Note-book No. 1 of the Kickapoo Club

In the summer of 1914 a group of curious scholars in Bloomington compiled a pocket notebook of their discoveries across central Illinois. The pages list bronze tomahawk blades, granite hatchets, flint drills, and shards of pottery unearthed by amateurs and professionals alike. Their careful notations capture the spirit of early fieldwork, when each find felt like a conversation with the past.

The heart of the notebook is an enthusiastic account of a 1913 expedition to the great Cahokia mound complex. The writer describes Monk’s Mound in vivid proportions, comparing its massive footprint to the pyramids of Egypt and the Aztec temples, and details the variety of exotic materials—obsidian, copper, sea shells—suggesting far‑reaching trade networks. Interwoven with maps of terraces and ridged cones, the notes convey both scientific observation and a sense of wonder at a vanished civilization.

For listeners, the document offers a rare glimpse into the nascent discipline of American archaeology, narrated in the plain yet excited voice of its authors. It is a snapshot of a time when the prairie’s hidden histories were just beginning to be uncovered.