Dickson Mounds and the Emiquon Partnership Receive Community Partnerships Award

ISM Location: Dickson Mounds

For Immediate Release:

LEWISTOWN, IL – The Illinois Association of Museums recently presented its Best Practices in Community Partnerships Award to the Emiquon Partnership – including the Dickson Mounds Museum, the Illinois Natural History Survey’s Forbes Biological and Illinois River Field Stations, The Nature Conservancy’s Emiquon Preserve, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Chautauqua and Emiquon National Wildlife Refuges, and the University of Illinois Springfield’s Therkildsen Field Station.

The Emiquon Partnership works in the central Illinois River valley near Havana and Lewistown, Illinois, and is dedicated to a greater understanding of the region’s natural resources and natural heritage, with a commitment to share that knowledge with the public.

The Partnership’s accomplishments include The Nature Conservancy underwriting a geological study that revealed in unprecedented detail the post-glacial history of the Illinois River – and a Dickson Mounds archaeological site survey of the Illinois River floodplain slated for restoration that documented thousands of years of human use of the floodplain, that resulted in a monograph published by the Illinois State Museum.

Through a Memorandum of Understanding between the Illinois State Museum and The Nature Conservancy, Dickson Mounds staff led an archaeological excavation of a 700-year-old village in the Emiquon Preserve that has provided unprecedented insight into Native American history.

The annual Emiquon Science Symposium, held at Dickson Mounds each year, highlights a variety of restoration ecology studies conducted to monitor the Emiquon restoration.  Emiquon Preserve research has also been featured in the December 2017 special edition of Hydrobiologia, The International Journal of Aquatic Sciences.

The Emiquon Partnership has allowed for the creation and presentation of a suite of public educational programs, mainly coordinated and implemented by Dickson Mounds staff and delivered by the partnership members to audiences of all ages.  These include the Emiquon Corps of Discovery, Fulton-Mason Eagle Day, Tot Time, Kid’s Day programs, Parent/Child hands-on workshops, day-long field trips for elementary, middle, and high school students, the Nature Trek and Science Lecture series, a Family Fishing Event, and canoe/kayak events at Thompson Lake.

The Illinois Association of Museums annual awards celebrate the best Illinois museums.  Best Practices categories include: Collections Conservation, Site Preservation, Exhibits, Educational Programs, Printed Materials, Virtual Materials, Special Projects, Green Initiatives, and Community Partnerships.  The Community Partnerships category specifies that the museum must demonstrate “a partnership…{as} a formal arrangement between a learning institution (museum, zoo, nature center, etc.) and another institution such as a school/college/university, government, taxing district, association, private sector organization, or public profit and/or nonprofit institution to provide a program, service or resource that supports and advances the mission of both partners and engages and empowers the chosen community.”

The Dickson Mounds Museum – part of the Illinois State Museum system – is located between Lewistown and Havana off of Illinois Routes 78 and 97. Dickson Mounds is open free to the public from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day. Tours and special programs are available for groups with reservations. For more information call 309-547-3721 or TTY 217-782-9175. Also visit us on Facebook at Illinois State Museum-Dickson Mounds or online at the Dickson Mounds link on the Illinois State Museum website at www.illinoisstatemuseum.org.

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Contact Person: Christa Foster

Contact Email: christa.foster@illinois.gov

Contact Phone: (309) 547-3721

Release File (pdf): dicksonmounds-iam_award.pdf

Release File (doc): dicksonmounds-iam_award.docx