According to Wolf Koch, Sterling, IL, “Most of us here in the Midwest consider the history of our region to have started about 200 years ago, with the arrival of early settlers. Few give much thought to earlier civilizations that inhabited our river valleys for the last 10,000 years. [But] the Rock River Valley has been at the crossroads of commerce and manufacturing for two millennia.”
Koch will enlighten visitors about the “Hopewell Indians,” during his Morrison Historical Society program on Sunday, May 21, 2017, beginning at 1:30 p.m. Doors open at 1:00. Morrison’s Heritage Museum is located at 202 E. LIncolnway, Morrison, IL. Parking and a ramp entrance are at the rear of the building.
Dr. Wolf Koch will present “Hopewell Civilization.” The Hopewell mounds in Sterling, IL’s, Sinnissippi Park and those at the Albany, IL, Mounds State Historic Site are a testament to an early, highly developed society. These people inhabited our area more than 2000 years ago and left us with more than 7700 known sites of their activities throughout Illinois. The presentation will trace the development of mound building; review the significance of the Sinnissippi Park mounds and local pipe stone mining; summarize current knowledge of Hopewell life and the disappearance of the civilization.
Centered in south-central Ohio, the Hopewell civilization built elaborate earth works and thousands of burial mounds, throughout the river valleys of the Midwest. They established trading routes for copper and silver from northern Michigan, sea shells from Florida, and chert and obsidian as far north and west as the Athabasca region of Canada.
Here in the Rock River Valley, they established several large settlements and found a preferred pipe stone deposit which they mined. Recent data shows that 80% of stone pipes found in one of south-eastern Ohio’s most prominent Hopewell mounds were made from local Sterling-area pipe stone. Manufactured goods from villages throughout this region were distributed over long distances throughout the Hopewell trading sphere, making the Rock River Valley an important center for manufacturing and commerce 2000 years ago.
Koch and his wife, Linnea, have studied accounts of Adena and Hopewell archeological research and have traveled to many mound builder sites in Ohio and Illinois.
In 2009, the Kochs completed a booklet on the Hopewell civilization in the Rock River Valley, as a resource in teaching local history.