The Horseshoe Lake Mound and Village Site is a

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...

archaeological site located on the northeast shore of Horseshoe Lake in Madison County,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

. The site includes a platform temple mound and a village site with the remains of multiple houses. The site was inhabited by Mississippian peoples during the

Late Woodland period In the classification of archaeological cultures of North America, the Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures spanned a period from roughly 1000 BCE to European contact in the eastern part of North America, with some archaeolog ...

from roughly 600-1050 A.D. The village at the site was part of the settlement system connected to

Cahokia The Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site ( 11 MS 2) is the site of a pre-Columbian Native American city (which existed 1050–1350 CE) directly across the Mississippi River from modern St. Louis, Missouri. This historic park lies in south- ...

; it was a third line community, a class of community distinguished by a single temple mound, in the system. Of the five known third line communities in the Cahokia system, the Horseshoe Lake Site is the only one which is relatively intact. The site also includes substantial plant and animal remains, which indicate that its settlers produced

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

.Wagner, Mark. ''National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Horseshoe Lake Mound and Village Site''.

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...

, 1980-08-18. The site was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

on November 26, 1980.

References

Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois National Register of Historic Places in Madison County, Illinois Mississippian culture Mounds in Illinois {{MadisonCountyIL-NRHP-stub