Field NotesOhio
Upper Falls in the Old Man's Cave gorge, Hocking Hills, with visitors on the rocks

An independent field guide · 365 places

The field guide to outdoor Ohio

Parks and forests, ancient mounds, caves, waterfalls and back roads, with the story behind each place and where to eat and fuel up nearby.
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  • 117parks & forests
  • 64ancient mounds
  • 34waterfalls
  • 40historic sites
  • 33road trips

Old Man's Cave, Hocking Hills · Photo: Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0

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State parks & forests117 places, with cabins, campsites and trails117 places Waterfalls34 falls, with trail notes34 falls Mounds & earthworks64 ancient sites, from Serpent Mound to Newark64 ancient sites Caves & caverns12 show caverns, recess caves and rock shelters12 caves Lake Erie beaches20 public beaches, Conneaut to Toledo20 beaches Historic sites40 places, from the frontier to the Civil War40 places Road trips33 drives, from the Lincoln Highway to the Morgan Heritage Trail33 drives Oddities19 giants, ghosts and folk-art stops19 roadside stops The Buckeye TrailA 1,444-mile loop, all 26 sections1,444 miles

New to the guide?

Six places to start

One from every corner of the state, each with its full story inside.

01Old Man's CaveHocking Hills · SoutheastA gorge of waterfalls and recess caves where a hermit is said to have lived, with the park's visitor center. 02Great Serpent MoundAdams County · SouthwestA gigantic earthen snake on a hilltop over Ohio Brush Creek, built by a people whose name is still argued over. 03Brandywine FallsCuyahoga Valley · NortheastThe tallest waterfall in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, reached by an easy boardwalk with an accessible upper overlook. 04Marblehead LighthouseMarblehead · Lake ErieThe oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the Great Lakes, lit since 1821, on nine acres of limestone shoreline. 05Zoar VillageTuscarawas County · EasternA well-preserved communal village founded by German separatists in 1817, on the Ohio & Erie Canal. 06Longaberger Basket BuildingNewark · CentralA seven-story office building shaped like a picnic basket, with handles that are heated in winter.

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One map for every park, mound, historic site, beach, cave, waterfall and oddity in the app.

Lake ErieWest Virginia36 places368 places813 places135 places523 places2321 places2124 places2416 places1613 places134 places418 places182 places217 places1710 places1014 places142 places27 places76 places613 places133 places34 places414 places143 places3Harrison Lake State Park2 places22 places22 places26 places64 places4

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Parks, forests & wildlife areas

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117 parks in 7 regions

Marietta Earthworks

Marietta · Washington County · Southeast Ohio
The ancient works the founders of Ohio tried to save
National Register of Historic PlacesPreserved by Marietta's founders
Directions →Official source →

The mounds under Marietta's streets, saved because the town's founders decided to.

Parts
Conus (the great mound in Mound Cemetery), Quadranaou (Camp Tupper Park), Capitolium and the Sacra Via
Names
Latin names given by the Ohio Company of Associates
Conus
A conical burial mound with a ditch and embankment; the cemetery was established in 1801 to protect it
Capitolium
A truncated pyramid with three ramps, preserved by the library built on top of it in 1916
Cemetery
Mound Cemetery has the most Revolutionary War officers buried of any cemetery in the country

The story

When the Ohio Company of Associates founded Marietta in 1788, it landed on the site of a great Hopewell earthwork complex from about 100 BCE to 500 CE, and the founders were impressed. They gave the structures Latin names: Quadranaou for the largest platform mound at what is now Camp Tupper, Capitolium for another at the site of the library, Conus for the conical burial mound now in Mound Cemetery, and Sacra Via, the sacred way, for the walled path leading from town toward the river. The company set the mounds aside as protected public squares.

Not all of it survived. In 1820, a man who was leasing Quadranaou began to plow it down, and a public outcry and a legal fight followed and saved it. The town established Mound Cemetery in 1801 around the Conus to protect it, and the Capitolium was preserved when the county library was built on top of it in 1916.

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 Founders Who Saved the Mounds

Most of the mounds and earthworks in Ohio were plowed away. In Marietta they were saved by the men who founded the town. Rufus Putnam surveyed them in detail. The Ohio Company gave them Latin names, leased the public squares to trusted men for safekeeping and told them to keep the ancient works preserved. In 1801 the town made the great conical mound into a cemetery so nobody would flatten it.

Even so, in 1820 a man who had leased the Quadranaou started plowing it down, and the town rose up and stopped him.

Behind the legend

The preservation story is documented in Washington County's and Marietta's histories. What is less certain is who built the works. Older accounts credit the Adena, and current archaeological dating puts the complex at about 100 BCE to 500 CE, the Hopewell era. Many of the Latin names came from the Ohio Company and have nothing to do with the builders.

Today Mound Cemetery has the highest number of Revolutionary War officers buried of any cemetery in the country.

If you go

Walk the Mound Cemetery around the Conus, then look for the Capitolium under the library. Finish at the Campus Martius Museum a few blocks away.

Visiting

Status
Open
Managed by
City of Marietta
Hours
Mound Cemetery and Camp Tupper Park are open to the public; check with the city.
Admission
Free
Please note
Do not walk on the mounds in Mound Cemetery.
Address
Mound Cemetery, 5th & Scammel Sts., Marietta, OH 45750
Official information →Directions

Parks nearby

Wayne National Forest: Marietta Unit
About 18 miles · The Marietta Unit of Wayne National Forest, with Leith Run on the Ohio River.
Open

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

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