The Under the Prairie Archaeological Museum features one the largest exhibits of early 19th century, frontier-context artifacts in the country. Hundreds of objects unearthed from sites across Illinois and the Midwest paint a vivid, haunting, and often surprising picture of everyday life in the log cabins before the Civil War. The museum was designed by Robert Mazrim, founder of the Sangamo Archaeological Center, which maintained the exhibits as part of its archaeological research and outreach program. The museum opened in the summer of 2002, in Elkhart, Illinois, and was funded entirely by tourism revenues and private support. In 2007, the museum was relocated to Salisbury, Illinois, as part of an effort to reach the larger audiences visiting the nearby Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site. A nationwide decline in museum attendance, however, deeply impacted the private-operated facility, and it closed in the fall of 2008. TOUR HOME
Smoking Pipe
Ohio Valley
circa 1840