Richard McCarty obtains a four hundred acre tract of land north of Cahokia (part of the common fields). Cahokia's common fields, with a breadth of almost four and a half miles, reach from the village of Cahokia to present day Illinois Avenue.

The commons is an area that is a source of firewood, nuts, berries, and wild game and is mainly used as a foraging and grazing area for the villagers' cows, pigs and horses.