A 2,000-year-old Hopewell earthwork. Six miles of wild river corridor. One unforgettable stop in southern Ohio.
Long before there was an Ohio, long before there was a United States, a civilization was already building something remarkable along the Scioto River. They left no written language. No stone temples. But they left earthworks — and one of the most striking stands today at Tremper Mound Preserve in Scioto County.
The 706-acre preserve protects a 2,000-year-old Hopewell earthwork. The Hopewell Culture thrived here between roughly 50 BCE and 400 CE. What they built is not a footnote. It is world-significant history hiding in plain sight along the Scioto.
The Hopewell Culture: Ohio’s Ancient Civilization
The Hopewell were not a single tribe. They were a culture — shared beliefs, trade practices, and artistic traditions. That culture spread across much of the eastern continent. Ohio was their heartland.
These people were skilled engineers and artists. They moved enormous amounts of earth with hand tools. They traded copper from the Great Lakes and mica from the Appalachians. Obsidian came from Wyoming. Marine shells arrived from the Gulf of Mexico. Their trade network stretched thousands of miles — without wheels, horses, or iron tools.
Ceremony sat at the center of their world—connection too — to the dead, to nature, and to one another.
Tremper Mound is one of the clearest windows we still have into that ceremonial world.
Inside Tremper Mound: What the 1915 Dig Revealed
Tremper Mound sits on a terrace overlooking the Scioto River. An oval earthen wall — 500 feet across — rings the irregular, 8-foot-tall mound. Archaeologists believe workers raised it late in the first century BCE over the burned ruins of a Great House. In this multi-chambered ceremonial building, the Hopewell honored and cremated their dead.
When archaeologist William C. Mills dug here in 1915, the find stopped everyone cold. He uncovered the charred remains of that ceremonial structure. More than 500 artifacts lay buried with it — deliberately broken as offerings. Among them: 136 stone platform pipes, and 90 took the form of animal effigies — bears, owls, herons, turtles, beavers, otters, and more.
The Hopewell did not pick those animals at random. Each carving honored a real creature from their world — powerful predators like panthers and hawks alongside humble toads and wood ducks. The Arc of Appalachia notes these carvings reflected the Hopewell people’s deep ties to every living thing around them.
The pipestone itself told a story. Much of it came from Illinois and Minnesota — proof of a trade network that reached far beyond southern Ohio.
And that wider world extended right down the river.
The Portsmouth Earthworks: A Lost Wonder of the Ancient World
Tremper Mound never stood alone. It was one part of the Portsmouth Earthworks — once the largest prehistoric earthwork complex in the world. That complex covered more than 25 square miles across Ohio and Kentucky.
Earthen-walled walkways ran for miles, linking mound centers on both sides of the Ohio River. Today, most of that complex has disappeared — swallowed by Portsmouth’s neighborhoods and roads. Tremper is one of the few pieces still visible.
Tremper Mound lies outside the UNESCO World Heritage designation that covers other Ohio Hopewell sites. But it belongs to that same story. Archaeologist Jarrod Burks has spent his career studying the Scioto Valley. He calls Tremper one of the most unique and carefully excavated mounds in Ohio — possibly a key to understanding the origins of the Hopewell Culture here.
Walk the trails here, and you walk on ground the Hopewell considered sacred.
Hiking Tremper Mound Preserve: History and Wild Nature Combined
The preserve is not just about ancient history. The land itself earns the drive. Over 6 miles of forested corridor protect wetlands and riparian habitat along Pond Creek and the Scioto River. The Arc of Appalachia has restored 200 acres of riparian forest here — prime habitat for migrating birds.
Cerulean Warblers — birds that need unbroken tracts of mature forest — nest here. Herons, wood ducks, turtles, and otters still work these creeks and floodplains. These are the same species the Hopewell carved into their sacred pipes. That is not a coincidence. It is a thread connecting them to now.
Four easy-to-moderate trails wind through the preserve. A 0.2-mile loop circles the mound itself. The 1.5-mile Pond Creek Bottom Trail runs through restored grasslands and bottomland forest. No restrooms or facilities on site — pack accordingly. Dogs are welcome on leash. Please stay on marked trails and leave the mound and all artifacts undisturbed.
Ready to make the trip? Here is what to know before you go.
Visiting Tremper Mound in Scioto County, Ohio
The Arc of Appalachia manages Tremper Mound Preserve near West Portsmouth in Scioto County. Pair the visit with a stop at Mound Park in Portsmouth — remnants of the horseshoe mounds still stand there.
Also plan time at the Southern Ohio Museum and Cultural Center (825 Gallia St., Portsmouth). The Art of the Ancients exhibition holds over 10,000 prehistoric Native American artifacts. Many came from the Portsmouth Earthworks. It adds real depth to everything you’ll see at the preserve.
Scioto County hugs the edge of Appalachian Ohio — steep river valleys, forest pockets, and unhurried small towns. It is not the first place most visitors think of. That is exactly why Compass Ohio loves it. This is the kind of place that rewards people who look past the obvious.
The people who built Tremper Mound left no written record. But they left this — earth shaped by human hands, two thousand years old and still standing. That is worth the drive.nd itself. The 1.5-mile Pond Creek Bottom Trail runs through restored grasslands and bottomland forest. No restrooms or facilities on site — pack accordingly. Dogs are welcome on leash. Please stay on marked trails and leave the mound and all artifacts undisturbed.
Ready to make the trip? Here is what to know before you go.
Visiting Tremper Mound in Scioto County, Ohio
The Arc of Appalachia manages Tremper Mound Preserve near West Portsmouth in Scioto County. Pair the visit with a stop at Mound Park in Portsmouth — remnants of the horseshoe mounds still stand there.
Also plan time at the Southern Ohio Museum and Cultural Center (825 Gallia St., Portsmouth). The Art of the Ancients exhibition holds over 10,000 prehistoric Native American artifacts. Many came from the Portsmouth Earthworks. It adds real depth to everything you’ll see at the preserve.
Scioto County hugs the edge of Appalachian Ohio — steep river valleys, forest pockets, and unhurried small towns. It is not the first place most visitors think of. But it is the kind of place that rewards people who look past the obvious.
The people who built Tremper Mound left no written record. But they left this — earth shaped by human hands, two thousand years old and still standing. That is worth the drive. Plan your visit at Explore Scioto and discover this fascinating part of Ohio.
