Sterling Rock Falls Historical Society will hold its January meeting and program on Sunday, February 11, 2024, beginning at 2:00 p.m. The location is the Lincoln Learning Center, 611 E. Third Street, Sterling, IL. The public is cordially invited to attend; there is no charge.
Wolf Koch and his wife Linnea have studied accounts of Hopewell archeological research and have traveled to many mound builder sites in Ohio and Illinois. They describe the history of the Hopewell civilization and the significance of the local mounds. In 2009, the Kochs completed a booklet on the Hopewell civilization in the Rock River Valley for use as a resource in teaching local history.
This month’s presentation will trace the development of a thriving, ancient civilization in northwestern Illinois; review the significance of local mound sites; clarify the development of local pipe stone mining, utilization, and trading.
Many in the Midwest consider the history of our local 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. The Hopewell mounds in Sterling’s Sinnissippi Park and those at the Albany Mounds State Historic Site are a testament to an earlier, highly-developed society. Those people inhabited this area more than 2000 years ago and left us with more than 7700 known sites of their activities throughout Illinois.
Centered in south-central Ohio, the Hopewell civilization built elaborate earthworks 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 northwestern Illinois, they established several large settlements and found a preferred pipestone deposit which they mined. Recent data shows that 80% of stone objects found in one of south-eastern Ohio’s most prominent Hopewell mounds were made from local Sterling-area stone. Manufactured goods from this region were distributed over long distances throughout the Hopewell trading sphere, making northwestern Illinois an important center for manufacturing and commerce 2000 years ago. In 2022, the most prominent Hopewell ceremonial sites in southeastern Ohio were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Dr. Koch, a Sterling resident, is a Consultant to the oil and petrochemical industry and has been a Professor of Chemical Engineering. Linnea Koch, a Graphic Designer and Photographer, produced three interpretive outdoor panels for Sinnissippi Park in 2008.