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Miamisburg Mound is one of the two largest conical mounds in eastern North America. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the mound is 65 feet tall and 800 feet in circumference and contains 54,000 cubic yards of earth. The mound is visible from several miles away because it stands atop a 100-foot high ridge above the Great Miami River. Steps have been built to the top observation platform, where you can enjoy a wonderful view of the area. Average visit time: Allow 30 minutes.
Excavations conducted in 1869 revealed details of construction suggesting the Adena culture (800 B.C. to A.D. 100) built the mound in several stages. The excavators found a layer of flat stones overlapping like shingles on a roof at a depth of 24 feet below the surface. At one point in its history, therefore, the mound may have had a stone facing. Monuments like Miamisburg Mound served as cemeteries for several generations of ancient Ohioans. They also may have marked the boundaries of tribal territories.
There were once an estimated 10,000 American Indian mounds and earthworks in the central Ohio Valley. Today, about 1,000 of those landmarks have survived through private landowners and local, state and federal agencies dedicated to preserving these ancient ruins.
Many of the mounds that have been saved were of the conical variety and most of those have never been professionally investigated to determine their contents or age. Those that have been investigated were determined to be burial mounds and to have been created between 2,000 and 2,800 years ago.
In much of Ohio and neighboring states, the Adena culture transformed into the Hopewell culture at around A.D. 400. These cultures were the ancestors of the American Indian tribes living in the region during the early historic era.
Miamisburg Mound is managed locally by the City of Miamisburg.
