Southwest Ohio Tourism
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Story Mound

Story Mound

Story Mound is a conical burial mound and consists of a large, rounded earthen mound about 19' in height. It is located on slightly less than 1 acre of ground in Chillicothe. This prehistoric burial mound has a base of about 95' in diameter.

It is believed this mound was created by people we classify today as being part of the Adena Culture. In 1897 the mound was partially excavated by Clarence Loveberry. The excavations revealed the remains of a large circular timber building used for burial that was then covered over with layers of dirt. This type of conical mound is a distinctive type of Adena mound construction. The Story Mound provided the first documented example of this circular Adena timber building, a structural type now known as the norm in Adena ceremonial and domestic architecture.

The mound is completely fenced-in, in a residential area of northwest Chillicothe not far from Thomas Worthington's Adena Mansion where the first Adena Culture mound was excavated. That mound became the identifier mound for the Adena Culture and thus given the name for the Adena Culture.

Story Mound:
a product of the Adena Culture of Southern Ohio

The Adena Culture was name given to the people who built the first burial mounds in Ohio. The first of these burial mounds to be excavated was on the property of Thomas Worthington's home Adena, in Chillicothe. While this particular mound was made by the Adena Culture, it is not to suggest that this was their first mound.

Story Mound
Location: just off of Allen Avenue on Delano Street Chillicothe, OH 45601


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