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Portsmouth Earthworks

Portsmouth · Scioto County · Southern Ohio

A giant Hopewell ceremonial center mostly buried under a city

National Register of Historic Places

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Content last reviewed: September 2026 — this is when Field Notes Ohio's content was last checked, not a live status.
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A vast ceremonial center at the meeting of two rivers, mostly lost to the city that grew on top of it.

Setting: Where the Scioto River meets the Ohio
Three walkways: Long earthen-walled roads that led out of the complex
Today: Nearly all of the Ohio-side works lie beneath Portsmouth's streets and buildings
Nearby: Tremper Mound, five miles north, is one of the few visible reminders

The story

At the confluence of the Scioto and the Ohio, the Hopewell built one of their largest ceremonial centers. Three long walkways, each bordered by earthen walls, ran out from the complex on the Ohio side. Today nearly all of the Portsmouth Works lie buried beneath the city's residential and business districts, and a few sections survive across the river in Kentucky and are listed on the National Register.

Because so little is left, Tremper Mound, five miles north, has become even more important.

Related sites

The City on Top of the Sacred Way

Portsmouth grew up at the meeting of two great rivers, which is exactly why the Hopewell chose the place first. They built long walled roads and enclosures, and two thousand years later the city built its streets over them. A city of houses sits where the sacred ways used to run.

Squier and Davis mapped the works before they vanished, and a 3D simulation now shows what the whole complex looked like.

Behind the legend

The disappearance is documented: nearly all the Ohio-side works are beneath the city. The Kentucky-side sites, like the Biggs site across the river, are connected to Portsmouth's works.

The Southern Ohio Museum and Cultural Center in Portsmouth holds Hopewell artifacts from the area, including from Tremper Mound.

If you go

Visit the Southern Ohio Museum and read the Scioto Historical page on the Portsmouth Earthworks. Then drive north to Tremper Mound.