My next stop for the day is at Millstone Bluff, which was the site of a late Mississippian village several hundred years ago. As I leave my truck in the gravel parking area, I first head towards the stone bluff face itself directly ahead of me. It's overgrown, but rises sixty or more feet straight out of the ground. It seemed the obvious place for the ancient inhabitants to have created rock art, but after scanning the wall and not finding anything, I return to the parking lot, only to notice a trail heading off the far side of the lot.
Here at the start of the trail, a number placards describe the hike, the ancient culture that lived here, and plead with visitors to care for this historical place. Of course, that last point sets well with me. As an advocate and practitioner of the Leave No Trace principles, I am always extremely careful to protect such sites. I'm glad that others share my views and I hope everyone who visits such places will consider how they may protect the rich heritage they are visiting.
The trail meanders through the thick southern Illinois woodlands and circles around to the back of the bluff, climbing gradually before taking a sharp left turn to reach the plateau on which the village once stood. I'm all alone out here and given the humidity, I decide to loose my shirt. As I wander around the loop trail that encircles the former village, I note signs indicating a graveyard (pillaged by treasure-seekers in decades and centuries past), the remains of a stone wall fortification, the depressions that are indicative of former structures, and finally a maze of natural stone corridors, on top of which in one particular section, an ancient artist carved images.
While the image of a large thunderbird is quite obvious, I utilize the tools I have at hand to enhance the image. D-stretch is a mobile app I have used before with great success, but it normally works better on pictographs than on petroglyphs. In this case tough, it certainly does help as you can see by the included image comparison. A number of figures, including a spider-like creature, a humanoid, turkey prints, and most obviously the thunderbird all begin to pop with the right color filter.
After spending a little time with the petroglyphs, I finish the loop and head back to the parking lot. I still have a lot of driving yet to do today and I might as well get started. That said though, it was nice to get a little in a short hike, which was right at 1 mile, to stretch my legs on this long road trip, to say nothing of being able to experience the richness of this ancient culture.
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