Nephites in the Heartland of USA - Part 5

We drove to Cohokia Settlement just east of St. Louis, MO.  We spent time in the museum seeing amazing artifact. The museum is world class but the magnitude of Monks Mound, the largest earthen temple mound structure in North America is awe inspiring.  

 Above is Curtis and I standing in front of the Monks Mound.  It reminded us of Temple of the Sun in Mexico City only built out of mounds and not stone.

 This is what the first set of steps looked like from the first level up.

 Once we were at the top and we looked west, look what we saw! We had no idea we were that close to St. Louis! It was only 6 miles away!! See the Arch?

      We then drove to Stone Fort, an ancient fortified hilltop with stone walls perched atop a bluff.  If you look at the map below you will see the states of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, etc.  Look where the #23 is located. This is where this Stone Fort is located.  There are 45-47 Forts that go across that green dotted line. From each Fort you can see the next Fort.  They had the Mississippi River and Ohio River on the bottom and these fort strung across the lower portion of the state.

In the Book of Mormon 3 Nephi 3:21   But Gidgiddoni saith unto them: The Lord forbid; for if we should go up against them the Lord would deliver us into their hands; therefore we will prepare ourselves in the center of our lands, and we will gather all our armies together, and we will not go against them, but we will wait till they shall come against us; therefore as the Lord liveth, if we do this he will deliver them into our hands.

       3 Nephi 4:4    Therefore, there was no chance for the robbers to plunder and to obtain food, save it were to come up in open battle against the Nephites; and the Nephites being in one body, and having so great a number, and having reserved for themselves provisions, and horses and cattle, and flocks of every kind, that they might subsist for the space of seven years, in the which time they did hope to destroy the robbers from off the face of the land; and thus the eighteenth year did pass away.

 As we hiked from the parking lot, it was a narrow bath up hill. You look at the above photo and see the cliffs up on the right.

 These are the stones that are left on this fort wall.  They have excavated 4 or 5 Forts, the rest are under brush and growth.

 You can see how far down to the Bus it is from the very top. Was amazing what they were able to do protect their families.

 As we were discussing what happened in this area, one of the boys was digging along the stones and found this arrowhead. In perfect SHARP condition! Wow!

 Here are some of us looking at what he found. Amazing! What a treasure for him!