Field Notes Ohio

Ohio's parks, forests and wildlife areas with camping, the ancient mounds beside them, and the Buckeye Trail that links them. Stories, trails, wildlife, and where to eat and fuel up nearby. Book campsites on ReserveOhio.
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The Buckeye TrailA 1,444-mile blue-blazed loop around Ohio, with all 26 sections.
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Mounds & Earthworks43 ancient sites, including the Great Serpent Mound and the Newark Earthworks.
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Historic Sites39 places, from Fort Steuben and Zoar to Camp Chase and the Rankin House, from the frontier to the Civil War.
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Road Trips33 drives, from the Lincoln Highway to the Morgan Heritage Trail.
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Lake Erie Beaches20 public beaches from Conneaut to Toledo and the islands, with a map.
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Oddities & Roadside Attractions19 giants, ghosts and folk-art stops, plus a Mothman just over the line.
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Caves & Caverns12 show caverns, recess caves and rock shelters, with a map.
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Waterfalls34 falls from the Cuyahoga Valley to the Hocking Hills, with trail notes and a map.
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117 parks in 7 regions

Flint Ridge Ancient Quarries

Glenford · Licking County · Central Ohio
The Great Indian Quarry of Ohio
National Register of Historic PlacesOhio's state gemstone

Visiting information you can trust

Content last reviewed
September 2026 — this is when Field Notes Ohio's content was last checked, not a live status.
Primary official source
Official page
Location confidence
Verified property location
Located from the site's street address
Check current conditions
Official conditions or closures
Reservations or tickets
Tickets or admission info

Prices, hours, closures, campsite availability and trail conditions shown elsewhere on this page are not live — always confirm with the official source before you go.

The quarry that supplied flint to peoples across eastern North America, and the goal of the Black Hand's path.

Ridge
A nearly eight-mile vein of colorful flint in Licking and Muskingum counties
Quarry pits
Hundreds of pits and workshop sites, 12 to 80 feet across and 3 to 20 feet deep, over more than 2,000 acres of ridge top
Used by
Archaic, Adena and especially Hopewell peoples
Trade
Flint Ridge flint turns up at sites as far away as the Gulf of Mexico and the Rocky Mountains
State gemstone
Flint, adopted in 1965
Museum
Built directly over a restored prehistoric quarry pit

The story

Flint Ridge is a nearly eight-mile ridge of high-quality flint in Licking and Muskingum counties, scattered with hundreds of quarry pits and workshop sites across more than 2,000 acres of ridge top. It has been called the Great Indian Quarry of Ohio. Peoples from across Ohio came to dig the rainbow-colored stone for tools and weapons, and the Hopewell especially prized it for its beauty and traded it widely.

Studies show it was a quarry, not a village: groups came for short periods, took what they needed and left. Today 533 acres are preserved, with two miles of trails passing the old pits, and the museum is built around one of the restored pits, with the flint walls exposed.

Related sites

Where the Black Hand Pointed

Down the Licking River at Blackhand Gorge, the story goes, there was once a black hand carved on the cliff, and the way it pointed led to this ridge. The legend says the trail ran to the Great Quarry, where tribes from across the continent gathered for flint, and that the hand carried a message: all who travel here do so in peace.

The flint itself traveled far. Pieces of Flint Ridge flint have been found across the eastern United States, as far as the Gulf of Mexico and the Rocky Mountains.

Behind the legend

The hand at Blackhand Gorge was real and was destroyed in 1828 by canal builders, and the peace-message reading is only one of several theories. Flint Ridge is documented: the state made it a memorial in 1933 to 1934, listed it on the National Register in 1970 and adopted flint as the official gemstone in 1965. The quarry pits, ranging from 12 to 80 feet across, now show as gentle dips in the forest floor.

The traveled-far claim rests on artifact studies, and it is one of the reasons archaeologists think the Hopewell traded across a huge network.

If you go

Walk the trails past the old pits and, if the museum is open, look at the quarry pit inside it. Then read the Dillon State Park entry for the Black Hand legend.

Visiting

Status
Grounds open daily
Managed by
Ohio History Connection
Hours
The park and trails are open during daylight hours daily. The museum has been closed for interior repairs, so confirm before you go.
Admission
Adult $5, child 5 and up $3, under 6 and Ohio History Connection members free (listed by the Ohio History Connection).
Please note
Removing any artifacts or flint is strictly prohibited.
Address
15300 Flint Ridge Road, Glenford, OH 43739
Official information →Directions

Parks nearby

Dillon State Park
About 8 miles · A lakeside camping park a few miles west, near Blackhand Gorge.
Open
Buckeye Lake State Park
About 11 miles · Ohio's oldest state park, with a floating bog.
Open

Details last checked 2026-09-22. Confirm hours and prices before you go.