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.
Popular:
  • 117parks & forests
  • 64ancient mounds
  • 34waterfalls
  • 40historic sites
  • 33road trips

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

Explore by type

What are you in the mood for?

See every place →
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.

Plan a trip

Open the mapAll 365 places on one map. Filter by cabins, campsites, hunting, beaches and more.Explore the map → Browse by countyPick any of Ohio's 88 counties and see its parks, mounds, waterfalls and historic sites.Find your county → Build a tripSave places as you browse, then line them up into a weekend. Kept in your browser, nothing to sign up for.Start a trip →

Explore Ohio

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

Tap a symbol for a preview, or search for a place. Open the key to show or hide categories.

Parks, forests & wildlife areas

Find a park

117 parks in 7 regions

Indian Mound Reserve: Pollock Works & Williamson Mound

Cedarville · Greene County · Southwest Ohio
A hilltop whose stockade the builders burned
National Register of Historic PlacesGreene County Parks & Trails
Directions →Official source →

Two earthworks on either side of a creek canyon, one of them a hilltop enclosure with a burned wooden stockade.

Pollock Works
Earthen walls and gateways closing off the western end of a limestone plateau, once nearly ringed by Massies Creek
Built
In a five-stage process, according to excavations by Wright State University archaeologists
Williamson Mound
A large conical Adena mound at the peak of a hill across the creek
Setting
Both stand on opposite sides of Massies Creek, which flows through a canyon up to 40 feet deep
Park
Indian Mound Reserve, 169 acres, managed by Greene County Parks & Trails
Also here
Cedar Cliff Falls, a stone dam built in 1887 for the Harbison Flour Mill, and a historic log cabin

The story

Indian Mound Reserve, a county park near Cedarville, takes its name from two earthworks on opposite sides of Massies Creek. The Pollock Works, on the south side, is a Hopewell hilltop enclosure: earthen walls and gateways close off the western end of a limestone plateau that was nearly surrounded by the creek, which once ran through a channel around it. Across the creek, at the top of a hill, stands the Williamson Mound, a large conical burial mound built by the Adena.

Archaeologists from Wright State University showed that the Hopewell built the Pollock Works in five stages. Robert Riordan's excavations revealed a hilltop gated with stone and earth, briefly protected by a high wooden stockade that its builders then burned in a great crescent of fire. Like other Hopewell hilltop sites, it looks like a hill fort but seems more important as a religious site.

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.
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 Stockade the Builders Burned

The archaeologists who dug the Pollock Works uncovered a story with a strange ending. At first the Hopewell built a wall of earth and stone with gateways. Then they added a tall wooden stockade, which looks like a defense. And then, according to the excavations, they burned it themselves, in a great crescent of fire.

A second story belongs to the creek. Settlers told that Nathaniel Massie, the surveyor the creek is named for, once battled a Shawnee band under Tecumseh here and drove them over the stream at the canyon. Not far away, near Old Town Reserve, a marker commemorates the Shawnee chief's reputed birthplace.

Behind the legend

The stockade is documented by the Wright State excavations and by the Ancient Ohio Trail's account of Riordan's work. It suggests that the hilltop was more ceremonial than military, and that burning the stockade was a deliberate act. The Massie and Tecumseh battle is only 'reputed,' as one source puts it, and the birthplace marker is a commemoration, not proof.

The park's later history is easier to confirm: Cedar Cliff Falls, the curved stone dam on Massies Creek, was built in 1887 for the Harbison Flour Mill, replacing an older dam destroyed in a flood.

If you go

Walk the Pollock Works loop trail and look for the gateways in the woods, then cross the creek to the Williamson Mound. Cedar Cliff Falls is a good lookout.

Visiting

Status
County park
Managed by
Greene County Parks & Trails
Hours
Public park with marked trails; check Greene County Parks & Trails for hours.
Admission
Check Greene County Parks & Trails
Please note
Stay on the trails and off the earthworks. The gateways are densely overgrown.
Address
2750 U.S. Route 42, Cedarville, OH 45314
Official information →Directions

Parks nearby

John Bryan State Park
About 9 miles · Clifton Gorge, the Little Miami and the Blue Hole legend.
Open
Buck Creek State Park
About 17 miles · A big lake park on Springfield's edge.
Open

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

Know a place that belongs here, or spotted something out of date? Email hello@fieldnotesohio.com.