Angel Mounds State Historic Site in Indiana

During a trip through Indiana, Laura and I stopped at Angel Mounds State Historic Site near Evansville, Indiana. Here is some of what we saw.

As you might guess, we went to Angel Mounds to see mounds, and we were not disappointed in that. There are twelve mounds there, although the largest by far is the mound pictured above, known as Mound A. Mound A is around 600 feet long by 400 feet wide, and is almost 40 feet tall at its highest point. The mounds were built by people of the Mississippian culture between 1000 A.D. and 1450 A.D., so these mounds have been around for a long time.

Although no one knows for certain, it is thought that the mounds were built to elevate the town’s elite citizens, and the tallest one was probably used for ceremonial purposes. The photo above shows the view from Mound A, which allows you to see all of the area down below on all sides. Except, of course, that this photo only looks in one direction.

This is another view from Mound A looking in a different direction. Off in the distance, you can see the Visitors Center, along with a short reconstructed piece of the wall that is believed to have surrounded the city.

Angel Mounds is near the Ohio River, and this waterway flows out to the Ohio. I can just imagine the Mississippian people setting out in their boats from here out to the river and on to other places.

One more photo of Mound A. From this angle, you can see the path that goes to the top of the mound. All of the paths at Angel Mounds were just cut grass among taller grass, just so you know what to expect.

Visiting Angel Mounds

We are no strangers to mounds, having visited Pinson Mounds near our home many times.¹ So we thought it would be fun to check out Angel Mounds and compare.

First off, Angel Mounds has an admission fee, which makes me appreciate our free-admission Tennessee State Parks even more. The interpretive center at Angel Mounds was going through a renovation at the time of our visit, so the admission fee was reduced. And we did stay there long enough to get our money’s worth, I suppose.

Also, as mentioned above, the paths are all just grass. A couple of international visitors stopped us and asked, “Is there anything here besides just grass?” I said, “Well obviously, the mounds. But we have found all the paths to be just grass.” I am not sure what they were expecting, but I think I was expecting gravel or paved paths.

Along with the interpretive center being under renovation, almost all of the signs in the park needed some repair. For most of them, we could not tell what they said. We did pick up a paper map when we paid our admission, but there were not signs telling us where the things on the map were. We figured it out, but hopefully that will improve with whatever work they are doing.

It is always interesting to visit places like Angel Mounds and speculate about how previous cultures lived. Even with the thoughts mentioned above, we were happy to have visited!

Loving Life

You might have noticed a slight break between the previous post and this one. You might have been wondering if anything had happened. Or you might have been rejoicing that the posts here have not been more frequent. Or then, you might not have noticed anything at all.

We have been busy, and we have been loving life. Our recent travels have kept us busy, as has real-world work.²

But there is nothing wrong with being busy. Life is good, and I am loving life. Laura and I sometimes talk about how blessed we are. Not fabulously wealthy when compared to some, but we have enough to get by. Life is good.

If your life is not good, consider making changes that might be necessary to get away from whatever is making it not good and moving on to other things. After all, it is much easier to love one another when you are loving life.

*Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul. - Psalm 66:16

About the Photos

In case you are wondering, yes, it did sprinkle rain on us, but only right when we arrived. The clouds stayed around for most of our visit, which did not bother me at all, as they kept the sun away and made it feel slightly cooler. Plus, clouds can look cool in photos like these.

I did use the same preset that I had previously created for the Covered Bridge at Roann, Indiana photos, so you might think that these photos look similar to those. And you would be correct.

Photo: Each photo is a single Raw exposure, processed in Raw Therapee and GIMP.
Camera: Sony Alpha A7 II
Lens: Sony FE 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS lens
Date: June 9, 2024
Location: Evansville, Indiana