Caddo Mounds

Around 1200 years ago, a group of Caddo known as the Hasinai tribe established a settlement in the Piney Woods of East Texas. Over time, it grew to be a large village, with ceremonial mounds for worship and burials. The village was a center for trade, located on a well-traveled Native American route through Texas. The Caddo were part of the mound building cultures of North America.

A thousand years later, all that remains is a few small hills. Now there are tiny East Texas towns surrounding the site, most smaller than the Caddo village itself.

I've always thought that was weird. Growing up in East Texas, the places I considered big cities--Dallas, Houston, Austin--were far away and permanent. They'd always been the places with the most people. When you're young, you don't realize that things change. The way things are is the way they've always been, and they'll always stay the same. At least that's what we like to think.

But a thousand years ago, this site that now sits in the middle of nowhere was the big city. Young Caddo teenagers probably dreamed of leaving their small village and moving to the site near present day Alto, Texas. It was the place everything was happening. Traders from villages as far away as Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana came there to exchange their goods. Elaborate burial and religious ceremonies were held there. All the important warriors, priests, and political leaders lived at this site. It must have bustled with activity, something young people love.

There was a lot going on here.

Pictured above is the Low Platform Mound. Archaeological evidence shows there were no buildings on this mound, and no one is quite sure what is was used for. It's possible it was a place for community functions. I like to think it was a town square used for meetings and dances.

The mound in the picture above is the High Temple Mound. It was originally much larger than what we see today. According to the information at the Caddo Mounds State Historic Site, the mound used to be three times its current length and up to 35 feet high. Buildings for worship and government sat on top of the mound. Imagine living in the forests of East Texas and then coming to this city with its towering mounds. These were the skyscrapers of the first millennium.

From time to time, the buildings on top of the mound were ceremonially destroyed by fire. The ashes of these buildings would be covered with dirt, and new ones would then be constructed. Fire was an essential part of Caddo ceremonial life and their creation myth. It's possible there was a building with a perpetual flame, always burning, always signaling new life.

The largest mound (at least in height) at present is the Burial Mound. It was about 20 feet at its highest and over 90 feet in diameter. It contained around 90 bodies in about 30 burial pits. Burial in this mound was reserved for important community leaders.

The site was abandoned by the Hasinai in the 13th century, long before any Europeans set foot in Texas. The site had lost cultural and political influence by this time because the villages surrounding it had grown larger. Still, the site held some significance.

Alonso de Leon, Spanish governor of Coahuila,started a route that would eventually turn into the El Camino Real de los Tejas. The route was turned into an actual road by Domingo Teran de los Rios, the first governor of Spanish Texas. This "royal highway" went from Mexico City to Natchitoches, Louisiana.

The Caddo Mounds site was a rest stop on this route. The site was was frequently referred to as Paraje el Cerrito, which means Place of the Little Hill. This was due to the Camino Real going right by the Burial Mound at the site. Here's a photo of me on the Camino Real. You can see the Burial Mound in the background.

Did the Spanish travelers on this road know they were stopping to rest at what was once a large city? Maybe. Though the site had been abandoned for more than three hundred years, there surely had to be artifacts lying on the ground. The remaining Caddo tribe members must have known the history of the area and told stories of the city to these new European visitors.

Still, this site, and what was once here, became an afterthought. The site was excavated over the years, but was only really thoroughly researched in the 20th century.

It's always a sobering thought--things change, and the things we think are permanent are actually temporary. This city was the center of Caddo culture in Texas for five hundred years. And then it wasn't. It faded from significance to the Caddo, and then was forgotten to the world. I'll bet those who lived there thought that could never happen. But it did.

History simultaneously reminds me that I'm not as important as I think I am, and that what I do matters more than I think. It's a paradox I love to think about, and traveling to Caddo Mounds helped me do that.