Sue Kiesewetter

Special to The Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

ROSS TWP. – An earthen structure once used by the Hopewell Indians as a ceremonial site 2,000 years ago will be preserved for future generations.

Four parcels totaling 184 acres containing Fortified Hill and at least two burial mounds were purchased at auction for $1.5 million by the Wilks Family Foundation.

The foundation will donate the property to Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park, said Nancy Lanni, who as a trustee of the foundation and a Wilks family member, did the bidding on the property.

“The actual auction itself was kind of heart stopping at times,’’ said Dr. Jeff Leipzig, part of a coalition that worked to raise funds to purchase the property.

“But at the end we were able to save Fortified Hill for generations to come.”

Located off Smith Road, about three miles west of downtown Hamilton, the structure overlooks Hamilton, Fairfield, Colerain Township and Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park. It sits about 250 feet above the Great Miami River bed, surrounded by deep ravines.

“It won’t be developed. It will be preserved and saved,’’ said Bob Genheimer, curator of archaeology at the Cincinnati Museum Center and member of the board of trustees for Heartland Earthwork Conservancy.

One of only four hilltop enclosures in southwest Ohio, it had been owned by Dr. Lou Barich, until his death earlier this year.

The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 and is one of six built by hand along a six-mile stretch of the Great Miami River.

It was surveyed by James McBride – Hamilton’s first mayor – in 1836 and included on a map in the Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1848.

“These hilltop enclosures look like forts. Now that we’ve done more work we know they are not forts,’’ said Jarrod Burks, an archaeologist and president of Heartland Earthworks.

“There are at least four gateways – distinct from others we’ve seen on maps from the 1800s. There appear to be water features.”

Burks said there is evidence that the Hopewell lived near the earthworks which he believes were consecrated ground.

“It was a special place and they went to great pains to separate it. The different kinds of materials used represent the earth, water, sky above - all sacred,’’ he said.

“This is not an area the Hopewell lived in on a day-to-day basis – we’ve seen that away from the earthworks.”

A management committee made up of representatives from conservancies, Pyramid Hill, archaeologists, community members, Native Americans, and others will spend much of the next several months putting together a plan for the site.

That plan will determine how to make the site accessible to the public, while preserving – but not disturbing – its sacred area. Toward that goal, paths would have to be plotted and a space for parking created.

At the same time archaeologists will do a geophysical survey of grassy areas without trees to see what’s there, followed by clearing away honeysuckle and other invasive material from less accessible areas of the property to inventory the entire site.

“I know the public is going to want to see it,’’ Burks said. “The challenge right now is there’s nowhere to park. We also have to create safe pathways so they can see what’s here.