AncientOhioTrail.org

Ancient Ohio Trail

Travel overland or via the Web to the historic places of south-central Ohio

By Stephanie WoodardA new Web site, ancientohiotrail.org, offers a 21st century way to discover little-known historic places in the wooded hills and lush farmland of south-central Ohio: Hundreds of Native American earthworks ranging in age from 550 to 3,000 years old. Hidden in plain sight in cities, towns, fields and even backyards are solitary mounds, or artificial hills; animal forms sculpted into hilltops; and monumental earthen-walled complexes in the form of precisely sculpted circles, octagons, squares and free-form shapes enclosing scores, or even hundreds, of acres.

The Web site provides maps, photographs, links to tourism information, a free travel brochure, and videos you can watch on a computer or download to your cell phone. The electronic Ancient Ohio Trail was put together by a consortium, including University of Cincinnati’s Center for the Electronic Reconstruction of Historical and Archaeological Sites, Ohio State University’s Newark Earthworks Center, and Ohio Historical Society. The easy-to-use site is worth a visit; junior high and high school teachers will find it an attractive, informative, respectfully written classroom tool.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Touring America's Indian Heartland and America's Stonehenge.

Below:  "The complex orbit of the moon is encoded in the massive Octagon, one of several surviving 2,000-year-old earthen-walled geometric enclosures in Newark, Ohio." (Photo by Timothy E. Black)