ROSS COUNTY, Ohio — Ross County is home to many wonders of human engineering. Thousands of years of ancient native american history dwell there, still echoing the voices of the past.
Ross County is layered with history and one earthwork, in particular, will soon be nominated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a World Heritage site. Highbanks Earthwork is located a few miles southeast of Chillicothe. This site was first documented by Ephraim Squier and Edwin Davis in the 1840s, and was included in their book, “Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley.”
Since that time efforts have been made to protect the site. Highbanks is one of five earthworks that are part of the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park.
The site its self is over twenty acres, and once featured more than a mile of earthen embankments forming a large circle that was joined to an octagon. The site shares many similarities with the Newark Earthwork in Licking County.
Archeologists have yet to come to a consensus on who the ancient mound builders were. Chief Glenna Wallace of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe said in a ceremony at Seip Mound, “The Eastern Shawnee does not claim to have been the builders of the earthworks, but we were the stewards of that ancient legacy for a time.”
Many Siouan tribes such as the Monacan, and Saponi claim they are the descendants of the ancient mound builders. Members of those Siouan tribes have been actively working for recognition as the rightful descendants.