As of September 19, 2023, Ohio officially joined the list of places to be home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site: the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, made up of eight earthworks built 2000 years ago. The Newark Earthworks is one of the three major areas included in this (the other two are Fort Ancient in Oregonia and the multiple sites near Chillicothe maintained by Hopewell Culture National Historical Park of the National Park Service).
At this specific location, one can find the Great Circle Earthworks, which contains the Eagle Mound, so called because some believe it resembles a bird in shape. Across from the opening to the circle is a small museum/visitors center. A very friendly and welcoming staff member greeted us on our walk up from the parking area and gave us an overview of the earthworks and the exhibit space. It was interesting to learn that there was a ditch that ran all along the inside of the Great Circle, which would be filled with water, which scholars and Native communities believe is so that the site would capture sky, earth, and water all together. He also told us about the history of the nearby Octagon Earthworks, which are the ones that have been used as a golf club for years (though that should be ending soon). While the golf club is there, there is limited access to the site. There's a really neat graphic in the museum that shows how the moon alignments work at the site.
The museum offers a number of movie clips that let you explore different aspects of the earthworks, stories from Native Americans whose tribes had lived in Ohio in the past, and explanations of what life would have been like at the time the earthworks were built. A few artifacts/replicas of artifacts are available too. There is also a small gift shop.
It's amazing to gaze up at the mounds and think about how they were built and created! While this is part of Ohio's first UNESCO World Heritage Site (and only 25 in the US as a whole), we were also told it may not be the last: Serpent Mound, built 1000 years after the collective Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, is on the tentative list (apparently it took 20 years for these to make it to the approval stage, though, so it may be a bit). read more