Ka-Do-Ha Indian Village

The Ka-Do-Ha Indian Village is not very far from where we live, but we have never been there before.  When a local homeschool group scheduled a field trip to go and invited us along, we decided it would be fun to go check it out.  I had heard that is was not very big and it wouldn't take long to go through, but it is a neat little part of history right here in our town and the prices for the group rate were a really good deal.  It only cost $12 for myself and six children to get in.  Plus field trips and meeting new friends is always fun!

We arrived at the Ka-Do-Ha Indian Village by 10:30.  There was almost a 100% chance of rain, but we were hoping it would hold off.  The gift shop where you go in was very nice and had a lot of interesting things in it, gift shop prices of course :).  The people working in there were very nice and helpful.

Anthony and Christian cracked me up posing like these Indian statues, one outside the gift shop and one inside the gift shop.

Attached to the gift shop was the museum.  It was about the size of my family room.  In it was: a diorama of an Indian village, some pottery, arrowheads, a crystal, beads, and a few other artifacts.

Then you get to go outside and see the excavated mounds.  I did not get a picture of them, but each mound has a building built around them.  You go up the stairs and look down into the excavated mound.  It is like a really deep pit.  In it are replicas of the skeletons that were found and the artifacts that were found with them.   There were 4 buildings that had mounds in them.

There was a sign that warned of poisonous snakes and to stay on the trail.  We just hoped that the snakes knew to stay off the trail :)

Then there was a plowed field that you could search for artifacts and gems.  Anything you found you got to keep.  My children found some crystals and rocks, an arrowhead, and some broken pottery.  Everyone found something so they were very pleased.  Nick found a really big crystal.

After that we bought two containers of dirt (usually $8 but only $5 with the group rate) that were guaranteed to have stones and artifacts in them and we got to wash stones.  This was their favorite part.  We found lots of gems and some arrowheads too.  Each of the children had their own baggie to put the stuff they found in it.

We opted not to stay and eat our picnic lunch because that storm was getting closer and it wasn't long after we started driving home that the sky opened up and it started pouring.  But a good time was had by all.  I wish that there was an actual replica of an Indian Village set up out there instead of just a diorama of one.  But it still was an fun and interesting field trip.