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Media contacts: Kim Schuette: 614.297.2314 or kschuette@ohiohistory.org
For Immediate Release
Open House For Octagon Earthworks Oct. 19
Special Activities Planned at 2,000-Year-Old Ohio Landmark
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) – The Ohio Historical Society (OHS) will hold the last open house of the year at the Octagon Earthworks on Sunday, Oct. 19, allowing the entire site to be “golf-free” on this day. Visitors will be able to enjoy both the earthworks and the colorful fall landscape.
The site will be open to the public daylight hours with special programs being offered from noon to 4:30 p.m. Activities include guided tours, Native American storytelling, presentations on corn husk dolls and archaeology and astronomy, flint knapping, native plant display of ancient peoples and hands-on at activities at OHS History To Go Van.
The Octagon Earthworks is a part of the Newark Earthworks, a complex that is 2,000 years old and at one time covered approximately four square miles. Built about 2,000 years ago by the Hopewell culture, the Newark Earthworks is recognized as a National Historic Landmark and has been declared Ohio’s official prehistoric monument of the state. The site is now being considered for nomination to the World Heritage List.
Scholars recognize it as the largest geometric earthworks ever created. Although much of it has been destroyed by more than a century of urban development, the most significant parts remaining are the Octagon, Great Circle and Wright earthworks. Together these three earthworks comprise the Newark Earthworks, one of 58 sites administered by the Ohio Historical Society.
The Octagon Earthworks has operated as a golf course since 1910, and the Ohio Historical Society has administered the site since 1933. Moundbuilders Country Club leases the site from the Ohio Historical Society. While portions of the Octagon are open every day during daylight hours, the open house will be the final opportunity to see the entire site this year.
Visitors also are welcome to tour the earthworks on their own, but are asked to please stay off the mounds and golfing greens. There are no restroom facilities at the buildings. Admission is free. For further information, please call 740-344-1919 or 800-600-7178.
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