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

Hopeton Earthworks

Chillicothe · Ross County · Southern Ohio
A square and a circle of the same size
Hopewell Culture National Historical ParkUNESCO World Heritage Site (2023)National Historic Landmark

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.

Geometry you have to imagine, now traced in mown grass below an overlook.

Shapes
A 20-acre circle and a 20-acre square of nearly identical area, plus smaller circles
Parallel walls
Extend about 2,100 feet from the square toward the Scioto River, following the winter solstice sun
Alignments
Summer and winter solstice alignments within one degree
Walls
Once about 12 feet high and 50 feet wide at the base
Reopened
August 25, 2016, with a 1.1-mile round-trip trail and overlook

The story

Hopeton lies across the Scioto River from Mound City, and it was once dominated by a big irregular square with rounded corners joined to an overlapping circle. Squier and Davis were struck by walls that reminded them of railway grading, broad enough on top, they wrote, to admit the passage of a coach. Farming has since plowed most of it flat, and the earthworks were reconstructed through archaeology and interpretive mowing, with the shapes shown by uncut grass.

The circle has the same diameter as circles at four other Hopewell sites, and the parallel walls follow the sun's path on the winter solstice.

Related sites

The Same Circle, Miles Apart

The strangest thing about the Hopewell earthworks is that the circles and squares are often the same size at sites miles apart. Hopeton's circle is about 1,050 feet across, the same diameter as circles at four other Hopewell sites, and the large circle at High Bank matches the Observatory Circle at Newark. The three-shape design at Seip turns up at several sites in Ross County, all with the same dimensions.

How did people without writing keep a standard across a whole valley?

Behind the legend

Archaeologists call it a real puzzle, and the answer is not settled. What is documented is the pattern itself: the identical measurements and the solstice and lunar alignments are described in the National Park Service's material and in the UNESCO nomination. Scholars have proposed that the builders shared a standard unit of measure and a body of astronomical knowledge, and the question is still debated.

Hopeton was reopened to the public in 2016 after years of closure.

If you go

Walk the 1.1-mile trail to the overlook and look for the mown outlines of the square and circle. Bring water, since there are no restrooms.

Visiting

Status
Open daily in daylight
Managed by
National Park Service
Hours
Open during daylight hours; no restrooms on site.
Admission
Free
Please note
Stay on the trail; the earthworks lie under the fields below the overlook.
Address
990 Hopeton Road, Chillicothe, OH 45601
Official information →Directions

Parks nearby

Hopewell Culture National Historical Park
About 0 miles · The national park that protects this site.
Open
Great Seal State Park
About 3 miles · The hills of Ohio's state seal.
Open
Scioto Trail State Park
About 10 miles · State park and forest just south.
Open

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