Field NotesOhio

Miamisburg Mound

Miamisburg · Montgomery County · Southwest Ohio

Ohio's tallest conical burial mound

National Register of Historic PlacesOhio History Connection site

A giant earthen cone on a river bluff with 116 steps to the top.

Height: 65 feet (originally 68 or more before an 1869 excavation)
Circumference: About 800 to 877 feet
Volume: About 54,000 cubic yards of earth
Setting: A bluff about 100 feet above the Great Miami River
Steps: 116 steps lead to an observation platform (some visitors count 144)
Owner: Owned by the Ohio History Connection; the city of Miamisburg maintains the park

The story

Miamisburg Mound is the largest conical burial mound in Ohio and one of the largest in the eastern United States. It stands 65 feet tall and about 800 feet around and contains about 54,000 cubic yards of earth, built by the Adena people between about 800 BCE and 100 CE on a bluff 100 feet above the Great Miami River. An 1869 excavation, a vertical shaft from the top to the base and a horizontal shaft across it, found a single skeleton 8 feet down and a log room that may have been a charnel house. The shaft is thought to have lowered the mound from about 68 feet.

The excavation also showed that the mound was built in stages, and a layer of overlapping flat stones 24 feet down suggests it may once have had a stone facing. Squier and Davis surveyed it, and its picture is the first figure in their 1848 book.

Related sites

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.
Location confidence: Verified property location
Located from the site's street address

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 Mound That Opens the Book

When the Smithsonian published its first book, Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, in 1848, the first picture in it was a tree-covered hill at Miamisburg. Squier and Davis, two men from Chillicothe, thought the mound was the finest example of its kind they had seen. Today you can climb it, on hand-laid stone steps to a platform with a view of the Great Miami valley.

Some visitors count 116 steps and some count 144, and it is a very steep climb either way.

Behind the legend

The step count is a local disagreement, with the shelter sign saying 116 and one visitor counting 144. What is documented is the mound: its size, the 1869 excavation and the fact that the Ohio History Connection owns it while the city runs the park. Since NAGPRA protects it, no further excavation is likely.

The Adena built conical mounds like this one as burial places over generations, and the cone may echo the round houses they lived in.

If you go

Climb the steps slowly, since the stones are hand-placed and uneven, and look out over the Great Miami valley from the platform.

Visiting

Status

Open

Managed by

Ohio History Connection; city of Miamisburg

Hours

The park is open to the public; check with the city for hours.

Admission

Free

Please note

Climb the steps; do not dig or disturb the mound.

Address

900 Mound Rd, Miamisburg, OH 45342

Parks nearby

Sycamore State Park

About 10 miles · Montgomery County's only state park, with meadow and prairie.

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

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