Dickson Mounds

Dickson Mounds

Museum at the site
Location in Illinois today
Location	Lewistown, Illinois, Fulton County, Illinois,  USA
Region	Fulton County, Illinois
Coordinates	40°21′2.16″N 90°6′57.24″W / 40.3506000°N 90.1159000°W / 40.3506000; -90.1159000
History
Founded	800 CE
Abandoned	1250 CE
Cultures	Middle Mississippian culture
Site notes
Excavation dates	1937
Architecture
Architectural styles	burial mounds, platform mound
Architectural details	Number of monuments:
Dickson Mounds
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
NRHP reference No.	72000457
Added to NRHP	May 5, 1972[1]
Responsible body: State of Illinois

Dickson Mounds is a Native American settlement site and burial mound complex near Lewistown, Illinois. It is located in Fulton County on a low bluff overlooking the Illinois River. It is a large burial complex containing at least two cemeteries, ten superimposed burial mounds, and a platform mound. The Dickson Mounds site was founded by 800 CE and was in use until after 1250 CE. The site is named in honor of chiropractor Don Dickson, who began excavating it in 1927 and opened a private museum that formerly operated on the site.^[2] Its exhibition of the 237 uncovered skeletons displayed by Dickson was closed in 1992 by then-Gov. Jim Edgar.^[3]

Don Dickson was a chiropractor and discovered the burial mounds on his family farm. Instead of removing the bones, he only removed the dirt. He covered his excavation with a tent. He later replaced his tent with a building and set up a private museum.^[4]

The Dickson Mounds Museum is a museum erected on the site in 1972 by the U.S. state of Illinois; it describes the life cycles and culture of Native Americans living in the Illinois River valley over a period of 12,000 years since the last ice age. The museum is part of the Illinois State Museum system.^[5]