Spiro Mounds Archeological Center

Tuesday June 3, 2025                                             Most Recent Posts
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I lived my childhood  in Ohio just north of the Serpent Mound which my school groups visited nearly annually.  I was always fascinated by this earthwork and especially the photos from above.  

Though the Adena People who originally built the Serpent Mound  (381 BCE-44 BCE) were much earlier in time than those of Spiro Mound.  Still, I was particularly interested in stopping here to visit this very famous mound builders site but I had no idea that it was under currently under renovation or that one day would not begin to do to learn about this place and its people.

First I met this Great tree.   Nice picnic spot.

Had someone take this to show the size of the tree which I did hug.

Inside, the visitor center was I hope just a mini version of its up coming self with one main room that appeared from the ceiling to be round with a glass skylight hole in the roof as in a tipi.   Under the skylight was a topo map and along the sides were tables with exhibits and very interesting looking books.  If there had been a chair available, preferably a rocker, I would have sat and sampled the books.  There was a hallway off of the main room with exhibits along the sides.

The book on Looting particularly caught my eye but more on that later.

The mural was wonderful!   The dancers are recreations based on depictions on engraved conch shells found at Spiro.  The scenes portray ceremonies where men danced out stories.  The scene represents the period 1200-1300 A.D.

This map shows the 4 trails, two paved and two gravel that go around the mounds.  Each is about half a  mile long.  Not sure why they didn’t indicate the Arkansas River on the map for reference.     Notice the Visitor Center at the bottom of the map on the right hand side.  The largest mound is Craig Mound.  It was the one looted.

Lots of information on the walls.  The room seen beyond this one has  wonderful information from giant folio books entitled Pre-Columbian Shell Engravings from the Craig Mound at Spiro.  There are multiple volumes on display that they amazingly allow you to page through.

I found the conch shell engravings fascinating in their detail.   I hope they will have some of the actual artifacts on display in the VC when they get the renovations done.  2027 they say.  Though I suspect what they will have are replicas.

I could have spent hours looking through these books and reading the information.  It’s a good thing they didn’t have anywhere to sit or I might have let time get totally away from me.

Taken from Volume 2  

Some of the designs were carved into pottery.

Taken from Volume 3

From Volume 6  The books were larger than they look in these pictures. They would take up most of the table top in Winnona’s dinette and it’s a good sized table.

This is a replica of a piece held in a museum.  This shell pendant would be a symbol of status, rank or religious power.  Often carved from lightning whelk shells, they would be polished carved and/or engraved.     I was frankly astounded at the artistry found here.

This is a canoe motif from a Spiro shell engraving shown on one of the indoor information boards.

I forced myself to head outside before it got hotter.   Starting out on the paved trail  I was able to see three separate groups of Archeologists working.

In this picture I looked back at the Visitor’s Center as I approached the of the archeologists.

The  groups working here are today from the University of Oklahoma.

I assume most of these are students but I don’t want to wander through the grasses to bother them.

In addition to the information in the Visitor’s Center, there were information boards along the paths telling you where you were in the community and what was done here along with drawings and a great deal more information.  Such as:

The people who lived here and built the Spiro Mounds were a Caddoan speaking people of the Mississippian culture which stretched from the central plains to the southeastern coast of the US.   They created the Spiro Mounds between 800 AD and 1450.  Their story is derived from early historic records, artifacts, and data recovered by archeologists as well as from traditions of their descendants the historic Wichita, Kichai and Caddo tribes.   Despite its vandalization,   more art and iconography has been found here than in any other prehistoric site in the United States.

The problem is that the sign boards are so deteriorated that now they are often difficult to impossible to read.   This one was best I saw.   I am really hoping that these are going to be updated or totally replaced with all this same information as part of the renovation but I couldn’t find anyone to assure me that was part of the project.   It’s a terrible shame if it isn’t.  At one point these were excellent.

Not sure how these guys got to have a truck but I didn’t disturb them either.

I learned later that the tipi set up is for sifting baskets which they fill with dirt and hope for treasure.  Sounds like fun doesn’t it?

The third group was right along the path so I did talk to them but it was clear they were busy.

Twelve mounds were built on this 150 acre site, Craig Mound, (a leaders’ burial mound) and the major one looted,  two temple mounds and nine house mounds. 

The mounds themselves were ceremonial and burial sites, with leaders' homes built on top of some.  When the leader died, their homes were burned and  covered with dirt.  Apparently after a time another leader might build there and thus the mounds grew in size.

Only the leaders lived in the Elite Area in the center of the Spiro Mounds.  This was the ceremonial center of the community, the general population, lived in a village surrounding the mounds, likely in dome-shaped houses with pole walls and thatched roofs.

The second most readable sign board shows the Elite City and to the right and below, Craig Mound.   Wish I’d asked why it’s named that.

It’s was hard now to imagine such a powerful nation here.  I found  many of Spiro’s 12 mounds difficult to discern.  Bumps on the landscape covered with trees and brush.  The largest population at Spiro Mounds was estimated to be around 10,000 people at its peak. The site was a major ceremonial center for the Mississippian culture and a hub for trade and religion, supporting this large population from approximately 800 to 1450 A.D.  You have to use your imagination. 

Though the mounds were difficult to pick out especially as it got hotter and I was less willing to investigate, I really enjoyed the wild flowers among the grasses and wondered how these areas were kept during the time of the Spiro people.   Were they mowed?  And if so how?   With paths through the lovely grasses as it is now.

The mowed paths were beautiful to walk.

The saddest story of Spiro Mound is its looting.  Between 1933 and 1935, a group of 6 local men, calling themselves the Pocola Mining Company, used shovels and picks to dig into the mounds.  They destroyed nearly 1/3 of Craig Mound.

  According to a 2021 article by the BBC, the looters found “Hundreds of engraved conch shells, thousands of pearl and shell beads, copper breast plates, large human effigy pipes and piles of brightly coloured blankets and robes.” Newspapers would later call the find an American "King Tut's tomb. Nothing like this had ever been discovered anywhere else in North America.”

Craig Mound 1914 before the looting.

The looters sold the artifacts they found to collectors throughout the world.  The destruction of over 400 burials caused Oklahoma in 1935 to be one of the first states in the nation to pass laws to protect prehistoric heritage.  A good thing but then after local law enforcement closed down the digs, the site was not monitored and the commercial diggers came back.  In August 1935 with three months left on their lease with the land owner, “they broke into the burial chamber and proceeded to plunder it. They removed thousands of objects, making no attempt to document the site or its holdings. Skeletons were tossed carelessly to the side, broken fragments of conch shells piled up like snow, and cedar poles used to build the chamber and carry the dead were burned as firewood.”  
                                                     What a horrible cultural crime.

Craig Mound more recently.  Date unknown.

Pocola Mining Company reported they found a prepared chamber inside the mound with a burial and thousands of artifacts.  They reported alters at the four cardinal points.  These people were never punished because they worked with the owner of the land and the laws were not enacted at that time.   What a crime!  And the Federal Law to protect all sites throughout the country was not enacted until 1979.  Nearly a century later, the incident remains the worst looting of an archeological site in US history.

I wondered where these artifacts ended up and found 65 public museums or university are known to have Spiro artifacts as well as hundreds of private groups and individual collectors.  Large collections sold by the Pocola Mining Company are held by The Smithsonian, the University of Arkansas Museum and the Houston Fine Arts and Natural History Museum.   The largest total collection is at at the University of Oklahoma’s Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History.  Now on my bucket list.  

The Arkansas River was the key to the rise of the society of Spiro Mounds.  Not only did it provide an agricultural foundation but enabled extended trade and influence in all directions along major rivers as the maps show.  They were connected with other Mississippian cultures at Etowah, Moundville, Toltec and Cahokia among others.  More places to research and  add to my bucket list.  Spiro's treasures include engraved conch shells from the Florida Keys, copper breastplates from the Great Lakes and beads from the Gulf of California.

Great map for planning other trips to Mississippian Mound Builders sites

I stopped at the book table before leaving to get this picture of Looting Spiro Mounds which  I am now anxious to find and  read.   The decimation of the mounds makes me so angry and sad.

I’ll keep up with how the renovation is going and hopefully plan another trip to New Mexico when I can stop here again and see all that I missed.