Visiting Cahokia on an "Indian Summer" day

   A trip to Cahokia Mounds had been rattling around in my brain since I first learned about the site in a U.S. history class I took a few years ago. The textbook described the Mississippian Culture and its city of earth mounds now called Cahokia. At its peak, its population may have been twenty thousand people, but by the Spanish arrival it had been abandoned for several hundred years. Having never heard of it before, I was surprised to learn it was in Illinois….hmmm….sounds like time for a road trip.

   On this sojourn I was fortunate to have my friend Scott along as a passenger. I met Scott through my teaching classes at National Louis University, and in addition to be an ardent road-tripper, he is also an excellent photographer. After postponing a short time in order to wait for ground fog to lift, we headed for Downtown St. Louis Airport (KCPS), via the JOT, PNT, BMI, and TOY vors. Unfortunately we had a stiff headwind, so we stopped off at Bloomington for fuel at Image Air. We landed on runway 20 behind a Boeing 717, which made for some excitement.

Virga on the leg from JOT to PNT

   After topping off, we headed south west to the TROY vor, then to CPS. On the way we passed Lake Sangchris, which I'm sure many of the ultralight drivers in the club are familiar with. While the flight into St. Louis should have afforded an excellent view of the city, the Mississippi was very hazy, and we didn't get the expected vista. As luck would have it, our flight path took us just east of the mounds, which were easy to spot from the air. We landed straight in on runway 23 and taxied over to Ideal Aviation where the desk personnel were kind enough to call Jenkin's Cab for us. How many cabs does Jenkin's cab operate? One. Our driver was Mr. Jenkins.

   The cab ride to Cahokia State Park was about 15 minutes. A highway bisects the state park, with the visitor's center on one side, and the enormous Monk's mound on the other. We had Mr. Jenkins drop us off at the visitor's center.

The very busy ramp at Downtown St. Louis Airport
 

Outside the Cahokia visitor's center
 

   The visitors' center is very impressive operation, with a movie theater and large displays of Indian artifacts. Although Cahokia's website intimates that the center has a cafeteria, all we found were some restaurant booths and a few vending machines. Having passed up the airport restaurant on the assumption there was food at the museum this was a disappointing development. But, after settling for some cookies and Cheese-Its of indeterminate age, we walked through the exhibits and viewed the orientation film. After perusing the exhibits, we went to go see the mounds themselves. While the archeologists think Cahokia originally had 120 mounds, only 80 are still standing. The largest by far is Monks mound. It is the largest earth structure in the America's and the largest archeological site north of Mexico. The structure is one hundred feet tall, and the base is roughly the size of the great pyramid of Giza. Monks mound is impressive on its own; the fact that it was built solely with dirt carried in wicker baskets makes it even more so.
 

Side view of the Monks Mound
 

Downtown St. Louis from the top of Monks Mound
 

Another view of the mound
 

  After seeing Monks Mound firsthand and enjoying the view of the St. Louis Arch from its summit, we called Mr. Jenkins for a ride back to the airport. On the way home, the winds aloft, which had killed us on the way there now gave us a big boost. The GPS showed we were clocking 132kts ground speed! Due to the recent time change, about half the return flight was at night. Thanks to the airplane, we had been able to visit Cahokia and make it back in time for dinner. Definitely a day well spent.
 

Passing Lake Sangchris on the way home