Hopewell Culture National Historical Park

As Westerners we know a great deal about the ruins and the culture of early peoples in the Southwest, but we don't hear much about the early cultures in the eastern part of our country.  The Hopewell Culture built intricate geometric mounds and earthworks throughout the Ohio river valleys more than two thousand years ago.  The Hopewell Culture National Historical Park covers five different areas of mounds.  The Park was established following World War I after Camp Sherman had been built right over the top of many of the mounds.

The Mound City group, along the Scioto River, consists of 23 mounds that cover the remains of ceremonial buildings.

The mounds were not living spaces, scientists think they were for ceremonial purposes.  Most of the artifacts recovered from the mounds have been from burial or cremation sites. Copper jewelry and ornaments, seashells and mica sheets recovered from the sites give evidence of an extensive trading network even in those early times.

A two to three foot high earthen embankment encircles the entire site. It's hard to imagine that the only tools used in this massive amount of earth moving were shells, baskets and bone hoes! Can you imagine the organization needed -- and the number of workers?

From the mounds, we were able to follow the trail down to the banks of the deep, fast-moving Scioto River.

Along the river is most likely where the Hopewell people built their living quarters.  It is believed that the weather during this time was temperate and the people did not have to spend all of their time finding food and game, thus allowing the immense building projects.

We followed the Nature Trail back along the river and around the embankment through a young forest.

We saw several shrubs like this with red berries sitting almost on the top of the leaves.  I was not able to find what it is in any of my books or on the Internet. Any ideas?

While most of the trees had already dropped their leaves, this golden maple tree stood out like a beacon in the sunshine --

It was further around the trail then we had thought.  We were glad to get back to the car and water!  We took time to drive through Chilliclothe, which was the first capital of Ohio.  There were lots of neat old buildings -- and a place to get some ice cream before we headed back to Auntie Violet. I stuck an acorn squash in the oven with some butter and honey for supper.  We watched the finals of the bull riding that were in Columbus this weekend.  I sure wish we had known they were going to be there -- we would have gone!