Cahokia Mounds interpretive center will close for updates. What’s all being done?

The interpretive center at the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site will be temporarily closed during a $5 million renovation of the building for at least a year, but the site will remain open for visitors who want to walk the trails or climb Monks Mound.

The center will close on March 1 and the renovations will take a year or possibly longer to be completed.

The work on the 1988 building includes replacement of the roof as well as the heating and air conditioning systems, fire suppression system and security system. Also, the building’s theater will be restored.

Funding for the building renovation will come from the state’s $45 Rebuild Illinois capital improvement plan, which is supported by increases in the state’s gas tax, cigarette tax, gaming taxes and vehicle registration fees approved by lawmakers and Gov. J.B. Pritzker in 2019.

Displays inside the interpretive center will not be changed significantly but some updates will be made, according to site Superintendent Lori Belknap.

Any changes to the interpretive displays will not be part of the $5 million funding from the state’s Rebuild Illinois plan, Belknap said.

Belknap said she didn’t know whether the building’s renovation would affect the effort to have the site added to the National Park Service but she said the work will certainly improve the safety and experience visitors have at the center.

Federal lawmakers in recent years have sought to get federal protection for the site. And on Nov. 30, U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois sent a letter to President Joe Biden asking him to use his authority under the Antiquities Act to designate the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site as a unit of the National Park Service.

Indian mounds

The 100-foot high Monks Mound was built by American Indians, who were part of what scholars today call the Mississippian culture.

It is the largest pre-Columbian, earthen structure in all of North and South America, according to a former official with the site. Dozens of other mounds were also built on the site.

The site is known as “America’s first city,” and it is believed to have had a population larger than London in 1250.

At the height of the Cahokia Mounds, an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 American Indians lived at the site, which was formed around the year 1000 and abandoned by 1400.

In the 1800s, the mounds were named after the Cahokia tribe that lived in the area when European settlers arrived.

Monks Mound is named after a group of French Trappist monks who lived near the mound on another mound from 1809 to 1813.

How to visit

The site is located at 30 Ramey St. off Collinsville Road near Interstate 255 in Collinsville.

During the building renovation, visitors will be allowed to park on the north side of Collinsville Road in the Monks Mound parking lot. The driveway leading into the interpretive center will be closed and no public access will be available to the main parking lot and surrounding area.

Walking tours are expected to resume in the spring while the renovation is underway.

Belknap noted that visitors can learn more about the mounds by using the site’s new “augmented reality” app for Apple devices. This costs $4.99 to download.

For more information, call 618-346-5160 or go to cahokiamounds.org.