Fieldtrip: Mounds State Park

Our Keepers group took a field trip to Mounds State Park. The kids are working on a hiking badge so they are learning about the state tree & bird, hiking saftey, and compass reading.

They first got to explore the many interactive exhibits in the Nature Center including touch & feel boxes, animal & habitat matching, live fish and amphibians, taxidermied local wild life, artifact discovery and tree identification.

Then they listened to an introduction to the Adena Indians and the Mounds.

They learned that the boats were made from tall, straight trees with not lower branches - The Tulip Tree, our state tree.

How could these Indians bring volcanic arrow and spear heads to Indiana? Our White River (which flows in the park) connects to the Wabash River which flows to the Ohio River which feeds into the Mississippi River which empties into the Ocean. Wow!

The Mounds are not burial mounds, which many books teach, but celebration mounds for the seasons. Dips in the Great Mound lines up with smaller mounds throughout the park. If you stand in the center of the Great Mound and look out to these lesser mounds, for lack of a better term, you will see amazing sunsets at the beginning of the seasons or special stars or constellations during other times of the year. Amazing!

The mounds were created by HAND! Earth was sometimes carried in baskets. It just boggles the mind. The children and their guide are standing at the edge of the center circle in the Great Mound (with their whistles for saftey).