Hopewell Culture Administrative History

This report is a history of the administration of the area and cultural resources encompassed by what once was known as the Mound City Group National Monument and is now designated Hopewell Culture National Historical Park. The report describes the administration, management, and preservation of the cultural resources in the park. The period covered is generally from the late 1940s into the late 1990s.

President Warren G. Harding signed a presidential proclamation on March 2, 923, establishing the Mound City Group National Monument, thereby preserving a group of prehistoric (ca. 200 B.C. to A.D. 500) Hopewell burial mounds. The proclamation declared the mounds to be "... an object of great historic and scientific interest [to] be permanently preserved and protected from all depredations and from all changes that will to any extent mar or jeopardize their value...." Mound City Group, in south central Ohio near Chillicothe, was originally administered by the War Department, but managed by the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society as a state memorial under a revocable license. This arrangement continued in 1933 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt reorganized the executive branch and a number of national monuments, including Mound City Group, were transferred to National Park Service administration. Bowing to local pressure, NPS revoked the license with the state society in 1946, and Mound City Group thereafter came under National Park Service management. Since 1946, several additions have been made to the monument's land base and a development program undertaken. In 1980, progress added Hopeton Earthworks National Historic Landmark to the park, and in 1992, it included several other ancient earthworks to form Hopewell Culture National Historical Park. Mound City Group remains as a subunit of this newly expanded park.