Hopewell Culture National Historical Park

Address 16062 OH-104, Chillicothe, OH 45601

From around 200 BC to AD 500 the Scioto Valley was the centre of the Hopewell culture, the most ambitious moundbuilders of the prehistoric Eastern Woodlands. The park preserves five separate sites near Chillicothe, with the most accessible being the Mound City group beside the visitor centre on Highway 104. A 23-mound complex sits inside a low rectangular earthen embankment; a short loop trail and outdoor signage interpret what was found in each.

The other sites — Hopeton, Seip, High Bank, Hopewell Mound Group — range from manicured to almost overgrown and require driving between them, but together they form one of the most important archaeological landscapes in North America. The site was inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage list in 2023.

things to do sight
A story
When Squier and Davis surveyed the Mound City group for the Smithsonian in 1846, they recorded 23 mounds inside an earthen wall. The site was almost entirely flattened during World War I when the U.S. Army built Camp Sherman on top of it; the mounds visible today are early-1920s reconstructions, painstakingly rebuilt from the Squier and Davis maps after the army camp was demolished.