It’s Flood Season ☹️

Notice: Our museum will close at 5 pm on May 1 in preparation for significant flooding in Kampsville. It will remain closed until further notice. 

Other scheduled CAA activities and programs are unaffected at this time.

Floods are a fact of life when you live in a river valley. The Illinois River has been out of its banks for a few weeks now, though not enough to impact our buildings and programs. That is going to change during the next few days.

The National Weather Service is predicting the Illinois River will reach 37.5 ft by next week as measured at the Hardin, IL, gauge. That means the flood will enter the museum. Floodwater enters the museum around 36.5 ft.

NWS flood prediction, 1 May 2019. No fun.

This will be the fifth time the river has flooded the museum since 2013. We hope the prediction is wrong and the museum will stay dry. Failing that, we hope the flood is brief. As of this post, the prediction at the downstream Grafton gauge near the confluence suggests the rivers may drain relatively soon. But, we’ve been misled before.

In the meantime, no other activities or programs are cancelled. Enrollments are open for programs and limited scholarship funds are available. Don’t miss out!


The Center for American Archeology is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. We depend on your generosity to fulfill our mission.

Please show your support by becoming a member or donating today.

Kitchen Update

Our GoFundMe campaign to build a new kitchen in the Kampsville School building is underway! We’ve raised over $3380 so far. Thank you to everyone who has donated so far to support our campaign to build the new kitchen! We’ve started some of the plumbing and electrical work, and we’ve ordered equipment. The sink is arrived Friday. More will arrive this week.

There is a lot more to do to complete this project. Please help us reach our goal by donating and sharing our campaign.