Caddo Mounds State Historic Site to celebrate new visitor center, traditional grass house after 2019 tornado

ALTO, Texas — The Texas Historical Commission on Saturday will honor the reopening of the visitor center at Caddo Mounds State Historic Site five years after a tornado destroyed the museum and grass house. 

Alto is home to just over a thousand people, but since 1995, it’s also been home to the historic site of Caddo Mounds.

“Caddo Mounds is the ancestral site for the Caddo people, and they are a thriving community,” said Maggie Leysath, educator and interpreter of Caddo Mounds Site. “This is important to many of them and it’s also important to those of us who live in this area. It’s really special to a lot of people and it’s also very special to the Texas historical commission.” 

But in April 2019, an EF-3 tornado ripped through the city of Alto and hit the area of Caddo Mounds during Caddo Culture Day. At least 25 people were injured because of the storm. 

“It destroyed the grass house, and it destroyed the museum and visitors center,” Leysath said. 

But the Caddo Nation refuses to let this piece of history get torn down. Soon after the tornado, they got to work. 

“From the ground up and from the top down, people really came together to rebuild and to try to take that as an opportunity to make it something that was even more special than it already was,” Leysath said. 

The grass house was rebuilt in 2022 under the leadership of Caddo Nation and the THC. 

The commission and the Friends of Caddo Mounds gave funds to hire five female Caddo apprentices to rebuild the house, and more than 20 Caddo Nation members helped with reconstruction, THC said. 

On Saturday, the historical commission will commemorate the $2.5 million visitor center and the restoration of the grass house. The 5,150 square feet visitor center will have a exhibit featuring the history and culture of ancestral Caddo people who built a ceremonial center there more than 1,200 years ago, according to the THC news release. 

Many people are very excited to celebrate the grand reopening of the historic site. 

“We have a lot going on tomorrow. We’ve got a state representative. We’ve got one of the commissioners from THC, and then we have several Caddo citizens also coming,” Leysath said. 

Saturday’s event begins at 10 a.m. and runs until 3 p.m. with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 11:30 a.m. Outdoor activities for attendees include atlatl throwing and a friction fire demonstration. Archeologist Victor Galan will host a tour about the Caddo people starting at 2 p.m.

Leysath added that while this is a historic site, the Caddo people are very much alive and thriving and they’re active in helping other people understand their culture.

This rebuilt center has architectural elements meant to blend in with the surrounding landscape, including a self-weathering steel roof to mimic the original Caddo mounds. The architectural firm who led the effort received input from members of the Caddo Nation. Improvements for tornado preparedness have been added to the protect the site. 

“The Caddo Mounds rise over this sacred space as a testimony to the permanence of the Caddo Nation. We are grateful for the opportunity to partner with the Caddo, the Alto community, Cherokee County, our many donors, the Texas Legislature, and Gov. Greg Abbott to preserve this important part of our history,” said THC Chairman John L. Nau, III  “The site has been restored to serve as a gathering place to learn about and honor Caddo culture for generations to come.”

The Caddo Mounds State Historic Site also offers three miles of scenic walking trails, including connection to El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail. Other attractions are an educational garden on site and ongoing programming on stargazing, birdwatching and foraging.