Join Dr. Timothy R. Pauketat, Illinois State Archaeologist and director of the Illinois State Archaeological Survey, as he discusses recent discoveries from sites along the Mississippi River—at East St. Louis (Illinois), Trempealeau (Wisconsin), and Carson (Mississippi)—that suggest we have missed the central reason the ancient city of Cahokia became a city at all. That reason was climate change and the related appearance of corn, water temples and pole ceremonialism. To travel the Mississippi for the people who lived at the ancient city of Cahokia was a religious experience that pulled the spirits of cypress trees, marine shells, and the Wind-That-Brings-Rain into the city. The valley-wide scale of the connections points toward the need to preserve or mitigate entire riverine landscapes.