Out of Earth: The Cahokia Mounds and the Radix of Midwestern Monuments is an essay about the largest indigenous mound structure in the
Midwest and its monumental bearing in the landscape. It is included in Midwest
Architecture Journeys, edited by Zach Mortice and released by Belt Publishing.
The vertical line reaches out of the ground and is made from it. It addresses us—it stands up to be considered. It is telling us something. It is marking something. It organizes us through our shared subjectivity. And it points toward the sky. The mounds enact this diagram of architecture with aplomb, and all the better for their context: a long, flat line stretching from horizon to horizon.