My kids and I often go to the Winfield Mounds, a small little nature preserve. Here’s more from the DuPage County Forest Preserve website:
Winfield Mounds Forest Preserve once was the home to various pre-historic Native Americans who dwelled along the West Branch of the DuPage River. They lived a simple hunter-gatherer lifestyle, made possible by the plentiful game and edible flora in the county at that time.
Middle and Late Woodland Period cultures lived in this part of DuPage County from about 2000 to 4000 years ago. They left behind many artifacts, including arrowheads and shards of pottery. In addition, one burial mound was found on this site. These groups were later displaced by the Illiniwek and Potowatomi cultures that were here when the first European settlers arrived in the 1830s.
The burial mounds for which the preserve is named are believed to be built in the Late Woodland Effigy Mound Tradition, which was common in northeastern Illinois from 600-1000 AD. Effigy Mound Peoples sometimes built mounds in the shape of animals important to the tribe, such as deer, eagles or fish. More commonly, however, the mounds were built in simple geometric shapes, like Winfield Mounds, which are three dome-shaped mounds set in a triangular pattern. These mounds are the only documented pre-historic burial site in DuPage County.
When I’m in nature, I like to take the same picture through time so as to see how things move. Here are three examples. The wintry ones were taken in December 2006, the summery ones were taken last week.
Things change, and that’s OK. God bless us all.