Angel Mounds - Definition

Angel Mounds State Historic Site is located in Warrick County in Indiana just west of Newburgh and adjacent to the Ohio River. It is part of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Indiana State Museums and Historic Sites. It is one of 16 state museums and historic sites in Indiana. It is named after the Angel Family who settled in this location along the Ohio River in the early 1800s.

For over a thousand years, Southwestern Indiana was home to many Native Americans. Today, Angel Mounds State Historic Site is nationally recognized as one of the best preserved prehistoric Native American sites in the United States. From 1100 to 1450 A. D., a town on this site was home to people of the Middle Mississippian culture, who engaged in hunting and farming on the rich bottom lands of the Ohio River. Several thousand people lived in this town protected by a stockade made of wattle and daub. Because Angel Mounds was a chiefdom (the home of the chief) it was the regional center of a large community that grew outward from it for many miles.

This settlement was the largest known town of its time in Indiana, but the Mississippian people eventually deserted it. No one today knows why. Fortunately, preservation and archaeological efforts at Angel Mounds State Historic Site offer a glimpse into this highly developed culture of the distant past. For 60 years, this living museum has told the story of one pre-contact Native American culture on the Ohio River.