The Conservancy recently received the donation of a remarkably well-preserved conical mound in central Ohio known as Etna Township Mound Number 1. The mound is approximately six feet high and ninety feet in diameter, and it’s located in a wooded lot overlooking an intermittent stream.
The mound was once part of a pair of mounds, but its twin was destroyed by the construction of an adjacent subdivision. Both mounds were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 due to their relatively pristine condition and their proximity to the Newark Earthworks. The Newark Earthworks are currently a National Historic Landmark and are a strong candidate for being listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Conservancy recently acquired Mound Cemetery Mound, a twenty-foot high conical mound with a small historic cemetery around its base. This mound was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, and a historical maker was erected by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) in 1997. The cemetery was awarded a Certificate of Historical Significance by MDAH in 2001.

According to the National Register of Historic Places nomination form, the mound was built during the Miller II phase (A.D. 1 – 300) of the Middle Woodland Period. The nomination form also states that the mound has had little evidence of looting and is probably very close to its original appearance.

The Zemaitis site in western Michigan contains evidence of human occupation from the terminal Archaic through the Middle and Late Woodland periods. The site sits on a natural levee between the bank of the Grand River and a seasonal marsh, and it afforded its inhabitants a rich array of riverine and wetland resources. The levee grew due to the accumulation of flood and wind deposits, burying evidence of a number of discrete occupations in the process.

Richard Flanders of Grand Valley State University conducted the initial investigations of  the site in 1970 and 1975. His work focused on the north end, and he wanted to know if Zemaitis was a substantial habitation site that was associated with one of the larger Middle Woodland mortuaries on the lower Grand River. Though he didn’t find evidence of this association, he did uncover a series of intact middens containing rich deposits of lithics, ceramics, and subsistence remains.