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

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

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Piketon Mounds

Piketon · Pike County · Southern Ohio
A 25-foot Adena mound inside a village cemetery
National Register of Historic PlacesIn an active cemetery

A 25-foot Adena burial mound and three smaller ones rise among 19th-century gravestones on Piketon's south edge, just inside the cemetery gate.

Mounds
Four: one about 75 feet across and 25 feet high (30 feet in 1848) and three of 2 to 5 feet
Setting
Among 19th-century gravestones in the village cemetery on Piketon's south edge
Recorded
By Squier and Davis in 1848, when a turnpike and the cemetery already ran over the site
Graded Way
A nearby earthen ramp about 1,080 feet long between river terraces, since graded away
Listed
National Register of Historic Places, 1974

The story

On the south edge of Piketon, along the old road to Chillicothe, a large Adena burial mound rises inside the village cemetery, about 75 feet across and 25 feet high. Three smaller mounds of 2 to 5 feet stand nearby, one of them topped by a modern gravestone. Ephraim Squier and Edwin Davis described the group in 1848, when the Chillicothe Turnpike already ran through it and settlers had laid out their cemetery among the mounds.

Squier and Davis also puzzled over the Graded Way nearby, an earthen ramp about 1,080 feet long and more than 200 feet wide climbing 17 feet between river terraces, with embankments along its sides. They thought it might be an ancient road; the state historical society later suggested it could be a natural drainage channel. It has since been graded away. The mounds were 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.

Two Cemeteries in One

The settlers of Piketon chose the same ground for their dead that the Adena had chosen two thousand years before. Their headstones stand among the ancient mounds, and one sits right on top of a small one.

Behind the legend

The mound sizes, the 1848 description and the Graded Way come from Squier and Davis and the National Register record. Who owns the cemetery today is not confirmed here.

If you go

Pull in at the cemetery on the south edge of town on US 23 and look at the big mound from the lane. Be quiet and respectful; it is still in use.

Visiting

Status
Visible from the road and cemetery
Managed by
Cemetery
Hours
Visible during daylight hours.
Admission
Free
Please note
This is an active cemetery and an ancient burial ground. Stay off the mounds and respect graves and funerals.
Directions

Parks nearby

Lake White State Park
About 3 miles · A day-use lake park in the Scioto Valley hills.
Open
Scioto Trail State Forest
About 13 miles · CCC-built forest and fire towers south of Chillicothe.
Open

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

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