The tree stood alone, just to the side of the small parking space near Monk's Mound. A couple small, concrete benches made it a perfect picnic spot. Wendy and I walked to the tree, having decided to have a bit of lunch before climbing the 98-foot tall earth mound built centuries before, basket of earth by basket of earth, by the Native Americans who called Cahokia Mounds home hundreds of years ago. She noticed before I did that the tree was covered with ripe, black-purple berries. I … [Read more...]