Field Notes Ohio

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117 parks in 7 regions

Seip Earthworks

Bainbridge · Ross County · Southern Ohio

Two big circles, a square and a giant mound

Hopewell Culture National Historical ParkNational Register of Historic Places

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
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Enormous circles beside Paint Creek and one of the tallest mounds in the Hopewell park.

Shapes: A large circle 1,621 feet across, a smaller circle 948 feet across and a square with 1,079-foot sides
Seip Mound: One of the largest Hopewell burial mounds ever excavated, with a ceremonial lodge beside it
Enclosed: About 121 acres, with several mounds inside
Setting: Along Paint Creek near Bainbridge

The story

Seip Earthworks stands on Paint Creek near Bainbridge, about 15 miles southwest of the Hopewell Mound Group. Its three shapes, two circles of different sizes and a square, enclose about 121 acres, and the same three-shape arrangement shows up at several sites in Ross County with identical dimensions. Seip Mound is one of the largest Hopewell burial mounds ever excavated, and archaeologists found the evidence of a ceremonial lodge beside it.

The Hopewell Culture National Historical Park added Seip in 1992. Visitors can walk a trail to view the Central Mound.

Related sites

Paint Creek's Sacred Ground

The Paint Valley has long held stories, and the Seip earthworks are its oldest chapter. Long before Waw-will-a-way's story at Paint Creek State Park, the Hopewell built here on a scale that still amazes: a circle more than a quarter-mile across, a smaller circle and a square, and a burial mound that rivals any in the region.

Many Native peoples have called this valley home over thousands of years.

Behind the legend

Seip is documented in the National Park Service's history: Squier and Davis surveyed the area, and the site is part of the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park. It is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and it is one of the five sites of the national historical park.

The three-shape design, two circles and a square, is one of the Hopewell's repeated patterns.

If you go

Walk the trail to the Central Mound and look at the size of the enclosures from the road. Combine it with a stop at Paint Creek State Park's limestone bluffs.