The Hopewell people built in earth the way others build in stone. About two thousand years ago, in the valleys of southern Ohio, they raised enormous banks, circles, squares and octagons, some enclosing many hectares, and aligned them to the sun and moon. Seip Earthworks, in the valley of Paint Creek in Ross County, is part of the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, which were inscribed as a World Heritage site in 2023, and the group also includes the Octagon Earthworks at Newark and the High Bank Works near Chillicothe. They were not forts or farms, but meeting places for gatherings, feasts and funerals.
What survives at Seip is a large burial mound, one of the biggest of its type, which was excavated in the early twentieth century and found to hold many burials, copper ornaments, mica cutouts, pearl beads and pipes carved in the form of animals. The Hopewell traded across the continent, bringing obsidian from the Rockies, shells from the Gulf of Mexico and copper from the Great Lakes, and the objects found in their mounds show an elaborate culture. The earthen walls of the main enclosure, a circle, a square and an adjoining mound, were levelled by ploughs over the years, but traces remain and the National Park Service has marked out the lines.
For riders, southern Ohio is a pleasant surprise. The hills of the Appalachian foothills are steep and wooded, and the country roads wind through farmland, forest and small villages, with a lot of curves and little traffic. The Hocking Hills region, about an hour's ride to the east, is famous for its sandstone gorges and waterfalls, and for some of the best motorcycle roads in the Midwest. Highway 50, along the Paint Creek valley, is a smooth and fast road with views of the river. Autumn colours in October are spectacular, and the summers are warm and humid, with thunderstorms.
Greenfield, nineteen kilometres away, has about forty-five hundred people and the nearest fuel and meals, and Frankfort is a smaller village. Chillicothe, the first state capital, is the main city of the region, and it has the main visitor centre for the park. Watch for deer on the roads, especially at dusk.