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

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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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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

Norwood Mound

Norwood · Hamilton County · Southwest Ohio
An Adena mound in a city park
National Register of Historic PlacesNever excavatedCity park
Directions →

A 15-foot Adena burial mound that has stood on a Norwood hilltop as public ground since the 1870s.

Size
Elliptical, about 100 by 130 feet and 15½ feet high; probably taller once
Setting
A hilltop in Norwood's Water Tower Park
Saved
Deeded for public use in 1875 to 1876 by settlers including S. H. Parvin
Streets
Mound Avenue was laid out in a half circle around its base in 1870
Excavation
None on record
Listed
National Register of Historic Places, 1974

The story

Norwood Mound is an Adena burial mound about 15½ feet high and roughly 100 by 130 feet across, on a hilltop in what is now Norwood's Water Tower Park, inside the Cincinnati metro. There is no record that anyone has ever dug into it.

It survived because the people who settled the hill decided early to keep it. In 1870 a street, Mound Avenue, was laid out in a half circle around its base, and in 1875 to 1876 S. H. Parvin and other landowners deeded the mound and the ground around it for public use. The deed named "Norwood Village" as the owner, years before Norwood was incorporated in 1888, and called the path around it Lookout Avenue. A 19th-century newspaper wrote that seventeen villages and towns could be seen from the top. It was listed on the National Register in 1974.

Related sites

Visiting information you can trust

Content last reviewed
November 2026 — this is when Field Notes Ohio's content was last checked, not a live status.
Location confidence
Verified entrance or visitor center
Published coordinates

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.

Seventeen Towns From the Top

Before the trees and the houses grew up around it, the mound was the high point of the neighborhood. A newspaper in the 1800s claimed you could count seventeen villages and towns from its summit.

The settlers who owned the hill named the path around it Lookout Avenue and gave the mound to the public.

Behind the legend

The deeds of 1875 to 1876, the 1870 street plan and the newspaper's seventeen-towns line come from the Norwood Historical Society. Some writers suggest the mound was used for signal fires or ceremonies; that is a guess, not something any excavation has shown, because there has been none.

If you go

Walk around the base on the park paths and read it as what it is, a grave more than 2,000 years old in the middle of a city. Please do not climb it.

Visiting

Status
City park
Managed by
City of Norwood
Hours
Visible in Water Tower Park during normal park hours.
Admission
Free
Please note
It is a burial mound. View it from the park and do not climb it.
Directions

Parks nearby

Eden Park
About 5 miles · A hilltop city park above the Ohio River in Cincinnati.
Open
East Fork State Park
About 20 miles · One of Ohio's largest state parks, with an 82-mile trail network.
Open

Details last checked 2026-11-05. Confirm hours and prices before you go.

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