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The UNESCO World Heritage Committee considers the octagonal earthworks of central Ohio a cultural wonder.
By Sara Bahr
Sarah Bahr has been reporting on the war over octagonal earthworks in Newark, Ohio, since 2021.
Nine months after the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that a country club will have to sell its lease to the former state corporation that owns the land containing Native American earthworks, golfers continue to push carts toward mounds and hit them with 3-irons.
But today, those octagonal earthworks, which Native Americans used about 2,000 years ago to track the movement of the sun and moon in the sky, have been officially designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
“Inscription on the World Heritage List will draw attention to those treasures that Ohioans have known about for a long time,” said Megan Wood, executive director and executive director of Ohio History Connection, which worked with the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior to create a World Heritage List. Combination of 8 identified central Ohio earthwork sites.
These sites, collectively known as Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, come with the octagonal earthworks in Newark, which were created as a basket filled with dirt with pointed sticks and clam hoes.
The designation, announced Tuesday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, places earthworks among just over 1,000 World Heritage sites. There are 25 of them in the United States, adding the Grand Canyon, Independence Hall and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
“The historical, archaeological and astronomical significance of the octagonal earthworks is arguably comparable to that of Stonehenge or Machu Picchu,” Judge Michael P. wrote. Donnelly in the Ohio Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of the State Historical Society, which upheld two lower courts. Resolutions.
The popularity comes after a years-long war between the Moundbuilders Country Club, which had leased the land since 1910 and operated a personal golf course above the earthworks, and Ohio History Connection, which owns the park and intends to open it as a public park. .
History Connection sued the country club in 2018 in an attempt to get the lease, which runs through 2078. Federal officials had told the ancient society it would be to achieve the popularity of World Heritage, which provides foreign fame and legal protection, without full public access to the site.
The club had argued that termination of the lease was not mandatory to identify public use and had argued that it had preserved and maintained the mounds. Its members, club board president David Kratoville told The New York Times in 2021, “go out for a day and clean the sandboxes and plant flowers. “
Following the Ohio Supreme Court’s ruling last year, the country club filed a reconsideration motion that it temporarily denied.
Kratoville wrote in an email Tuesday that the country club has been steward of the Octagon’s earthworks and celebrates its popularity as a World Heritage Site.
“All we have asked for in this long-term scenario is fair compensation, allowing our business to continue elsewhere for our members, our community and the hundred people we employ,” Kratoville said.
The club had said it was in a position to move out before the lease ended, but the parties are setting aside millions of dollars in their negotiations. The price of the lease will now be decided in a jury trial scheduled to begin in October. 17.
Sarah Bahr is editor of The Times. She has covered a wide range of topics, including theatre, film and television, as well as writing for the Culture, Style and National offices. Learn more about Sarah Bahr
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