NATIONAL HISTORIC PARK
Leann and I planned on visiting Hopewell on previous trips but for some reason it never happened. Maybe it was just too close to home. We were committed to stopping on the way home after a quick trip to the Carolina’s.
The Hopewell culture was named after Mordecai Hopewell who owned and farmed the land where the mounds were first discovered. Mound building in the area started in 200 BC and ended around 500 AD. Nobody knows what happened to the Hopewell, maybe they just decided to stop building mounds.
Layout of mounds behind the visitor center.
The number of mounds built by the Hopewell is lost to the passage of time but the estimates range from hundreds to thousands. What we do know is the significant damage done by farmers, grave robbers and the US Army. The army built 2,000 buildings in the area to train troops headed to the fighting in WWI. Many mounds were damaged or obliterated. Mound 7 (largest) was the only mound left intact.
The Hopewell’s built the largest earthworks in the world that were not used as fortifications. Interesting since they were built by a culture that did not live in villages but in very small groups. This small group of people were able to move an estimated 7,000,000 cubic feet of dirt.
It is speculated that the mounds were built as a gathering spot and attracted people from outside the area. There is also evidence that the mounds aligned to celestial cycles.
- The Hopewell’s are as well known for their culture as for their mounds
- Elaborate graves in some of the mounds
- They produced artifacts from materials that came from great distances
- Copper from the Great Lakes
- Marine shells from the Gulf and Atlantic
- Obsidian from the Rocky Mountains
- They made pots and pipes that required a great deal of skill
HAPPY HISTORY, STEVE