Mound City Group

 

Squier & Davis, c.1848

Introduction

Mound City Group is the only fully restored Hopewell earthwork complex. As such, it is a national treasure. Here, visitors who walk quietly through the enclosure and among the mounds can still experience a sense of what it may have been like to gather at a Hopewell ceremonial site two thousand years ago.

The monument consists of 25 mounds of varying sizes surrounded by a low, earthen wall. The wall forms a slightly irregular square with rounded corners, and very gently flaring sides, about 260 meters across and with an area of 6.81 hectares (16.8 acres). The height of the earth walls of the enclosure is about 1.2 meters in height and 4.5 meters at its base. It is interrupted by two gateways in the centers of its eastern and western sides. The circular mounds within the enclosure include both spherical and conical forms, varying from 0.91 to 5.45 meters in height, and from 7.62 to 30.48 meters in diameter. Mounds 12 and 13 are a conjoined pair , and cover the reamians of a connected double struture. In the approximate center of the enclosure stands the largest mound in this ensemble, Mound 7 or the "Central Mound" with a precise conical profiles and a rounded top. Immediately to the east of the Central Mound is Mound 3, an oblong, loaf-shaped mound also called the "Elliptical Mound;" it is 42.67 meters long and 12 to 15 meters wide. There are two additional mounds just outside the enclosure.

All of the mounds and walls visible at Mound City today are modern restorations based upon intact base layers, and an extensive record of documentary and field research stretching back more than 150 years. One of the mounds (Mound 15) remains unrestored, with short wooden posts marking the floor plan of its submound structure.

Information on visiting the site today.

Camp Sherman

During World War I the Mound City Group site was occupied by a military training center known as Camp Sherman. In the early 1920s after Camp Sherman was razed, the Ohio Historical Society excavated the site and began reconstruction of the Hopewell earthworks and mounds.

 

African-American soldiers, part of a Signal Corp unit, rest atop Mound 7 at Camp Sherman, c.1918.

Ohio History Connection

 

Ceremonial Gatherings

This wonder of the ancient world was constructed by Native Americans over many centuries between A.D. 1- 400. Mound City Group’s walls enclose at least two dozen mounds in an area larger than ten football fields. Never the less, compared to the many giant complexes located around the Chillicothe area, Mound City Group is a relatively small Hopewell earthwork.

There is no evidence that people lived within this enclosure full time. In fact, the Hopewell people did not even live in large villages. No more than three Hopewell homes have ever been discovered in one place. They may have lived in single extended family units scattered along the waterways of the great forest. Yet, even with this relatively simple social organization, the Hopewell people created immense public works that required complicated engineering. These walled complexes were likely the gathering places of people who wanted to form community even though they were not living together in villages. The reasons for their gathering here could have been both religious and social, but many important ceremonies were conducted here.

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Careful Construction

The mounds of Mound City Group are so much more than just heaps of dirt. The process by which these American Indians established a burial mound is long and complicated. Many visitors are surprised to learn that where each burial mound is seen today, there once stood a building. The first step in the mound building process was to construct a large ceremonial building of poles and bark with a plastered clay floor. Inside, fires burned in clay basins and ceremonies were conducted. When the ceremony was a funeral, the Hopewell cremated the body. The ashes were entombed on the floor of the building beneath a small mound of clay. About one hundred cremated remains were found at Mound City.

At some point, the building would be purposely dismantled. Then the mound construction began. Mound building may have occurred stage by stage over many gatherings, because the mounds consist of many layers of earthen materials, often alternating clay and sand. The borrow pits outside of Mound City’s walls may have been the source of some of this material.

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A National Park is Born

The Ohio History Connection funded the reconstruction of Mound City Group in the 1920’s. The reconstruction was based on the maps of Squier and Davis in order to be as accurate as possible. One mound was left unreconstructed so that visitors could appreciate the underlying structure of the ceremonial building.

President Warren G. Harding declared the site Mound City Group National Monument in 1923. In 1992, four more of Chillicothe’s many Hopewell earthwork sites were added to Mound City Group and the name of the park was changed to Hopewell Culture National Historical Park. Mound City Group is now one of six total units of the park. Administration offices, resource management, maintenance facilities and the park’s only visitor center are located here.

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Visiting the Site

The Mound City Group Visitor Center is located at 16062 State Route 104, Chillicothe, OH 45601. Visitor center hours are 8:30 am to 5:00 pm, every day of the week (except Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day & New Year’s Day). Park grounds are open every day from dawn until dusk.

Please be mindful that Mound City is still considered a sacred place by many people and treat the earthworks with respect. There are no trails within the enclosure. Visitors are welcome to stroll reverently amongst the mounds. Please do not walk on the mounds or earthen walls. Park trails include a nature trail and a beautiful paved river walk along the Scioto River. The nature trail winds through a young forest and passes masonry stones from a lock of the Ohio-Erie Canal that ran along the west border of the park in the 1800’s. Facilities in the visitor center include restrooms, a small gift shop, an auditorium and a musuem (temporarily unavailable). The parking lot is located off of S.R. 104, about 2 miles north of U.S. 35.

Important Note: Launching, landing and operation of any type of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV / drones) is not permitted within National Park Service boundaries at any time. It is not restricted to just park operating hours. This is a 24/7 regulation, every day of the year. All sites and areas of Hopewell Culture National HIstorical Park (even parking lots) are included. Please report violations to a ranger or by calling us or emailing us. Read more about Unmanned Aircraft in the National Parks.

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Site Map & Trail Map

 

NPS / Tom Engberg

 

Earthwork outline in map: United States of America (2022). “Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, Ohio, United States of America. Nomination to the World Heritage List by the United States of America." Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks - Documents - UNESCO World Heritage Centre.

 

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