a display of artifacts and other exhibits are now there in that area of the museum, but you can no longer see the skeletal remains.
Our tour guide

Some of the displays of how life might have been for these people

This is the museum which actually sits upon one of the biggest "mounds".

A smaller "mound" that we drove over to. This looks really small, but was about 50 yards long.

The men waited in the car...

while the women got out to explore!

After the museum, we ate in the little town of Havana. This is their water tower.

" Sisters" in Havana (Illinois, that is) Bench, Evans, Eichbush, Phillips, and Hannig

Don't know what the men were discussing. :) Elders Hannig, Eickbush, Bench, Evans & Phillips.

Huge grain elevators in Havana...these were all up and down the river. This is where they store all the corn that they grow in this area of the country and they grow a lot!

Looking back at the grain elevators from the bridge

A monument to the early inhabitants of this country ( perhaps Nephites, Lamanites, or Jaredites) erected by a branch of the Church in Havana.