Caddo Mounds State Historic Site

05/23/2026

One good photo could turn into a reason to visit more historic places this summer.

Caddo Mounds is a beautiful stop for the THC Snapshot 2026 contest. Walk the trail, visit the grass house, take in the wildflowers, and snap a photo while you’re here.

Then keep going. Texas has a lot of history worth chasing.

Visit a THC state historic site from Memorial Day through Labor Day, snap a photo, and enter for a chance to win. One photo per entry, with multiple drawings throughout the summer. Visit more sites to increase your chances. Learn more and enter: https://bit.ly/snapshot2026

05/20/2026

This is a magnificent time of year to visit the education garden at Caddo Mounds SHS!

Our garden is a living blend of ancient, historical, and contemporary Caddo gardening traditions. Designed as a timeline of Caddo agriculture, the garden tells the story of Caddo ingenuity across thousands of years, beginning with early successes in plant cultivation and continuing with living traditions generously shared with us by our Caddo partners.

Every element of the garden carries meaning. Contemporary features, including the snake mosaic, were created with the guidance and input of Caddo elders Marilyn Threlkeld and Kay O’Neal during visits to the tribal headquarters in Binger, OK in 2022. Many garden plants were added through Caddo requests and gifts of seeds, including muscadine grapes, eastern red cedar, to***co, cushaw squash, and clammyweed.

The garden is a place of curiosity, relationship, and shared harvest. We are honored to share seeds and harvests with both our local and Caddo communities, continuing traditions rooted deeply in the land and carried forward through generations.

If you would like to learn more, we invite you to explore these wonderful stories and short videos that connect the garden to Caddo history, agriculture, and storytelling.

The Caddo story of Snake Woman Who Distributes the Seed with Caddo/Kiowa storyteller Kricket Rhoads Connywerdy, https://youtu.be/u87H_PQdWrI?si=c8Kdvc9jsKG3-tSQ
and the Origin of Corn: a monster story https://youtu.be/5g2Yz1DmVHI?si=d6Y28gThAFKJM6IR

Learn about the roots of our modern garden with with paleoethnobotanist Dr. Leslie Bush:
A brief look into the history of Caddo agriculture: https://youtu.be/fsuNAxRQImQ?si=XBm30V69tCmk6bEv
A glimpse into plant cultivation: https://youtu.be/vOfaiJaYgoM?si=HSnE-t3bo7Ej2lIk
European impressions of Caddo agriculture: https://youtu.be/WFXOw2DN8iY?si=eHiryBHTgEwg-1-c
How paleoethnobotanists learn about ancient plant use: https://youtu.be/L7bjBUTGU5U?si=J5RiuiFCA247PbQ4

If you would like to get your hands dirty and show the garden some love, then we invite you to join site staff, Friends Group volunteers, and the Tribal Youth Conservation Corps (TYCC) on June 10th and 11th as we work together to build a new garden fence.

And, there is still time to experience the spring Family Garden programs on Friday, May 22 and June, 5th, https://www.facebook.com/share/1CMFkbgfhk/

05/20/2026

I am so honored and excited to be a part of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art's America 250: Common Threads exhibition going on right now from Mar 14 - Jul 27. This is my traditional Caddo bottle, 'Choh'-Kah-Koot: Rolling Water, Cycle of Life', that is part of Crystal Bridge's permanent collection.
Coming up soon at Crystal Bridges is the very exciting expansion opening celebration, June 6-7 where more of my pieces will be introduced in their new galleries. Can't wait!
https://crystalbridges.org/calendar/america-250-common-threads/
https://crystalbridges.org/calendar/expansion-opening-celebration/

05/18/2026

05/16/2026

The trail is full of color right now.

Wildflowers are blooming across the site, and the butterflies have found them. It’s one of the best times of year to slow down, walk the trail, and notice the small things moving through the grass.

Come out to Caddo Mounds this week and take it in while it lasts.

The mounds are always worth seeing.
Right now, the flowers are putting on their own little tour.

05/14/2026

Caddo Mounds State Historic Site
Alto, Texas
More than 1,200 years ago, a group of Caddo Indians known as the Hasinai built a village 26 miles west of present-day Nacogdoches. The site was the southwestern-most ceremonial center for the great Mound Builder culture. Today, three earthen mounds still rise from the lush Pineywoods landscape, where visitors discover the everyday life and the history of this ancient civilization.
https://www.thc.texas.gov/.../caddo-mounds-state-historic...

05/01/2026

The Annual meeting is today. Come and hear where archaeology, history and our own shared memory intersect!

Our annual meeting is this Friday and Saturday!

Join us in Alto, Texas on May 1st to learn about a multitude of subjects dealing with El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail. It will also be a good time to meet Association board members, staff, and agency partners to learn more about initiatives for the trail. We will also recognize State Senator Robert Nichols for getting State of Texas funding appropriated for the trail for the first time since its designation as an NHT.

On May 2nd, we will take a tour of historic sites in east Texas, including the Cherokee County Courthouse, Caddo Mounds State Historic Site, and the Lobanillo Swales.

The event is free and registration closes tomorrow. Registration information can be found at:

https://annualmeeting2026.eventzilla.net/

We hope to see you there!

Mission Tejas State Park - Texas Parks and Wildlife Mission Dolores State Historic Site Stone Fort Museum Nacogdoches Texas Historical Commission National Park Service

04/30/2026

Lightning changed the view for a second.
The mound has held it for centuries.

04/28/2026

Most of Caddo Mounds is not visible at first glance.

You can see the mounds.
You can see the trail.
You can see the grass house.

But much of the story is under your feet.

Post holes. Hearths. Old house patterns. Open spaces that may have been gathering areas. Places that looked empty until archaeology gave us a better way to read them.

This Saturday’s First Saturday Guided Tour will focus on what we know, what we think we know, and what we are still trying to understand about this landscape.

It’s more than a walk.

It’s a closer look at a place the ancestral Hasinai Caddo shaped with care, skill, and intention.

Join us this Saturday, May 2nd, at 10 AM. Details are on our Events page.

04/27/2026

Some people make a place work before visitors ever step onto the trail.

This year, Christine Stout received a statewide Customer Service Excellence Award from the Texas Historical Commission, and no one here is surprised.

Christine is our office manager, retail store wizard, question-answerer, schedule-holder, book-finder, and steady hand at the front of Caddo Mounds. She welcomes visitors, points them toward the story of this ancient landscape, and somehow keeps the whole place moving at the same time.

She is a creative soul, a voracious reader, and a deep well of knowledge. If you’ve ever left the visitor center with a better book, a better question, or a better understanding of the site, there’s a good chance Christine had something to do with it.

We are proud of her, grateful for her, and lucky to have her on this team.

Congratulations, Christine. Well earned.