CONNECTING CULTURE AND SKY
Discover how the people at Angel (known today as Angel Mounds), lived and designed this city with great purpose as you learn about the deep connections between the people and this place. Located on the banks of the Ohio River near Evansville, by 1250 A.D. Angel had become a powerful city. It remains a sacred place to today’s tribal nations and is one of the best preserved “Mississippian” sites to explore this period in Native American history.
Spanning 600 acres, the historic site includes 11 earthen mounds built with the special purpose to elevate important buildings in the vast city where people lived, worshiped and worked. Angel Mounds also highlights the cosmology of the people – how they may have understood their place in the universe and how everything is connected. Discover how the mounds are aligned with extraordinary precision to view many celestial events, such as sunrise on the day of the summer solstice and the sunset on the winter solstice.
Children Under 3
Admission: FREE
Youth (Ages 3 - 17)
Admission: $8
Adults (Ages 18 - 59)
Admission: $12
Seniors (Ages 60+)
Admission: $10
Members
Admission: FREE
Purchase Tickets
Visiting on a free day? Specific site access and tour space will be limited. Please contact the site in advance of your visit to learn more and reserve your space.
Purchase TicketsOperating Hours
Wednesday: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Thursday: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Friday: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Saturday: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Sunday: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Monday: Closed
Tuesday: Closed
Holidays
Easter – Closed
Memorial Day – Open for preregistered tours only
July 4th – Open
Labor Day – Open for preregistered tours only
Thanksgiving – Closed
Christmas Eve – Closed
Christmas Day – Closed
New Year’s Eve – Closed
New Year’s Day – Limited hours with preregistered tours only
Free Days
Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Jan. 20)
Presidents Day (Feb. 17)
Juneteenth Celebration (date tbd)
PROGRAMS & EVENTS
-
Dec 18, 2024 1:00 pm - 3:00 pmAngel Mounds
Homeschool Adventures: Native American Food (ages 7-12)
-
Dec 20, 2024 3:45 pm - 5:30 pmAngel Mounds
Winter Solstice Alignment Event
-
Dec 21, 2024 3:45 pm - 5:30 pmAngel Mounds
Winter Solstice Alignment Event
-
Jan 15, 2025 1:00 pm - 3:00 pmAngel Mounds
Homeschool Adventures: All About Pottery (ages 8-13)
-
Jan 20, 2025 10:00 am - 5:00 pmMultiple Locations
FREE DAY: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day
The Power of the Mounds
Nearly 800 years ago, Angel was a thriving center for agriculture and trade. Today, you can see recreations of fortification palisade walls and tour an interpretive center to engage in the stories of the past told by the living descendants of this Mississippian society.
Ancestral Echoes in Today’s Voices
Step inside our newly transformed interpretive center to hear modern perspectives of Angel Mounds and the significance it still holds today directly from the descendants of this Mississippian community. Discover beautiful artworks created by the indigenous artists of today alongside the artifacts that inspired them.
This transformation was completed in collaboration with artists and historians who are living descendants in today’s federally recognized tribal nations including Delaware, Miami, Osage, Quapaw and Shawnee nations, among many others, and the IU Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (IUMAA). The project was made possible by $4 million in funding from the state of Indiana and a $2.5 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc.
Take a Hike!
Walk outside and take in the expansive view before you head out to explore the natural beauty of the Angel Mounds loop trail. Stop at the interest points dotted along the roughly 1.4-mile trail for a unique perspective of how the mounds were constructed and what they looked like to the people who lived here long ago.
BOOK A FIELD TRIP
Students can learn about various artifacts as we gather around a table of special objects to discover more. They can also wind their way through interactive exhibits in the newly transformed interpretive center and then head outdoors to explore 600 acres where the earthen mounds built by the Mississippians still stand today. Call 812.853.3956 to schedule your visit to Angel Mounds or click below to learn more.
Learn moreMississippian Communities
Angel was one of many communities often referred to as Mississippian – a term broadly referring to many diverse communities emerging sometime after A.D. 800 in the Mississippian River Valley who shared ways of doing and seeing things. These included innovations to greatly expand corn agriculture and architectural techniques for building flat-topped earthen mounds. Crushed shell added to clay to make ceramic pottery and a handful of deeply meaningful, symbolic artistic motifs are also part of what defines “Mississippian.” Angel was established by A.D. 1100 and became a major center in the region. By 1450, the city was abandoned and the people established towns and villages elsewhere. Today, we don’t know how the people who lived at Angel referred to their city. We now call it Angel Mounds for the 20th-century farmer who owned the land before it became a protected site.
ARCHAEOLOGY AT ANGEL MOUNDS
In historic times, the site was a working farm of the Angel family. In 1938, with a donation from Eli Lilly, the Indiana Historical Society purchased the land to protect it from development. Starting in 1939, under the direction of Glenn A. Black, a crew of 277 WPA workers began excavating the site, recovering more than 2.5 million artifacts. Black’s efforts had a major impact on North American archaeological thought and technique, and at one time, the project was one of the largest of its kind in the United States.
Unearth History All Year Long
Our members enjoy exploring the life and times of Indiana’s First Nations, hiking and biking through the grounds, as well as pursuing archaeological interests all year long! What will you learn today?
explore our membership plansPlan Your Trip
-
Admission
Visiting on a free day? Specific site access and tour space will be limited. Please contact the site in advance of your visit to learn more and reserve your space.
Purchase Tickets -
Contact
-
Group Rate
Discounted tickets are available for groups of 10 visitors or more. To receive group rates, please call the site in advance and purchase all tickets with one payment. Find prices below.
Adults – $10
Seniors* – $8
Youth* – $6
Children under 3 – FREE
*Seniors: Ages 60 and older, Youth: Ages 3 through 17For group transportation to a state historic site, contact our partners at CharterUP.
-
Discounts
Special discounts are available for educators and education groups, military, Access Pass holders and more.
Learn more -
Tours
Self-guided tours of the site are available during regular operating hours. Hiking trails are also open during regular operating hours.
-
School Groups
Field trip admission is free for pre-scheduled, accredited schools and homeschool groups of 10 or more Indiana K-12 students. Members of the Indiana Association of Homeschool Educators receive free daily admission with proof of membership. Call 812.853.3956 to schedule your visit.
Academic topics covered include Pre-Columbian Native American history (Mississippian ca. 800-1600 A.D.), archaeology, nature and star lore.
Learn more -
Commercial Photography And Videography
If you are a photographer looking to book a shoot at Angel Mounds State Historic Site, please review our commercial photography policy and application process. Learn more >>
8215 Pollack Ave, Evansville, IN 47715
Visit Today
Angel Mounds has a distinctive Visitors Center that looks like the mounds, so you’ll be able to see it from the road once you reach Pollack Avenue. Parking is available at the Angel Mounds Interpretive Center.
