1. Wild Country
City: Collinsville, IL
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (618) 346-6775
Address: 17 Gateway Drive
Description: This dance hall is the area’s biggest country and western nightclub, and it features a large dance floor and light show. The local TV show St. Louis Country is taped here on Thursday nights, with live bands playing on Friday and Saturday nights. The rest of the time, it’s mainly DJs and dance tunes with a decidedly country flavor. Country line-dancing lessons are available on Wednesday evenings. Must be 18 and up to enter, 21 and over to drink. Closed Sunday through Tuesday.
2. Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site And Interpretive Center
City: Collinsville, IL
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (618) 346-5160
Address: 30 Ramey Street
Description: The site of the largest prehistoric Indian city north of Mexico, Cahokia Mounds is the remnants of the Mississippians’ central city—now known as Cahokia—for the Indians who lived nearby in the late 1600s. The mounds are preserved within the 2,200-acre tract that is the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, located just 8 miles east of downtown St. Louis. The Cahokia Mounds Interpretive Center offers a fuller understanding of what daily life was like there from 800 to 1400 ad, and it also has a life-size diorama of Cahokia as it looked 900 years ago. Other attractions include a reconstructed thatched-roof house with daub construction, a garden of representative plants from the era, and a reconstructed Woodhenge solar calendar. Closed Monday and Tuesday.
3. Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site And Interpretive Center
City: Collinsville, IL
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (618) 346-5160
Address: 30 Ramey Street
Description: The site of the largest prehistoric Indian city north of Mexico, Cahokia Mounds includes an interpretive center that gives a 3-D history lesson in how the Mississippian Indian tribe lived more than 900 years ago. Visitors can walk through a life-size diorama of a Mississippian village that includes the stockade, houses, and other structures, as well as everyday items including stone tools, pottery, objects crafted from shell, and clothes made from natural fibers. There’s also a Woodhenge solar calendar and an explanation of how the Indian mounds were created. A variety of themed special events take place throughout the calendar year, so it’s best to check in advance to see what would be going on. Open Wednesday through Sunday. Donations are suggested.