Darla Spencer

Woodland Mounds in West Virginia Darla Spencer

The first Europeans to arrive in the Ohio Valley were intrigued and puzzled by the many conical earthen mounds they encountered there. They created wild theories about who the mysterious "Moundbuilders" might be. It was not until the 1880s that Smithsonian Institution investigations revealed that the Moundbuilders were the ancestors of living Native Americans. More than four hundred mounds have been recorded in West Virginia, including the Grave Creek Mound in Marshall County, the largest conical mound in North America. Join archaeologist Darla Spencer and learn about the Grave Creek Mound and fifteen additional Adena mounds from the fascinating Woodland period in West Virginia.