Ohio historical society settles with golf club to take back World Heritage tribal site
Ohio’s historical society has struck a deal that will allow it to take control of ancient ceremonial and burial earthworks located on a golf course east of Columbus
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio’s historical society announced a deal Thursday that will allow it to take control of an ancient ceremonial and burial earthworks site long located on the site of a golf course.
Ohio History Connection will pay Moundbuilders Country Club in Newark to buy out its lease and end the long-running legal dispute over the Octagon Earthworks, although the sum is confidential under a settlement agreement. The deal avoids a jury trial to determine the site's fair market value that had been repeatedly postponed over the years.
The Octagon Earthworks are among eight ancient areas in the Hopewell Earthworks system that were named a UNESCO World Heritage Site last year. The historical society, a nonprofit state history organization, takes control of them on Jan. 1 and plans to open them to visitors.
“Our guiding principles throughout this process have been to enable full public access to the Octagon Earthworks while ensuring Moundbuilders Country Club receives just compensation for the value of its lease on the property,” said Megan Wood, executive director and CEO of the Ohio History Connection. “And now we have accomplished those things.”
Charles Moses, president of the organization's board of trustees, said the History Connection is excited for the location to be “fully open to the citizens of Ohio — and the world.”
Built between 2,000 and 1,600 years ago by people from the Hopewell Culture, the earthworks were host to ceremonies that drew people from across the continent, based on archeological discoveries of raw materials from as far west as
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