Description: Aerial view of the Ohio State Fairgrounds, 1854. The Ohio State Fair is an annual exhibition that showcases Ohio farming and commercial products and achievements. The first fair was held in 1850, and after moving to various locations around the state for several decades, the event settled at its permanent location at the Ohio Expo Center in Columbus in 1886. From September 19 through 22, 1854, the fair was held at Newark's Great Circle Mound (now known as Moundbuilders Park). View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL04155
Subjects: Ohio State Fair (Newark, Ohio); Ohio Economy--Agriculture; Fairs--Ohio; Mounds--Ohio--Licking County
Places: Newark (Ohio); Licking County (Ohio)
 

Description: Photograph showing a horse-racing track in use on the site of the Newark Mound Group inside the earthworks. A horse can be seen rounding the curve of the track with bystanders looking on. The Newark Earthworks complex was located on a wide glacial terrace southwest of the original confluence of Raccoon Creek and the Licking River in Newark, Licking County, Ohio. It was constructed by people of the Hopewell Culture between approximately 100 BC and AD 400. When first surveyed in the 1840s, the earthworks covered an area of four square miles, making it perhaps the world’s single largest archaeological landscape outside Egypt’s Giza Plateau. Overall the complex seems to be a lexicon of Hopewell earthwork design with counterparts found elsewhere within the Hopewell sphere, particularly in the lower Scioto Valley. These forms include large and small circles, parallel walls, ovals, squares and octagons. Unfortunately as Newark’s city limits expanded in the late 19th century, much of the earthwork complex fell victim to development. Only the Great Circle, a 1200-foot circular embankment with an interior ditch, and the Octagon Earthworks, a conjoined circle and segmented octagon that functions as a precise lunar observatory, have managed to survive to present times. To note, neither of these earthworks survived out of a pure sense of preservation but rather as notable oddities on the landscape; the Great Circle as a 19th century fairgrounds/amusement park and the Octagon as a military training camp and presently as a golf course. Both sites are owned by the Ohio History Connection and are among seven Ohio Hopewell Ceremonial Earthwork sites under consideration by the United States Department of the Interior for nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AV17_B04F02_E05_001
Subjects: Hopewell Culture (A.D. 1-400) (A.D. 1–400); Mounds -- Ohio -- Licking County; Earthworks (Archaeology); Racetracks (Horse racing)--Ohio;
Places: Newark (Ohio); Licking County (Ohio)
 

Description: Copper ornaments recovered from the Eagle Mound group of the Newark Earthworks. The Newark Earthworks complex was located on a wide glacial terrace southwest of the original confluence of Raccoon Creek and the Licking River in Newark, Licking County, Ohio. It was constructed by people of the Hopewell Culture between approximately 100 BC and AD 400. When first surveyed in the 1840s, the earthworks covered an area of four square miles, making it perhaps the world’s single largest archaeological landscape outside Egypt’s Giza Plateau. Overall the complex seems to be a lexicon of Hopewell earthwork design with counterparts found elsewhere within the Hopewell sphere, particularly in the lower Scioto Valley. These forms include large and small circles, parallel walls, ovals, squares and octagons. Unfortunately as Newark’s city limits expanded in the late 19th century, much of the earthwork complex fell victim to development. Only the Great Circle, a 1200-foot circular embankment with an interior ditch, and the Octagon Earthworks, a conjoined circle and segmented octagon that functions as a precise lunar observatory, have managed to survive to present times. To note, neither of these earthworks survived out of a pure sense of preservation but rather as notable oddities on the landscape; the Great Circle as a 19th century fairgrounds/amusement park and the Octagon as a military training camp and presently as a golf course. Both sites are owned by the Ohio History Connection and are among seven Ohio Hopewell Ceremonial Earthwork sites under consideration by the United States Department of the Interior for nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AV17_B04F02_E05_008
Subjects: Hopewell Culture (A.D. 1–400); Mounds -- Ohio -- Licking County; Earthworks (Archaeology); Artifacts;
Places: Newark (Ohio); Licking County (Ohio)
 

Description: Photograph showing a building and gate at the Newark Mound Group. The Newark Earthworks complex was located on a wide glacial terrace southwest of the original confluence of Raccoon Creek and the Licking River in Newark, Licking County, Ohio. It was constructed by people of the Hopewell Culture between approximately 100 BC and AD 400. When first surveyed in the 1840s, the earthworks covered an area of four square miles, making it perhaps the world’s single largest archaeological landscape outside Egypt’s Giza Plateau. Overall the complex seems to be a lexicon of Hopewell earthwork design with counterparts found elsewhere within the Hopewell sphere, particularly in the lower Scioto Valley. These forms include large and small circles, parallel walls, ovals, squares and octagons. Unfortunately as Newark’s city limits expanded in the late 19th century, much of the earthwork complex fell victim to development. Only the Great Circle, a 1200-foot circular embankment with an interior ditch, and the Octagon Earthworks, a conjoined circle and segmented octagon that functions as a precise lunar observatory, have managed to survive to present times. To note, neither of these earthworks survived out of a pure sense of preservation but rather as notable oddities on the landscape; the Great Circle as a 19th century fairgrounds/amusement park and the Octagon as a military training camp and presently as a golf course. Both sites are owned by the Ohio History Connection and are among seven Ohio Hopewell Ceremonial Earthwork sites under consideration by the United States Department of the Interior for nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AV17_B04F02_E05_009
Subjects: Hopewell Culture (A.D. 1-400) (A.D. 1–400); Mounds -- Ohio -- Licking County; Earthworks (Archaeology);
Places: Newark (Ohio); Licking County (Ohio)
 

Description: Photograph taken of the fairgrounds at the Newark Mound Group. The Newark Earthworks complex was located on a wide glacial terrace southwest of the original confluence of Raccoon Creek and the Licking River in Newark, Licking County, Ohio. It was constructed by people of the Hopewell Culture between approximately 100 BC and AD 400. When first surveyed in the 1840s, the earthworks covered an area of four square miles, making it perhaps the world’s single largest archaeological landscape outside Egypt’s Giza Plateau. Overall the complex seems to be a lexicon of Hopewell earthwork design with counterparts found elsewhere within the Hopewell sphere, particularly in the lower Scioto Valley. These forms include large and small circles, parallel walls, ovals, squares and octagons. Unfortunately as Newark’s city limits expanded in the late 19th century, much of the earthwork complex fell victim to development. Only the Great Circle, a 1200-foot circular embankment with an interior ditch, and the Octagon Earthworks, a conjoined circle and segmented octagon that functions as a precise lunar observatory, have managed to survive to present times. To note, neither of these earthworks survived out of a pure sense of preservation but rather as notable oddities on the landscape; the Great Circle as a 19th century fairgrounds/amusement park and the Octagon as a military training camp and presently as a golf course. Both sites are owned by the Ohio History Connection and are among seven Ohio Hopewell Ceremonial Earthwork sites under consideration by the United States Department of the Interior for nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AV17_B04F02_E06_009
Subjects: Hopewell Culture (A.D. 1-400) (A.D. 1–400); Mounds -- Ohio -- Licking County; Earthworks (Archaeology);
Places: Newark (Ohio); Licking County (Ohio)
 

Description: Aerial photograph showing the Octagon Earthworks of the Newark Mound Group. The Newark Earthworks complex was located on a wide glacial terrace southwest of the original confluence of Raccoon Creek and the Licking River in Newark, Licking County, Ohio. It was constructed by people of the Hopewell Culture between approximately 100 BC and AD 400. When first surveyed in the 1840s, the earthworks covered an area of four square miles, making it perhaps the world’s single largest archaeological landscape outside Egypt’s Giza Plateau. Overall the complex seems to be a lexicon of Hopewell earthwork design with counterparts found elsewhere within the Hopewell sphere, particularly in the lower Scioto Valley. These forms include large and small circles, parallel walls, ovals, squares and octagons. Unfortunately as Newark’s city limits expanded in the late 19th century, much of the earthwork complex fell victim to development. Only the Great Circle, a 1200-foot circular embankment with an interior ditch, and the Octagon Earthworks, a conjoined circle and segmented octagon that functions as a precise lunar observatory, have managed to survive to present times. To note, neither of these earthworks survived out of a pure sense of preservation but rather as notable oddities on the landscape; the Great Circle as a 19th century fairgrounds/amusement park and the Octagon as a military training camp and presently as a golf course. Both sites are owned by the Ohio History Connection and are among seven Ohio Hopewell Ceremonial Earthwork sites under consideration by the United States Department of the Interior for nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AV17_B04F02_E06_003
Subjects: Hopewell Culture (A.D. 1-400) (A.D. 1–400); Mounds -- Ohio -- Licking County; Earthworks (Archaeology);
Places: Newark (Ohio); Licking County (Ohio)
 

Description: Photograph taken of the fairgrounds at the Newark Mound Group. The Newark Earthworks complex was located on a wide glacial terrace southwest of the original confluence of Raccoon Creek and the Licking River in Newark, Licking County, Ohio. It was constructed by people of the Hopewell Culture between approximately 100 BC and AD 400. When first surveyed in the 1840s, the earthworks covered an area of four square miles, making it perhaps the world’s single largest archaeological landscape outside Egypt’s Giza Plateau. Overall the complex seems to be a lexicon of Hopewell earthwork design with counterparts found elsewhere within the Hopewell sphere, particularly in the lower Scioto Valley. These forms include large and small circles, parallel walls, ovals, squares and octagons. Unfortunately as Newark’s city limits expanded in the late 19th century, much of the earthwork complex fell victim to development. Only the Great Circle, a 1200-foot circular embankment with an interior ditch, and the Octagon Earthworks, a conjoined circle and segmented octagon that functions as a precise lunar observatory, have managed to survive to present times. To note, neither of these earthworks survived out of a pure sense of preservation but rather as notable oddities on the landscape; the Great Circle as a 19th century fairgrounds/amusement park and the Octagon as a military training camp and presently as a golf course. Both sites are owned by the Ohio History Connection and are among seven Ohio Hopewell Ceremonial Earthwork sites under consideration by the United States Department of the Interior for nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AV17_B04F02_E05_010
Subjects: Hopewell Culture (A.D. 1-400) (A.D. 1–400); Mounds -- Ohio -- Licking County; Earthworks (Archaeology);
Places: Newark (Ohio); Licking County (Ohio)
 

Description: Photograph showing Eagle Mound, a part of the Newark Mound Group. A typed caption on the reverse states, "Mound is about six feet high at the highest." The Newark Earthworks complex was located on a wide glacial terrace southwest of the original confluence of Raccoon Creek and the Licking River in Newark, Licking County, Ohio. It was constructed by people of the Hopewell Culture between approximately 100 BC and AD 400. When first surveyed in the 1840s, the earthworks covered an area of four square miles, making it perhaps the world’s single largest archaeological landscape outside Egypt’s Giza Plateau. Overall the complex seems to be a lexicon of Hopewell earthwork design with counterparts found elsewhere within the Hopewell sphere, particularly in the lower Scioto Valley. These forms include large and small circles, parallel walls, ovals, squares and octagons. Unfortunately as Newark’s city limits expanded in the late 19th century, much of the earthwork complex fell victim to development. Only the Great Circle, a 1200-foot circular embankment with an interior ditch, and the Octagon Earthworks, a conjoined circle and segmented octagon that functions as a precise lunar observatory, have managed to survive to present times. To note, neither of these earthworks survived out of a pure sense of preservation but rather as notable oddities on the landscape; the Great Circle as a 19th century fairgrounds/amusement park and the Octagon as a military training camp and presently as a golf course. Both sites are owned by the Ohio History Connection and are among seven Ohio Hopewell Ceremonial Earthwork sites under consideration by the United States Department of the Interior for nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AV17_B04F02_E06_010
Subjects: Hopewell Culture (A.D. 1-400) (A.D. 1–400); Mounds -- Ohio -- Licking County; Earthworks (Archaeology);
Places: Newark (Ohio); Licking County (Ohio)
 

Description: Photograph taken on the grounds of the Newark Mound Group. The Newark Earthworks complex was located on a wide glacial terrace southwest of the original confluence of Raccoon Creek and the Licking River in Newark, Licking County, Ohio. It was constructed by people of the Hopewell Culture between approximately 100 BC and AD 400. When first surveyed in the 1840s, the earthworks covered an area of four square miles, making it perhaps the world’s single largest archaeological landscape outside Egypt’s Giza Plateau. Overall the complex seems to be a lexicon of Hopewell earthwork design with counterparts found elsewhere within the Hopewell sphere, particularly in the lower Scioto Valley. These forms include large and small circles, parallel walls, ovals, squares and octagons. Unfortunately as Newark’s city limits expanded in the late 19th century, much of the earthwork complex fell victim to development. Only the Great Circle, a 1200-foot circular embankment with an interior ditch, and the Octagon Earthworks, a conjoined circle and segmented octagon that functions as a precise lunar observatory, have managed to survive to present times. To note, neither of these earthworks survived out of a pure sense of preservation but rather as notable oddities on the landscape; the Great Circle as a 19th century fairgrounds/amusement park and the Octagon as a military training camp and presently as a golf course. Both sites are owned by the Ohio History Connection and are among seven Ohio Hopewell Ceremonial Earthwork sites under consideration by the United States Department of the Interior for nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AV17_B04F02_E05_004
Subjects: Hopewell Culture (A.D. 1-400) (A.D. 1–400); Mounds -- Ohio -- Licking County; Earthworks (Archaeology);
Places: Newark (Ohio); Licking County (Ohio)
 

Description: Photograph showing the racetrack and stands on the grounds of the Newark Mound Group. The Newark Earthworks complex was located on a wide glacial terrace southwest of the original confluence of Raccoon Creek and the Licking River in Newark, Licking County, Ohio. It was constructed by people of the Hopewell Culture between approximately 100 BC and AD 400. When first surveyed in the 1840s, the earthworks covered an area of four square miles, making it perhaps the world’s single largest archaeological landscape outside Egypt’s Giza Plateau. Overall the complex seems to be a lexicon of Hopewell earthwork design with counterparts found elsewhere within the Hopewell sphere, particularly in the lower Scioto Valley. These forms include large and small circles, parallel walls, ovals, squares and octagons. Unfortunately as Newark’s city limits expanded in the late 19th century, much of the earthwork complex fell victim to development. Only the Great Circle, a 1200-foot circular embankment with an interior ditch, and the Octagon Earthworks, a conjoined circle and segmented octagon that functions as a precise lunar observatory, have managed to survive to present times. To note, neither of these earthworks survived out of a pure sense of preservation but rather as notable oddities on the landscape; the Great Circle as a 19th century fairgrounds/amusement park and the Octagon as a military training camp and presently as a golf course. Both sites are owned by the Ohio History Connection and are among seven Ohio Hopewell Ceremonial Earthwork sites under consideration by the United States Department of the Interior for nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AV17_B04F02_E06_008
Subjects: Hopewell Culture (A.D. 1-400) (A.D. 1–400); Mounds -- Ohio -- Licking County; Earthworks (Archaeology); Racetracks (Horse racing)--Ohio;
Places: Newark (Ohio); Licking County (Ohio)
 

Description: Photograph taken on the grounds of the Newark Mound Group. The Newark Earthworks complex was located on a wide glacial terrace southwest of the original confluence of Raccoon Creek and the Licking River in Newark, Licking County, Ohio. It was constructed by people of the Hopewell Culture between approximately 100 BC and AD 400. When first surveyed in the 1840s, the earthworks covered an area of four square miles, making it perhaps the world’s single largest archaeological landscape outside Egypt’s Giza Plateau. Overall the complex seems to be a lexicon of Hopewell earthwork design with counterparts found elsewhere within the Hopewell sphere, particularly in the lower Scioto Valley. These forms include large and small circles, parallel walls, ovals, squares and octagons. Unfortunately as Newark’s city limits expanded in the late 19th century, much of the earthwork complex fell victim to development. Only the Great Circle, a 1200-foot circular embankment with an interior ditch, and the Octagon Earthworks, a conjoined circle and segmented octagon that functions as a precise lunar observatory, have managed to survive to present times. To note, neither of these earthworks survived out of a pure sense of preservation but rather as notable oddities on the landscape; the Great Circle as a 19th century fairgrounds/amusement park and the Octagon as a military training camp and presently as a golf course. Both sites are owned by the Ohio History Connection and are among seven Ohio Hopewell Ceremonial Earthwork sites under consideration by the United States Department of the Interior for nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AV17_B04F02_E05_005
Subjects: Hopewell Culture (A.D. 1-400) (A.D. 1–400); Mounds -- Ohio -- Licking County; Earthworks (Archaeology);
Places: Newark (Ohio); Licking County (Ohio)
 

Description: The Alligator Mound, near Granville, is a religious effigy. Alligator Mound is an effigy mound located in Granville. The mound is 200 feet long and five to six feet high at its highest point. It is located on the top of a bluff overlooking the Raccoon Creek valley. In spite of its name, the mound likely was not intended to represent an alligator. It is in the shape of a four-footed creature with a round head and a long tail that curls at the end. It resembles an opossum or a panther much more than an alligator. It may represent the Underwater Panther, a supernatural creature thought by many American Indian tribes to reside in lakes and other bodies of water. Since Alligator Mound is located so close to the Newark Earthworks, archaeologists used to think it was built by the Hopewell culture. Recent studies, however, indicate it was built by the later Fort Ancient culture. The Alligator Mound is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is owned by the Licking County Historical Society and located on the eastern outskirts of Granville, at the end of Bryn Du Drive. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06549
Subjects: Mounds--Ohio--Licking County; Fort Ancient Culture (A.D. 1000–1650); Granville (Ohio)
Places: Granville (Ohio); Licking County (Ohio)