Midwest Road Trip – Hopewell Culture near Chillicothe

The Hopewell Culture rises between 600 – 500 BC & quietly stops around 400 – 500 AD.  They inhabited the Mississippi, lower Missouri & Ohio river valley regions as well as the area between the Appalachians & lakes Erie & Ontario.  They are thought to have been hunters & gatherers who also cultivated modest gardens while living in fixed locations in multi-generational family groups.  They also built quite large & elaborate mounds that were often enclosed by embankments that rose at least 12 feet above the surrounding land.  The interior of these enclosures were also precisely leveled & excavated for 3-4 feet below the existing ground level.

Inside the Enclosure at Mound City

The Mound City group & enclosure are so large that my widest angle lens couldn’t really take it all in.  The 4 foot mounds in the foreground are the remains of the original walls.  The interior mounds were built over wooden longhouse type buildings that were either burned or dismantled before the mound was built.  Some mounds are round, others are rectilinear.  Some contain cremated remains & some hold artifacts.  There are areas adjacent to the enclosure where dirt for the walls and/or mounds was dug.

  Park Service Mound City Map

You really need to visit the site to grasp the size of these mound groups.  There are 3 sites near Chillicothe that are managed by the National Park Service & open to the public.  Two other sites are open only by permit or for specially scheduled educational events.

Building Location with Post Positions Marked

The buildings that once stood here are on a scale with the mounds.

Scioto River at Mound City

The Hopewell people both lived near rivers and built their mounds near rivers. 

Artwork from Excavated Mounds

I had seen a few photographs of Hopewell copper work in textbooks.  Those photos were the main reason I wanted to visit this site.  The bird on the left of this photo is just plain awesome.

More Hopewell Copper & Natural Material Art

Copper Bird & Stone Ax Head

This is the bird I saw all those years ago in the textbook.  The bird is over a foot long.

This is my last stop on my way home.  It rained hard all the way from here to my central Virginia home, which didn’t make stopping at the New River Gorge an appealing activity.