Our first night of camping was at a campground near Chillicothe, Ohio. We discovered that only a short distance away was one of many sites where Aerican Indians had built dozens of monumental mounds and earthen enclosures nearly 2000 years ago. They were used for feasts, funerals, rituals and rites of passage associated with their religious beliefs. Today, this is what they look like.

What you see in this image is only a small section of the entire set of mounds in what is now called the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park. See if you can find where these mounds fit in the image below.

Unfortunately progress and war took their toll on the original mounds. Agriculture became a priority over history and when land became scarce for growing crops, the mounds were leveled and cultivated. Then during World War I, the area was turned into Camp Sherman almost overnight. The camp which you can see in the bottom of the image below was built by 5000 men within a few months, with buildings being constructed every 20 minutes.

Fortunately, the mounds were restored when their historical significance was appreciated by the local community and the federal government, and today is is part of the National Park System.

It was a brief stop for us with a lot of impact for me. We spend a lot of time in the west visiting important sites of the Native American culture there, but this is the first we’ve seen as far east as Ohio.