Mound Builders

Licking County was undoubtedly the center of a great community of Moundbuilders. Evidenced not only by the great number of ancient earthworks, but also by the elaborate mound system that runs through the western part of Newark. The only two remaining mounds in the county are the circle at Moundbuilders Park and the circle and octagon at Moundbuilders Country Club.

The first white men in Licking County found nearly three hundred mounds, during the first era of discovery in the early 1800s. The Moundbuilders lived in the areas around the Ohio Valley somewhere between 500 and 2000 years ago. Sometimes referred to as the Adena, the name comes from Ohio's first governor, Thomas Worthington, where the first mound was excavated on his estate. Archaeologists contend that however, that Adena, and their later counterparts the Hopewell, are better classified as Early Woodland peoples, based on chronology, rather than common cultural attributes.