An Ohio golf course built on a sacred Native American site is to be relocated following a decades-long turf war.
The Moundbuilders Country Club in Newark is set to move its course following decades of bitter back-and-forth with the state’s historical society.
The course currently sits atop the Octagon Earthworks, a 2,000-year-old UNESCO World Heritage site.
The area has been used for golf since 1910, but now The Ohio History Connection has now gained control of the ceremonial lands by acquiring the site’s long term lease from the country club.
‘I’m ecstatic,’ Glenna Wallace, the chief of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma told the New York Times.
‘I’m trying to imagine how my ancestors must feel after all these years. I congratulate the Ohio History Connection — it’s been a long, long journey.
‘I look forward to being able to have people from all over the world come and enjoy that place.
‘I hope we are able to maintain the cultural significance of it, and that people are able to realize how magnificent and intelligent the ancestors who built these wonderful earthworks were.’
The earthworks form part of the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, built between 100 and 400 CE.
They align with the lunar calendar and played an important roles in indigenous farming and ritual.
The decision puts an end to a tense dispute over the land, which was set to proceed to a jury trial to determine the value of the lease if it could not be resolved.
Megan Wood, executive director and chief executive of the History Connection said her organization wanted to ensure access for the public while compensating the country club appropriately.
‘Now we have accomplished those things,’ she said as she confirmed the historical society would take up the lease from January 1.
The country club will continue as a private members establishment at the nearby Trout Club, which it has earmarked for purchase.
‘We’re a private membership country club, and that’s our expectation going forward for any property we acquire,’ David Kratoville, the president of the Moundbuilders Country Club’s board of trustees said.
The History Connection society first sued the country club in 2018 to try and acquire the lease.
It came after federal officials informed them that achieving designated historical status would be near impossible without full time public access.
In 2022, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in the historic society’s favor.
‘The historical, archaeological and astronomical significance of the Octagon Earthworks is arguably equivalent to Stonehenge or Machu Picchu,’ Justice Michael P. Donnelly.
John Low, a citizen of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians also likened to having ‘a mini golf course inside Stonehenge’.
‘It just doesn’t work,’ he fumed. ‘To people of Ohio River Valley and Great Lakes region who are most connected as descendants to the builders, it’s a place of pride that deserves protection.
‘It’s a place of UNESCO World Heritage inscription we want to share with the world. We can’t celebrate it with a golf course on top of it.’
The country club said it was willing to relocate before its lease ended in 2078, but was seeking $12 million to do so – well above the land’s value.
It argued it had been providing ‘care and protection’ for the mounds and would be forced to close without proper compensation.
However, negotiations progressed in recent months and an undisclosed financial settlement was reached without the need for a trial.
The earthworks will be open to the public from January, with the golfing landscaping removed at a later date.