Octagon Earthworks, Newark, Ohio by Steve Beckelhimer

The Newark Earthworks includes several sites that are thought to have been constructed by the Hopewell culture from 200 BC to 500 AD. The Hopewell people lived throughout the Midwestern United States and may have had intricate trade routes across much of the continent.
This site, the Octagon Earthworks, encloses 50 acres and includes a variety of mounds, walls and trenches.
Excavations of the Hopewell burial mounds shed a great deal of light into the interesting and complex lives of these stone age people. In the post-glacial period of Central Ohio, life was relatively easy for these Native Americans. With plentiful food and benign weather, historians estimate that only about two hours each day were devoted to survival tasks such as food gathering and shelter. This gave the Hopewell time to explore art, religion and other diversions that people in a more harsh environment may not be able to experience.
The Hopewell used carefully placed structures to align to unique astronomical phenomena. As such, the Octagon Earthworks in Ohio’s Stonehenge.
Today, the Octagon Earthworks is used by the Newark Country Club as part of their golf course.