Two Nights: Hillsboro, Ohio

 We left Washington, Pennsylvania, at about eleven am, knowing that we had a three and a half hour drive and couldn’t check into our next destination until three pm. Nineteen miles west, we slipped into West Virginia.

And, just thirteen miles into West Virginia, we ran into Ohio! That was quick!

Interstate 70 took us to Columbus, and Interstate 71 took us southwest toward Cincinnati. Our destination was the small town of Hillsboro, Ohio, and the state park located there, Rocky Fork. This reservoir is a huge recreation area, with boating, fishing, and camping. Each campsite only offers electricity, but well kept washrooms and showers are conveniently located throughout the park. We chose site 103 due to its view and grass, for use as Sasha’s playpen!

This beautiful place is a great place to relax and enjoy nature, but it’s not the only reason we’re here.

There are over one hundred thousand identifiable mounds built by American Indians, including the Hopewell, who flourished 1,600 to 2,000 years ago. Named for Mordecai Hopewell’s farm, where the first excavations in 1891 revealed copper ornaments, stone tools and effigy pipes that archaeologists later identified as being from the Hopewell Culture. Not the first American Indians to build mounds, nor the last, but the Hopewell were a cultural revolution. 

Arguably the most astonishing mound structure of the era is located just a half hour away, The Serpent Mound. 1,376 feet long, in the undulating shape of a serpent devouring an egg, and measuring approximately three feet high, its purpose is unknown, but the mound has some peculiarities. The head is exactly oriented toward the Summer Solstice, the three eastern facing curves on the serpents back line up with the solstices, and the coiled tail aligns with the Winter Solstice. Go figure! 

We had to see this, so off we went on the one day we had available, and after a lovely drive through a rainy Amish countryside, we arrived.

Closed on Monday.

I cribbed a photo from Getty as a tribute to the remarkable people that created this remarkable structure.

We returned to Hillsboro on Highway 50, decidedly disappointed.

Rocky Fork lake is an especially beautiful place. 

Here it is August and the leaves are beginning to turn. 

  

Good Bye, Ohio.