The Caddo Center is now open to the public!
Are you interested in local history and archeology? Have you visited the Caddo Center lately? With grants from the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council and university funding, Henderson State University is preserving and renovating the historic building that formerly served as the campus cafeteria. The front entrance hallway is now a permanent space for exhibiting the Joint Educational Consortium’s Hodges Collection of Native American Artifacts. The HSU Admissions, Financial Aid, and Housing Offices are located here, as well.
Henderson State University and Ouachita Baptist University, as the Joint Educational Consortium, own a large collection of Native American artifacts amassed in the 1930s and 1940s by Thomas and Charlotte Hodges of Bismarck. Included are many pottery vessels and stone tools from archeological sites in Clark and Hot Spring counties. The Caddo people are the descendants of this region’s early residents. In addition, Dr. and Mrs. Hodges collected from several sites in Arkansas County in southeast Arkansas that are related to later Quapaw towns. The Joint Educational Consortium and the Arkansas Archeological Survey work with the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma and with the Quapaw Nation about the Hodges Collection and its treatment and interpretation.
At the Caddo Center, objects, text panels, and brochures show the history and culture of the indigenous people of this area. Visitors can access a new website (“Interpreting the Hodges Collection at the Henderson State University Caddo Center”) featuring short videos and 3D models of selected artifacts using their smartphones or the touchscreen monitor in the hall. This interpretation project has been supported in part by a grant from the Arkansas Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities, with additional funding from the Arkansas Archeological Society Bill Jordan Public Education Fund and the Arkansas Archeological Survey Hester Davis Fund.
The Caddo Center (1067 President’s Drive) is open weekdays to university students, faculty and staff, and community visitors.
Contact
Dr. Mary Beth Trubitt
Arkansas Archeological Survey
HSU Box 7841
1100 Henderson St.
Arkadelphia, AR 71999-0001
870-230-5510