The drive between Atlanta and St. Louis is a long one, and on such drives I often find the need to get out and stretch my legs a bit. As I'm on my way to relocate my mother to live with my wife and I, I sought out a couple of interesting stops to do just that. My first stop is at an Kincaid Mounds State Historical Site. After driving for the last five or six hours on interstate highways, the switch to gravel roads is a noticeable change in the way my truck handles.
As I approach the ancient earthen mounds constructed sometime between 1050 and 1400 C.E., the first that strikes me is the location. This site is located within a few hundred feet of the massive Ohio River and likely in its flood plain. I can imagine that the river behaved any differently during the Mississippian Culture than it does today. Perhaps these tall mounds offered some relief for the indigenous peoples by functioning as islands during such floods. Either way, the four obvious mounds are quite striking as they rise up thirty to forty feet above the tall sea of grass. A set of historical markers have been placed near the parking area and describe the site as it may have been in the distant past. While this site is considerably smaller than Cahokia, 150 miles to the Northwest, it's still an impressively large site and worth a visit.
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