Near the town of Alto in Cherokee County, an ancient people lived and built cities made of mounds with round, grass-type huts, farming their corn, gathering fruits and berries and hunting the wild and abundant game of east central Texas. These resourceful Native Americans and their near kin populated a large region of south and southwest North America, and formed this mound site and occupied it regularly between 700 A.D. to 1300 A.D. The Caddos of Texas are believed to be closely related to the Mississippi mound builders. What we don't know about these robust people is more than what we do know, but we archeologists and researchers say they were overall a world was a mosaic of cultural traditions sharing, to varying degrees, what we might call common "themes." These overlapping themes include maize agriculture, settled life, elaborate ritual life, ranked societies, mound-building, ancestor veneration, ritual/political centers, long-distance exchange, warfare, competition, effective methods of food gathering, hunting, processing, and storage, and sophisticated craft production. Many researchers speculate that the Caddos may have traded with other triba groups from as far away as central Mexico and the Yucatan. Like the Maya, thery apparently had garnered a great deal of knowledge about astronomy and often oriented their mounds and villages according to specific astronomical orientation. This can be contributed to their dependence on agriculture for survival in a day when the world depended upon the changing seasons. Only a few Emerging and Early Caddo sites have been excavated and, of these, only the George C. Davis site in east Texas has seen extensive scientific investigation. Most of the excavators of early Caddo sites have concentrated on burial mounds, yielding fascinating, but one-dimensional information. While we now know quite a bit about how elite members of early Caddo society were treated in death, we have little concrete understanding of their roles in life. And we know even less about the lives of ordinary people. At Caddo Mounds State Historical Park, there are three mounds of historical significance. The largest, at the southern edge of the site, is called Mound A. It probably was the earliest and most significant mound. About 40 houses were built around it, but not all were in use at the same time. Mound B, near the center of the state park, probably dated to around 1100 to 1300. This rectangular platform mound measures roughly 175 feet (55 meters) north-south and 115 feet (35 meters) east-west. When in use, it would have had a flat top and broad earthen ramps on the north, east, and south sides. The northernmost mound is Mound C, which was used as a ceremonial burial mound for most of the time the site was occupied. At least some families lived at the site year-round. Some of their houses were round and might have been as much as 60 feet in diameter. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Web site reports archaeologists have used magnetometers to map the entire site, providing a detailed map of the buried foundations of houses and other structures. They are continuing to excavate interesting structures to more accurately establish the timeline of Caddoan Mounds and to understand how the site was used. Caddoan Mounds State Historical Park is open to the public 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Thursday-Monday. The park is located on Texas 21 in Cherokee County, six miles southwest of Alto. It features an interpretive center with audio-visual presentations, plus a self-guided trail to the mounds. Route 2, Box 85C, Alto 75925; (936) 858-3218.