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This article summarizes what is currently known about the "pre-Allerton" history of Allerton Park using archaeological and historical data and explores the park's potential for future research. The park and surrounding area has a long and rich human history that is overshadowed by the "Allerton Period" mansion, gardens, and sculptures commissioned by Robert Allerton in the early twentieth century. Precontact native groups used the area for thousands of years, largely for hunting and gathering; they also constructed mounds along the Sangamon River within the current park boundaries. However, few systematic archaeological investigations of the park's prehistory have been conducted. Historic records indicate later indigenous groups such as the Illinois, Potawatomi, and Kickapoo also occupied the region; these records also provide detailed information regarding the early nineteenth century Euroamerican settlement of the region. Unfortunately, information derived from historic records about contact era indigenous groups and initial Euroamerican settlement of the area tells little about the daily lives and practices of these groups, and it is these aspects of the historic past that archaeology can reveal. While there are a number of historic period archaeological sites within the park that are associated with Euroamerican settlers, including two well-documented pioneer cemeteries, very little work has been conducted on these sites. Given the relatively undisturbed nature of the Allerton Park landscape, which has been preserved from the impacts of modern mechanized agricultural, the park represents a unique source of archaeological information in this little-understood area along the Sangamon River in east-central Illinois. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses recent archaeological investigations at the Samuel's Mounds site, a pre-Columbian mound site located within the boundaries of Robert Allerton Park in Piatt County, Illinois. This work was part of a collaborative effort between the Illinois State Archaeological Survey, Allerton Park, and Parkland College to investigate the archaeological resources within the park. Pedestrian survey, geophysical survey, test excavations, and the restoration of one of the looted mounds were conducted at the site in 2017 and 2018, and these investigations provided information on the chronology, mound construction techniques, and activities that took place at the site. This work has shed light on the Late Woodland period in the upper Sangamon Valley and provided foundational archaeological information that will be useful to Allerton Park visitors, managers, the general public, and archaeologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the spring of 1987, archaeological excavations were conducted at the Ernat site (11LS267), a multicomponent occupation located in the Illinois River floodplain immediately east of Starved Rock State Park along State Route 71. Excavations yielded several pit and rock concentration features, including two possible basin structures, and rich lithic, ceramic, faunal and botanical assemblages, including evidence of bison exploitation and possible aquatic tuber roasting pits. Although artifacts and features indicate Early Archaic through Upper Mississippian/Late Prehistoric and possibly Contact-era occupations at the site, the majority of remains pertain to the Middle and Late Woodland periods. Of these, materials classified as Late Woodland Swanson and Starved Rock Collared predominate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cultural landscape of east-central Illinois consisted of a range of settlement types during the pioneer and frontier periods, and while archaeological sites representing habitations are relatively abundant, sites representing commercial and industrial activities are less common. Recent investigations at the Meneley Mill site in Vermilion County near the community of Potomac provide a glimpse of an early to mid-nineteenth-century industrial site. Results of recent field and archival investigations at the mill site are presented, as well as a discussion of the role of mills during the pioneer and frontier periods. Primary sources consist of archaeological features and artifacts from the site, historic maps and atlases, and census data. Secondary sources include county histories, studies of the historic distribution of mills in Illinois, and the role of mills in nineteenth century society and economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excavations at 11V924, a mid-nineteenth century farmstead in Vermilion County, revealed a wealth of information regarding everyday life during the frontier period in east-central Illinois. The site is especially interesting because it appears that the head of the household during most of the period of its occupation was Mary Ann Martin (née Prather), widow of Presley Martin. In addition to overseeing a prosperous farmstead, Mrs. Martin also managed a cottage industry of wool production and weaving. The results of investigations at 11V924 contribute a unique data set to the growing corpus of information relating to the pre-Civil War Euro-American settlement in central and east central Illinois (Gums et al. 1999; Mazrim 2002; Stelle 2005). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]