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 Archaeologist Robert Mazrim's new museum interprets the state's frontier history from 1790 to 1840. |
Elkhart Hill in southern Logan County has been a landmark on the prairie for 10,000 years. Now there is a new museum to celebrate a portion of its history— specifically Illinois' frontier heritage.
The Sangamo Archaeological Center, 109 Governor Oglesby Street in Elkhart, was named for that region of the Illinois prairie called Sangamo Country, which lies in the Sangamon River valley. Owner/curator Robert Mazrim has done an excellent job assembling one of the largest single collections of pre-Civil War archaeological artifacts in the Midwest, all excavated at sites in and around Illinois.
Located twenty miles northwest of the state capital, the village of Elkhart sits at the foot of Elkhart Hill, the prairie moraine once home to Illinois Governor Richard J. Oglesby. Today Elkhart is a sleepy hamlet, a flyby for passengers on Amtrak's Statehouse Limited and pit stop for travelers on historic Route 66.
But history enthusiasts would do well to make the Sangamo Archaeological Center a destination when traveling through central Illinois.
What makes the museum unique is its focus on frontier Illinois history, says Mazrim. "The east coast has a wealth of Colonial material and the South has the Civil War sites, but in Illinois the archaeological museum focus has been primarily on the state's prehistory.
"To my knowledge there's not another place like this in the Midwest where you can see the range of archaeological materials people were using when Illinois was the 'Old West,' roughly 1780 to 1840," Mazrim told Illinois Heritage.
The Center's collection includes all manner of food storage and service vessels, from fired clay pottery to redware to fine English porcelain and French china—all used during Illinois frontier period. The museum's collection of early nineteenth-century household domestic artifacts also includes glassware, cutlery, buttons, pipes, medicine and whiskey bottles, and sundry curiosities.
The Center's collection includes artifacts excavated at digs in and around central Illinois.
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Mazrim, who also works for the Illinois Transportation Archaeological Research Program, a research arm of the University of Illinois'Anthropology Department, has conducted extensive digs throughout central Illinois. Recently he excavated French colonial sites in Peoria and a frontier-era preacher's home in rural Menard County. Mazrim is also an expert on frontier Illinois transportation corridors such as the Edwards Trace, a remnant of which is still visible on Elkhart Hill.
Those with an appetite for more than history will appreciate the Center too, for Mazrim's wife, Cynthia Hinton, runs the Bluestem Bake Shop, which shares quarters with the museum. Cinnamon rolls, muffins, soups, salads, and sandwiches are featured fare most days.
The Sangamo Archaeological Center is open Wednesday thru Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information call 217-947-2522.
16 Illinois Heritage
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