Rockwell Park

Rockwell Park. Havana Park District. , Welcome to Rockwell , At first glance, Rockwell Park seems like just another place to pass the time of day, have a picnic, or where children can play when they're not swimming in the Havana Park District pool. Rockwell Park also has a place in human history that dates back much further in time than its establishment as a city park in 1849., The park has been used for a variety of community events. The large hill was ideal for public speaking and was the site of a speech by Stephen A. Douglas on August 13, 1858, just before the famous Lincoln-Douglas U.S. Senate campaign debates. Abraham Lincoln arrived at the Havana riverfront by steamboat during Douglas' speech and spoke here at the park the following day. , Although Rockwell Park has long been a source of local history and pride its more ancient significance was not confirmed until 1986. The large hill that covers most of the park is no ordinary hill, but was constructed by Native Americans around 2,000 years ago. The existence of this earthwork lay hidden in the park under its tree cover, masked by its unusual shape and monumental size. , The people who built Rockwell mound were part of a major cultural florescence, often referred to as the Hopewell Culture that occurred in the North American mid-continent at a number of riverine locations. They had an ordered society rich in symbolism and ceremony. Hopewell people built mounds for the burial of honored dead and engaged in elaborate funerary practices. They also participated in a network of long distance trade of finished goods and raw materials that distributed exotic materials such as obsidian, grizzly bear teeth, copper, lead, and marine shell. , Rockwell Park Mound is the second largest Native American mound in Illinois and the largest recorded for the 2,000-year-old Middle Woodland cultural period of Illinois prehistoric people. The building of a mound of this size would have been a tremendous undertaking. An estaimated 1,760,000 baskets full of earth went into the construction of this two-acre, fourteen-foot-high mound., (aside:), Havana Hopewell , Rockwell Mound is located at the center of what archaeologists called the Havana-Hopewell Culture. Some have suggested that Rockwell Mound, its surrounding village area, and other nearby mound and village sites located in and on the edge of Havana might be the birthplace of the Middle Woodland culture., Unfortunately, Rockwell Mound is one of the few remaining mounds in the Havana area that survives today. Most of the others have that survives today. Most of the others have been destroyed by construction, road building, cultivation, or buried under the city of Havana., (caption:), Hopewell people used stone tipped spears and hunted elk, deer, waterfowl, and turkey. They ate fish from the river and backwater lakes, and collected a variety of plant resources. Local plants such as goosefoot, maygrass, knotweed, barley, marsh elder, and sunflower were cultivated in gardens. They also mastered the art of stone carving, pottery making and weaving. , The artifacts shown here are from the Neteler Mounds and Village site located just south of Havana.