Field Notes Ohio

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117 parks in 7 regions

Highbanks Earthworks & Adena Mounds

Lewis Center · Delaware & Franklin Counties · Central Ohio

A bluff-top wall, two burial mounds and an eagle overlook

National Register of Historic PlacesMetro ParkEdward F. Hutchins State Nature Preserve

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A wall of engineered clay on a river bluff, and two small Adena mounds in a busy metro park.

Cole Earthwork: A wall about a quarter-mile long, curving out from the bluff, with a moat, built by Late Woodland (Cole culture) people
Wall construction: Engineered with a red clay core, a yellow clay layer and a top layer of topsoil from the ditch
Adena mounds: Two conical burial mounds; the Muma Mound is about 7 feet high and 54 feet across
The bluff: A shale bluff about 110 feet above the Olentangy River, with an observation deck
Preserve: The 206-acre Edward F. Hutchins State Nature Preserve
Park: Highbanks Metro Park, about 1,200 acres, the most visited in the Columbus system

The story

Highbanks Metro Park is named for its steep shale bluff, about 100 to 110 feet above the Olentangy River. People have lived along it for thousands of years. Two small conical mounds built by the Adena more than 2,000 years ago survive in the park, along with the Cole Earthwork, a wall about a quarter-mile long that curves out from the highest point of the bluff, with a moat outside it. Excavation of a section of the wall in 1952 showed it was engineered rather than simply piled up, with a layer of red clay at its core, a layer of yellow clay over that and topsoil from the ditch on top. The clays were carried in from elsewhere.

The earthwork was built by Late Woodland people of the Cole culture, and its purpose is not known. There is no evidence it was used for burials, and it may have enclosed a small village. Its wall and moat back onto the river bluff, like other enclosures along the Scioto, Miami and Olentangy rivers. The park, opened in 1973, became a National Natural Landmark seven years later.

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The Bluff, the Wall and the Eagles

The trail to the overlook passes through an opening in an ancient wall, and most visitors walk through without knowing. The Cole Earthwork curves out from the top of the bluff like a wall around a fort. Below it the Olentangy runs 110 feet down, and from the observation deck people used to be able to see anyone coming. Park accounts note that pre-Columbian people were known to keep watch from high places like this.

Today the watchers are eagles. A pair has nested in a big sycamore upstream of the deck for years, and they are the park's most famous residents.

Behind the legend

The wall is documented and its purpose is not. The moat along its outer wall collects snowmelt each spring and becomes a breeding pond for Jefferson salamanders. The two Adena mounds are listed on the National Register of Historic Places along with the Highbank Park Works. One of them, the Muma Mound, stands in a former farm field.

Local visitors are often surprised: this is one of the busiest parks in Ohio, and a chunk of ancient engineering sits along its main trail.

If you go

Walk out to the overlook in spring for the eagles and the salamander pond, and look at the wall as you pass through its opening. Then find the Adena mound on the other side of the park.