Spiro Mounds is an Indigenous archaeological site located in present-day eastern Oklahoma. The site was built by people from the Arkansas Valley Caddoan culture. that remains from an American Indian culture that was part of the major northern Caddoan Mississippian culture.
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The site and center are absolutely worth a visit for anyone interested in indigenous American history and culture, particularly the Mississippian time period. The director of the center is very knowledgeable and friendly, more than willing to share information about the site and findings.
Most of the mounds are pretty visible, and are all significant though the most sizable ones made the biggest impression on me. If you plan to spend long here you may wish to bring food. You can buy candy bars and cold water or soda at a fair price, as well as informational material or souvenirs but there is no kitchen on hand and I am uncertain about nearby restaurants in or around Fort Coffee.
The only issue with my visit is not one that reflects negatively on the center or the legacy of the site in any way. It simply needs to be better funded and improved in accordance with the immense significance and influence of the finds here. It remains a place of significance to many indigenous people today, and contributed an amazing wealth of information and material culture. It is no exaggeration to say it is as valuable as Cahokia and should reflect that.
A wonderful experience. Bring insect repellant if you plan to walk the trails around the mounds and a water...
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Small inconspicuous museum but big on info! This is exclusively about a Pre Columbian culture originally based in this area. One of the westernmost settlement of Mississippian Native Peoples. There is currently no archeological activity happening ( so its currently free) but you can go out back to the original site of the old city. The mounds are small because of dissemination and erosion, so do not expect much. Just looks like open grounds with low hills. Be prepared for the heat and sun, but you can walk around and read the information posted on some very weather worn boards. With some imagination, you can picture what it would have looked, felt and sounded like. A unique, no frills experience. Do not miss out. Also, the guy in the glass case in the museum looks freakishly lifelike. He's a little...
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Great little museum, lots of interesting artifacts indoors and we learned a lot about the spiro people :) definitely go inside. As for the trails.. I dont really recommend it for kids, a lot of the trails have mounds where things "used to be" and so there isn't actually much to look out outside. Also, they give you a trail guide which is a printed booklet with numbers that tells you about each marker on the trails. It's got a lot of errors and didn't seem to be printed correctly, so it would be nice to see that fixed next time we visit. Because there is so much trail, you spend the majority of the time there and I feel like you actually interact with very little. This weighed pretty heavy on my...
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