1000 Years Ago, Corn Made This Society Big. Then A Changing Climate Destroyed It

I had the pleasure of visiting Cahokia by chance, a prehistoric earth mound city just outside of St. Louis on the Mississippi River, two summers ago, when I drove cross country from California back to Maryland to begin the Appalachian Trail. It was a beautiful, warm, summer's evening when I arrived and walked around part of the abandoned city. The idea of a large, thriving Native American society which suddenly disappeared before the first Europeans arrived on the continent was and still is very intriguing to me. In fact, I had never even heard of the place until I was in my 30's.  Here's a neat article from NPR on the city and a new theory which may have led to its demise...