Visit in April to see the Octagon Earthworks
Visitors to the Octagon Earthworks near Newark in Licking County can explore the National Historic Landmark four times this year without the risk of being hit by a golf ball.
The Octagon Earthworks also is home to the Moundbuilders Country Club, a private golf course. On April 17 and 18, the country club will suspend golfing for the first two of this year’s daylong open houses, making the whole site available to the general public. The other two open houses will take place May 31 and Oct. 10.
The Octagon Earthworks is one of the three main segments of the Newark Earthworks, Ohio’s official prehistoric monument and the world’s largest set of geometric earthen enclosures. The Newark Earthworks also is on track to become a World Heritage site.
Enclosing 50 acres, the Octagon Earthworks has eight walls, each stretching nearly 550 feet and standing 5 or 6 feet tall. The perfectly circular enclosure, 1,054 feet in diameter, is large enough to hold four Roman Coliseums. Parallel walls connect the site to a circular embankment enclosing another 20 acres.
The Newark Earthwork’s other two main segments, open year-round with free admission like the Octagon Earthworks, are the Great Circle Earthworks and the Wright Earthworks.
The Great Circle Earthworks, formerly known as the Moundbuilders State Memorial, measures nearly 1,200 feet in diameter and was likely used as a massive ceremonial center. Its 8-foot-high walls surround a 5-foot-deep moat, except at its impressive entrance, where the walls and moat are larger.
The Wright Earthworks is made up of a surviving fragment of a nearly perfect geometrically square enclosure and part of one wall that originally formed a set of parallel embankments, which connected the square to a large oval area. Originally, the square’s walls were around 950 feet in length, enclosing an area of about 20 acres.
The Newark Earthworks were built by the Hopewell Culture between 100 B.C. and 500 A.D. The architectural wonder of ancient America was part cathedral, part cemetery, and part astronomical observatory. The Newark Earthworks originally encompassed more than 4 square miles, but early settlers and the growth of the city of Newark destroyed much of the complex. Local citizens eventually stepped up and preserved what survives of the Newark Earthworks.
For more information, contact the Newark Earthworks, 455 Hebron Rd, Heath, OH 43056 by calling 800-589-8224 or visiting www.ohiohistory.org/newark.
Jeff Reed is a freelance writer and editor from Grove City.
