Tag Archives: cahokia

USA travel

Cahokia Mounds

We’ve driven past the signs for Cahokia Mounds in Southwestern Illinois lots of times on our travels to and from Tucson, Arizona.

The Cahokia Mounds are BIG! At the top of this one you can see a person.

“The remains of the most sophisticated prehistoric native civilization north of Mexico are preserved at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. Within the 2,200-acre tract, located a few miles west of Collinsville, Illinois, lie the archaeological remnants of the central section of the ancient settlement that is today known as Cahokia.“

I’d done some reading about the site and was intrigued but not enough to make a side trip there since I perceived it as just some nondescript hills.
Then in early 2022 I read that they had added an Augmented Reality (AR) Application to enhance a visit to the mounds. That seemed like fun so we made plans to spend time there as a side trip to a few days in St. Louis, MO.

Cahokia Mounds Augmented Reality app
The Cahokia Mounds Augmented Reality app costs $4.99. It’s available for iPhone and Android.

The app lets you see the mounds as they looked 1,000 years ago, including the people, structures and artifacts.
On a windy day in early May, Cindy and I spent a morning “augmenting reality” with the help of my iPhone and some shared earbuds.

Cahokia Mounds Augmented Reality on an iPhone
Scanning a code and then pointing your phone reveals a image of what that area looked like when Cahokia was active.
Cahokia Mounds Augmented Reality scene of stockade and people
The augmented reality scenes are populated with people and sounds.
Monks Mound and sign at Cahokia Mounds
The biggest mound, Monks Mound size was calculated in 1988 as about 100 feet high, 955 feet long including the access ramp at the southern end, and 775 feet wide.

The reading I’ve done suggests that the mounds were a gathering place for the native tribes in the midwest from about 800 to 1400. It took us a couple hours to tour the multiple mounds and fields in the complex.

Cahokia Mounds entry sign
The Cahokia Mounds entry sign in on Collinsville Road, Collinsville, Illinois, USA