Spiro Mounds Park and current activities

Spiro Mounds State Park is located in Spiro, Oklahoma on the bank of the Arkansas River. It is Oklahoma’s only Archaeological State Park and is a National Historic Landmark. The Park land is leased from the United States Corps of Engineers to the Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation. The Department has developed the present Park and manages its facilities and interpretive activities including an interpretive center and trail system. The Park is open daily and admission to the public is free. The Oklahoma Archaeological Survey carries out excavations at the Park and publishes scientific findings and interpretations. The Stovall Museum has produced interpretive programs and exhibits about the Spiro Mounds, with the assistance of the Survey. The Museum also has a large and important collection of archaeological materials from Spiro, and serves as the state repository for newly excavated artifacts. The Oklahoma Foundation for the Humanities (formerly Oklahoma Humanities Committee) has funded several Spiro-related projects which have presented information and objects to the public through a series of exhibits, lectures and educational programs.

The exhibition, Spiro Mounds: Prehistoric Gateway ... Present-day Enigma, accompanying interpretive materials, and public program activities have been funded by the Oklahoma Foundation for the Humanities (formerly the Oklahoma Humanities Committee), the National Endowment for the Humanities, the University of Oklahoma Foundation, Inc., and the University of Oklahoma. The project has been sponsored and produced by the Oklahoma Archaeological Survey and the Stovall Museum of Science and History.

Cover design from an engraved shell cup (160, Craig A) unearthed at Spiro Mounds, drawn by LaDonna Harris from Phillips and Brown, 1978.

Graphic design: Roger A. Vandiver