place

Highbank Park Works

Archaeological sites in OhioArchaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in OhioNational Register of Historic Places in Delaware County, OhioProtected areas of Delaware County, OhioWoodland period
Highbank Park Works from crossing
Highbank Park Works from crossing

The Highbank Park Works (also known as the Orange Township Works) is a complex of earthworks and a potential archaeological site located within Highbanks Metro Park in Central Ohio in the United States. The park is in southernmost Delaware County on the east bank of the Olentangy River. The site is a semi-elliptical embankment, consisting of four sections, each 3 feet (0.91 m) high, and bordered by a shallow ditch. Two ravines and a 100-foot-high shale bluff surround the earthworks. It is thought to have been constructed sometime between 800 and 1300 CE by members of the Cole culture. The earthworks have seen little disturbance since the first white settlement of the region; agriculture has never been practiced on their vicinity, and no significant excavation has ever been conducted at the site. One small excavation and field survey, conducted in 1951, yielded a few pieces of pottery and flakes of flint from a small midden. Another excavation was conducted in 2011 that focused mainly on site usage and constructing a timeline for the mounds.The Highbank Park Works is one of several wall-and-ditch earthworks in central Ohio. Unlike Highbank, most of these complexes are known to be the work of people of the Hopewell tradition; however, the similarity between the works of the Hopewell and Cole peoples has led archaeologists to propose that the Cole were descended from the Hopewell. New research on the Cole culture suggests this was not a separate peoples, but in fact part of the larger Hopewell group. Also located in Highbank Park are two subconical Adena era mounds. These two mounds are known as the Highbanks Park Mound I (also known as the Muma Mound) and Highbanks Park Mound II (also known as the Orchard Mound or the Selvey Mound). The two mounds are not located within the embankment, but are about 0.5 and 1 mile away.In 1974, the Highbank Park Works were listed on the National Register of Historic Places because of their archaeological significance. Three other Delaware County archaeological sites are listed on the Register: the Ufferman Site, the site of a former Cole village; the Highbanks Park Mounds, and the Adena Spruce Run Earthworks.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Highbank Park Works (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Highbank Park Works
Overlook Trail (2.3 mi), Orange Township

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Highbank Park WorksContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 40.141 ° E -83.031 °
placeShow on map

Address

Overlook Trail (2.3 mi)

Overlook Trail (2.3 mi)
43085 Orange Township
Ohio, United States
mapOpen on Google Maps

Highbank Park Works from crossing
Highbank Park Works from crossing
Share experience

Nearby Places

Gooding House and Tavern
Gooding House and Tavern

The Gooding House and Tavern has a long and storied history that begins with its genesis as the home of George B. Gooding, who amassed a large amount of farmland and used his home as a stagecoach stop and tavern during the earliest years of Delaware County's development. Also known as "Halfway House" and the "Gooding Tavern," this property was well situated on what is now U.S. Route 23 previously known as "Mud Pike", about halfway between the town of Worthington, Ohio on the south and the town of Delaware, Ohio on the north. Owned by the Gooding family for 175 years, this farmstead and tavern played an important role in the commercial development of Orange Township and Delaware County during the 19th century and early 20th century. The property demonstrates the broad pattern of Ohio's transportation-related commerce in the early 19th century, when inns and taverns were built to accommodate and sustain the traveler. The Gooding House provides an example of the architectural evolution of a property from Ohio's settlement period, through the more prosperous years of the mid-19th century, to the changes brought by the early 20th century. The building exhibits significant architectural features from each of these three periods: 1820s Federal influences, 1850s early Italianate influences, and 1910s Colonial Revival and Craftsman influences. Each era was important to the architectural evolution of the property as it was occupied by succeeding generations of the Gooding family.