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Dickson Mounds Museum
This revamped facility pays tribute to our Native American heritage. STORY BY GARY THOMAS
Visitors to Dickson Mounds Museum can see a stirring sound and
The headline said it all: "Dickson mounds Closed." That was the announcement several years ago when former Gov. Jim Edgar made the decision to cover the Native American skeletal remains that had been housed in the state-owned museum. Unfortunately, a lot of people never got word that the museum reopened. This world-class facility hosts only about 35,000 visitors a year, and the staff at the site would like to see that number doubled or even tripled. Dickson Mounds is located near the confluence of the Illinois and Spoon rivers in Fulton County and was named for the Dickson family that purchased the land for a farm and orchard in 1834. While preparing the land to plant fruit trees, workers began discovering artifacts and bones. They also discovered the mounds that dotted the area were manmade, and that some of them were constructed to house the dead. But it wasn't until the 1920s — during an era when the discovery of King Tut's tomb in Egypt captivated the nation's interest in archaeology — that Don Dickson, a chiropractor turned archaeologist, began excavating the burial mounds and turned the site into a museum of sorts. The site became famous for the study of Native Americans in the 1930s and 40s, when archaeologists from the University of Chicago began excavating other sites in the area. The State of Illinois purchased the site for a state park in the 1940s, and it became a part of the Illinois State Museum in the 1960s. Dickson Mounds was, and still is, considered the premier site for the study and interpretation of the prehistory of the Illinois River Valley, one of the richest archaeological regions in the United States. Native Americans had concerns about the exposure of skeletons at the site in the 1970s, and this con-
Interesting permanent displays of life in the Illinois River Valley (left), plus ever-changing displays, such as this exhibit of Pueblo pottery can be found at Dickson Mounds Museum. (Photos by Gary Andrashko.) tinued through the 1980s. Finally, during the early part of the 1990s, Gov. Edgar made his decision to cover the Indian remains and re-do the museum. The site was closed and underwent a $4 million renovation that covered the skeletal remains and created a new museum — one with an emphasis on the Illinois River Valley and the people who inhabited the area for some 12,000 years. Included in this renovation were several new galleries, a discovery room and a spectacular audio-visual program.
"No written record remains of the people and the cultures that lived here, but the mounds, the bones, the pottery and the stones all provide clues as to what took place at the American Indian village that was located here," said Judith Franke, director of the museum. "Scientists know the area was inhabited by Woodland Era Indians, then from A.D. 800 to about 1200 by a village that was a satellite site of the Mississippian Culture. No one is quite sure why the Mississippian Indians left the area, but we do know they were completely gone by the late 1400s." If you are looking for a stodgy, quiet museum, Dickson Mounds probably isn't for you. This is a people place. It's full of energy and constant change. Built atop the Illinois River Valley bluff, it also has a walk-out deck that provides a spectacular view of the countryside. Franke pointed out that the building is rather unique, designed to look like a large platform mound representative of the Mississippian Period. The museum is used for public meetings by a number of agencies, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and DNR, and a local theater group has used its auditorium for several performances. You also can attend workshops and folk music performances at the site throughout the year.
School groups get special attention at Dickson Mounds, including interactive programs by museum staff and hands-on activities to teach them how life might have been in the Illinois River Valley 600 years ago. (Above photo by Marlin Ros; right photo by Gary Andrashko.) The museum includes innovative displays, artifacts, photographs, hands-on exhibits and video productions that capture the panorama of the past. A spectacular multi-media show brings the Mississippian culture to life using lights, music and sound. Within the museum, visitors can visit the Discovery Center, Resource Center and Museum Shop. The Discovery Center is for visitors of all ages and is strictly hands-on, with books, tapes, discovery drawers, videos and other educational items. The Resource Center is a more quiet part of the museum, where you can read and discover areas of special interest.
The Museum Shop has craft items, gifts and books on both archaeology and Indian cultures. The shop also offers light refreshments. The facility provides several online computers for the public to use to surf the web or check their email. The museum has a nice mixture of drop-by visitors and school groups. "We have school groups galore during certain times of the year, and we give a lot of attention to the students," Franke said. "When a school gets in touch with us to let us know their intention of bringing a class to our site, we sign them up for our discovery programs. We then send the class a kit to use
In additon to dozens of permanent displays (top), the museum hosts a number of special events each year (middle). Visitors also will be treated to a spectacular view of the Illinois River Valley from the museum's deck. (Photos by Gary Andrashko.) before students visit. When they arrive, they take a self-guided tour, see two audio-visual presentations and get work sheets so they can go around the museum and do school projects. After that, we have an hour-long interactive program with staff where we teach them to make pottery or engage in some other activity. The program is basically free to school groups, though we do ask for a 50-cent donation per student to cover the cost of materials." Dickson Mounds hosts a number of special events, workshops, performances, festivals and demonstrations — such as fire starting, weaving and bow-making — throughout the year. There also are changing exhibits featured (see sidebar). Visitors to Dickson Mounds shouldn't limit their visit to the museum proper. The site features more than 160 acres, including the Eveland Village site, where the remains of three early Mississippian buildings have been preserved for viewing. There also is a large playground for the kids near a secluded picnic area. A one-room schoolhouse at the site currently is undergoing renovation, and there is a recently renovated toll house that is rather unique. Built in the early 1850s, it is one of only two known wooden toll houses still standing, and it is the only one that is octagonal and the only one with an onion-shaped dome. It was built to collect tolls for the short-lived plank toll road running from Canton to Liverpool. "This is one of only a few large, on-site archaeological museums in North America," Franke said. "But it's also ever-changing. We've gone from being a once-in-a-lifetime museum to a place you'll want to visit again and again."
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