Golf Course Atop Ancient Native American Earthworks to Be Removed
After reaching a settlement with an Ohio country club to acquire its lease on the Octagon Earthworks,
the state historical society intends to open the site as a public park.
Sarah Bahr has been reporting on the battle for control over the Octagon Earthworks in Newark,
Ohio, since 2021.
Aug 1, 2024
Ohio’s state historical society has reached an agreement with a country club that will end
its use of land that includes ancient Native American earthworks as a golf course.
Credit...Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press
After more than a decade of at-times acrimonious back and forth, Ohio’s state historical society
has reached a deal with a country club that operates a golf course on land it owns that contains ancient
Native American earthworks that were built as sacred sites some 2,000 years ago.
Under the agreement, the society, known as the Ohio History Connection, will acquire the club’s
long-term lease on the property and open the site for full public access, the society announced
on Thursday.
Experts say that the mounds, constructed more than 2,000 years ago as a sacred site, were
built to align with lunar movements. Credit...Seth Moherman for The New York Times
The earthworks, which helped the Native Americans who built them organize cycles of planting,
hunting and their ritual calendar, were named a UNESCO World Heritage site last year, a designation that
puts them among just over 1,200 such cultural and natural
sites
considered to be of “outstanding universal value” to humanity. There are only 26 in the
United States, among them the Grand Canyon, Independence Hall and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
“The historical, archaeological and astronomical significance of the Octagon Earthworks is
arguably
equivalent to Stonehenge or Machu Picchu,” Justice Michael P. Donnelly wrote in the Ohio Supreme Court’s decision in favor of the state
historical society, upholding two rulings by lower courts.
The state historical society said that, once it takes over the lease, it will open full
access
to the site to the public. Currently, the earthworks are only visible at set times from
certain
viewing points. Credit...Andrew Spear for The New York Times
The History Connection sued Moundbuilders in 2018 in an attempt to acquire the lease, after federal
officials told it that securing World Heritage recognition, which brings international acclaim and
legal protection, would be impossible without full public access to the site.
The club had argued that ending the lease was not necessary to establish public use and that it had
preserved and cared for the mounds.
After the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in the History Connection’s favor in 2022, the country club filed
a motion for reconsideration that
was quickly denied.
The club had said it was willing to move before the lease was up, but the parties were unable to
agree on
the financial terms. At one point the club had sought $12 million in their negotiations, millions
above
the historical society’s offer. But negotiations progressed in recent months as a jury trial to
determine the value of the lease loomed.
David Kratoville, the president of the Moundbuilders Country Club’s board of trustees, said in an
interview that the History Connection had upped its offer to the extent that club would “have enough
money to survive as an entity.”
The club has reached a memorandum of understanding to buy another property in the area, the Trout
Club, a
resort about seven miles away that includes a golf course; dining and entertainment spaces; and an
outdoor pool.
The resort is open to the public but the Moundbuilders would continue on as a private-membership
entity, Kratoville said.
“We’re a private membership country club, and that’s our expectation going forward for any property
we acquire,” he said.
Brent Dewey, the owner of the Trout Club, did not respond to a request for comment, but told The
Newark Advocate, which first reported the deal last week: “We look at it as a win-win for all sides.
They
got shoved out of their land. Now they have a home secure.”
As for whether Moundbuilders would keep its name at a new location, Kratoville said it was too soon
to say.
“I don’t know what we’ll land on with a name,” he said. “My priority is getting a deal done.”
The History Connection said it planned to open the Octagon Earthworks to the public in January, and
that
the landscaping for the golf course would be removed at a later date.
“We look forward to partnering with the community to bring vibrant and meaningful visitor experiences
to this remarkable place, and we plan to provide more details after we officially take possession of
the leasehold for the property,” Wood said.
Glenna Wallace, the chief of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, said full public access would
help to
broaden the public’s understanding of her Native American ancestors.
“I’m ecstatic,” she said in an interview. “I’m trying to imagine how my ancestors must feel after all
these years. I congratulate the Ohio History Connection — it’s been a long, long journey.
“I look forward to being able to have people from all over the world come and enjoy that place,” she
added. “I hope we are able to maintain the cultural significance of it, and that people are able to
realize how magnificent and intelligent the ancestors who built these wonderful earthworks were.”