Illinois State Museum Illinois River Exhibits

Illinois State Museum
Springfield, Illinois

The Illinois State Museum's new natural history hall, Changes: Dynamic Illinois Environments, opened in June 2004. Visitors will join the team of the Changes Institute to explore 500 million years of environmental change from the period when the state was covered by an inland sea, through the Ice Ages, and into today's Interglacial environment. The Mississippi RiverWeb^SM Consortium exhibits are integrated into this hall.

Six multi-media exhibits convey the evolution of the Illinois River valley and its resources and capture changing human interactions with the river. A full-scale diorama depicts the Illinois River and an associated backwater lake in A.D. 1673. An illustrated time line tracks major changes in the river valley over the last 12,000 years. Hundreds of objects(fishing and duck boats, hoop nets, catfish basket traps, fishing lures, duck decoys, and crowfoot bars for harvesting mussels)document the harvesting of river resources and testify to the river's productivity. An exhibit of freshwater mussel shells tells the story of human alterations to the river. A three-dimensional model of the floodplain illustrates valley landforms and geological forces of change. Internet terminals invite visitors to explore the Mississippi RiverWeb^SM Museum consortium Web site and other Web-based resources on rivers. The RiverWeb^SM Digital River Basin provides the culminating experience for visitors to the Illinois River exhibits.

Illinois State Museum at Dickson Mounds
Lewistown, Illinois

Exhibitions at Dickson Mounds Museum illustrate the story of humans and the Illinois River over the last 12,000 years. Three floors of exhibits convey the evolution and ecology of the Illinois River valley and the people of the valley, with an emphasis on the Native Americans who lived in the region for thousands of years. The RiverWeb^SM Digital River Basin exhibit is being installed in the River Valley Gallery on the third floor. Panel exhibits in this gallery present the evolution of the valley, river ecology, and changing human interactions with the land, and a video presentation portrays the legacy of the early Native American populations. After exploring the Digital River Basin, visitors can walk out onto an open-air deck and take in a magnificent view of the Illinois River valley.