After visiting Moundbuilders State Memorial and Wright Earthworks State Memorial on May 20, 1999, I went to Octagon State Memorial. It is now the site of a golf course. The earthwork is impressive due to its size and state of preservation. It consists of a 50 acre octagon enclosure connected to a 20 acre circular enclosure and a mound at the other end of the circle called Observation Mound. There is also a small circular enclosure to the southeast of the octagon earthwork and some low earthen walls that once connected this site to other geometric earthworks in the Newark area.
Click here for information about the planned expansion of the clubhouse at Moundbuilders Country Club that threatens this sacred site.
Some believe that there was once a Great Hopewell Road made of low earthen walls that led straight from the octagon earthwork to a similar Hopewell site in Chillicothe, nearly 60 miles away.
Observation Mound, at the west end of the circular earthwork is ideally situated for
viewing the alignment of the axis of the octagon and circle with the moonrise once every 18.6 years when it reaches
its most northern point on the horizon.
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