Aztalan

Aztalan State Park is a Wisconsin state park located just south of the town of Aztalan and established in 1952. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. The park covers 172 acres (0.7 km²) along the Crawfish River.

Aztalan is the site of an ancient Mississippian culture settlement that flourished during the 10th to 13th centuries. The indigenous people constructed massive earthwork mounds for religious and political purposes. They were part of a widespread culture with important settlements throughout the Mississippi River valley and its tributaries. Their trading network extended from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast, and into the southeast of the present-day United States.

Yesterday was a beautiful day and Tom and I decided to pay a visit to Aztalan, a couple of hours away. It is a fairly simple site but one I had been wanting to visit for some time. I would also like to see Cahokia someday, where the Mississippian culture's most famous center was located near present-day St. Louis. It amazes me that I learned so little about this highly developed native civilization when I studied American history in school. We oohed and aahed over Aztec, Mayan and Incan ruins but paid little attention to the impressive earthwork constructions here in the States. Maybe the fact that they used dirt instead of massive stones was part of the reason they seemed less important. Or perhaps the fact that, unlike those more famous Latin American civilizations, they had disappeared long before the arrival of Europeans.

Whatever the reason, the park is a lovely and peaceful reminder of people who lived, laughed and loved here before us.