Background Information and History

Significance of East St. Louis' Native American Mounds

Why Preserve the Mound Sites?
    There are many reasons that justify preserving the Native American mounds  under East St. Louis and its surrounding areas.  Reasons such as the effects of education, technology, and economy give crucial support to establishing a motive for protecting the overlaying land and partially exposed Native American mounds.
    The Native American mounds of East St. Louis give us a glimpse back to the past. The past has a way of enriching our own lives.  People want to know about early civilizations that once inhabited their land.  They want to know that there land has culture.  Making people aware that this archaeology does exist for their community will help them to take more pride in their land.  They need to be made aware of everything that this archaeology has to offer them.  They need to be educated about this ancient civilization.  By preserving and exposing the earthen structures and artifacts we are defining East St. Louis' culture.
    In order to account for any unknown future opportunities we might have in unveiling more information about the mound sites, it is important to preserve the lots on which there are known subterranean mounds.  Foundations such as housing and small buildings without basements can be easily removed after their use.  In the future, if we have the technology, we may be able to "see" more of what exists that would otherwise be overlooked or distorted through our current excavating processes.
    The economy of East St. Louis can be greatly improved if there were something to draw the interest of outside communities and tourists.  Since the addition of the casino boats on the Mississippi River, there has been a dramatic jump in the St. Louis area economy.  East St. Louis rakes in a large sum of its money through its Mississippi Queen every year.  Another example of an attraction that stimulates money through tourism is the Cahokia Mounds Interpretive Center in Collinsville, Illinois.  This center is the most important archeological point of interest in the Midwest today, and that rests largely on the fact that the archaeology is easily understood with the relatively accurate interpretations in the museum and facility.
 

 

Native American Mounds of Emerson Park

    The map below indicates the locations of the Emerson Park mounds and the current zones of known artifacts.   These locations have been discovered by archaeologists who have taken a number of core samples in the East St. Louis area.  Through these core samples, the archaeologists can find soil stains and other residues which indicate pre-existing structures and/or artifacts.  Archaeologists also test the soil horizons in the area.  A drastic change in the layers may be a sign of mounds which have been covered up with several feet of soil.
 
 

 

 
Interpretive Center

 

    Not many people know what an interpretive center is.  Here is a sample of a what Cahokia Mounds Interpretive Center contains.  It is not necessarily a perfect model, but perhaps one of the best the Midwest has to offer us:

  The design of the interpretive center will be closely correlated to that of the original Native American settlements.  We will be attempting to recreate the precise structures and their locations around the mound as they existed then.  The building structures will be recreated according to the findings of the archeologists in the East St. Louis area.  They have been able to tell us exactly what type of materials were used and what size the structures were. They have been able to find footprints determined by stains in the soil horizons. The 3-D model will help to show what will be happening both above and below the ground level.
 
Integration Into Proposed Greenbelt
    The Interpretive Center may eventually be linked up with the vegetation and wildlife corridor projects.  The corridors are proposed green belts that contain various paths, tree nurseries, and park-like settings for the community.  The green belts will link the interprative center with an old school house that will serve as a community center, where people of all ages can learn more about the history of their community.  The map below shows dark green lines that enclose the desired lots for the green belt, and the brown square marks the interprative center.
 
 

 

Emerson Park Community Center

    In cooperation with the archaeological programs, there is a neighboring school building that will be able to help research the findings in any preservation zone.  Students of all ages will be able to take artifacts found in their community by archaeologists and learn about the ways to clean and properly research for information on these findings.  There will be classes available at the community center and the interprative center that can train people in site excavation and  help kids to gain interest in the sciences.
 
Elementary Students
    Elementary school children will have fun while also learning alot digging through the areas of low protection. These young students will be able to experience archaeological field wor through there own mock site excavations. Pottery, arrow heads, and human bones are just some of the artifacts they may find.

Junior High / High School
    In association with the social studies curriculums, these students will participate in actual site excavations. They will use the trechniques used by archaeologists to dig, unveil, and map actual artifacts associated with Emerson Park Mounds.  The mound materials they find will be documented and taken to the Emerson Park Community Center for further investigation.

College Students
    These students will become archaeological technicians who document and map all materials found on site. They will use various forms of software to create detailed maps of the site and will use data to create 3-D models of the mounds and their artifacts.

Continued Education
    Retired persons, archaeological enthusiasts, and the general public are also welcome at the community center.  Through the interprative education system, they can take part in various archaeological excavations.

3 - Dimensional Computer Imaging of East St. Louis Archaeology

    Now with the guidelines laid out it's time to focus on what the project site looks like.  To do this we have implemented virtual reality in our project that allows one to literally fly through a model of East St. Louis.  A block model of East St. Louis has already been completed, and used on the World Wide Web to give people with, Web access, a view of what has been completed already.  The model was created and then loaded into a VRML program that creates a virtual model.  The basic premise is, the program allows the viewer to control the path of the camera and see different locations of the model at will.  Through direct control the person can rotate the view, move forward and backward, along with up and down in the virtual world.  Within the model itself are cones that send the viewer to another page with more detailed information on the specific location.  One of the links actually takes the person to another model within Emerson Park.  The same controls are allowed within this model also.  We had this type of interface in mind when we set about to do this project.
    The project is showing the relationship of the mounds buried under the city to the buildings located over them. From this data we will set guidelines that limit the type of construction over top of these structures.  The guidelines become the most important part, but beyond that is the cultural side of the area that the residents have a right to know.   The basic feeling of the model will be an initial view of city at a neighborhood scale.  The neighborhood scale is simple cubes that represent the actual buildings in the area.  As the viewer moves downward towards the city it will fade and the mounds will be left underneath the city.  The model will also lay out the general structure of the prehistoric city, placing some of the smaller mounds and living structures in their approximate locations when they were existing.
    Once the finished model of Emerson Park and its local mounds the next step is the Cultural Mound Interpretive Center.  This center will be cited somewhere within Emerson Park and a computer model will be created that gives a first look at the center.
    In total, this model will show with moderate detail the city as it would have looked when it was in its prime years.  This model may not provide any hard detail about the area, but it will allow the average person to see it without getting a degree in plan reading.
 

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