The U.S. National Park Service announced the kickoff of the 2023 centennial commemoration of Hopewell Culture National Historical Park March 2.
A variety of activities and programs will be presented at the park’s Mound City Group Visitor Center. Park Archaeologist Dr. Bret Ruby will present “Archeology Then and Now: A Century of Writing Unwritten Histories at Hopewell Culture NHP,” according to a Jan. 30 news release.
“We’re excited to share this milestone with all the visitors to the park. The Centennial is a time for reflection on the past and inspiration for the future. We honor the people who called this land home while continuing to learn, inspire and connect others to the cultural stories,” Chris Alford, superintendent of Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, said in the release.
The park’s history goes back to the former Mound City Group National Monument, created by President Warren G. Harding in 1923 to preserve prehistoric mounds of “great historic and scientific interest,” according to the National Park Service.
Congress added a portion of the nearby Hopeton Earthworks in 1980. That expansion also allowed for the investigation of other regional archeological sites to determine their suitability for preservation. Hopewell Culture National Historical Park was established in 1992 by a law that renamed Mound City Group National Monument, NPS reported, and now encompasses six sites within the Ross County area.
"The Hopewell Earthworks were mapped just over 200 years ago," World Heritage USA said in a Jan. 25 post on Twitter. "They are now being considered for inscription on the World Heritage list."
World Heritage USA shared a Newark Advocate article by Robert Drake, who wrote that the NPS approved an application to the United Nations to have the Octagon and the Great Circle geometric earthworks in Licking County, Ohio, designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
If that status is granted, the whole world will be on notice of what extraordinary things can be seen in Licking County and elsewhere in southern Ohio," Drake said in the Newark Advocate article.
