St. Louis County City Map Poster

About St. Louis County

The area that would become St. Louis was a center of the Native American Mississippian culture, which built numerous temple and residential earthwork mounds on both sides of the Mississippi River, their main settlement being at Cahokia Mounds, active from 900 to 1500. Due to numerous major earthworks within St. Louis boundaries, the city was nicknamed as "The Mound City". These mounds were mostly demolished during the city's development. Historic Native American tribes in the area included: Mesoamerican peoples occupied central Missouri after settling around what is now Mexico City between 1300 and 1450 AD; they created two distinct cultural groups—the southern Osage Plains Culture and northern Oneota Culture (named for local indigenous people).