Inside the raging turf war between Ohio golf course and local history society over sacred Native American land: ‘It’s like putting a country club on the Acropolis’

An Ohio history society is embroiled in a legal battle with a country golf club over prehistoric Native American mounds that are culturally “similar to Stonehenge.”

Ohio History Connection (OHC) wants to reopen the UNESCO World Heritage Site Octagon Earthworks to the public, but the site is leased to Moundbuilders Country Club, which has operated a golf course on the prehistoric mounds for 114 years.

The two groups cannot agree on a fair price to end the lease as the club says that ‘the OHC does not have enough money or does not want to spend enough to allow the club to move to another location’, leading to a lengthy lawsuit. .

The 50-hectare group of sacred mounds was built between 1 and 400 AD as ‘part cathedral, part cemetery and part astronomical observatory’ and has ‘a historical and archaeological significance equivalent to that of Machu Picchu’.

John Low, a resident of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, told DailyMail.com: ‘It would be like a mini golf course at Stonehenge, it just doesn’t work.’

But the much-loved community club told DailyMail.com that they have provided ‘care and protection’ for the Hills and that without sufficient payment they will be forced to close.

The club – which serves as a social center for the community – built a golf course around the hills in the early 20th century and has attracted thousands of visitors to play its unusual holes over the decades.

Golfers love the monuments, with the largest nicknamed ‘Big Chief’.

A 1930 article in Golf Illustrated stated, “The old Moundbuilders unwittingly left behind the setting for as strange and sporting a golf course as ever felt the blow of a nibble.”

But representatives of the Native American population have long expressed their disapproval of the club, likening it to setting up a “country club on the Acropolis.”

The mounds were painstakingly built about 2,000 years ago using rudimentary tools to mark and measure the passage of the sun and moon.

Low said, “For the people of the Ohio River Valley and the Great Lakes region, whose descendants are most closely associated with the builders, it is a place of pride that deserves protection.

‘It is a place on the UNESCO World Heritage List and that we want to share with the world. We can’t celebrate with a golf course on top of it.’

The OHC told DailyMail.com that by terminating the lease and resuming control of the site, they aim to ‘exploit, protect, maintain, restore and share this indigenous wonder’.

Currently they say they only have full access to the hills four to five days a year.

In a 2022 legal document, the OHC alleged that “the country club had increasingly denied access to the public over the past 15 to 20 years, directly or indirectly by making access impossible through inconveniently timed maintenance activities.”

But the club denies this, saying they have maintained and protected the hills for 114 years, and say if they are evicted from the land without adequate compensation they will be forced to close.

Chairman of the club’s board of directors, David Kratoville, told DailyMail.com that they do not want to leave the site, but that they would “seek to do so after receiving a payment that will allow the club to continue its operations on another site could resume.’

The club — where membership starts around $1,000 a year — has a Williamsburg-style brick clubhouse, a swimming pool and an 18-hole golf course.

The club is “woven into the local economy,” Kratoville said, and closing the club “would be felt in a number of employment, social, economic and community ways.”

He said: “The club is home to a number of local high school golf teams. The summer swimming club is open to non-members of all ages.

‘It’s the only family club within a radius of about thirty kilometers.’

Five years ago, Moundbuilders requested $12 million for the facility, saying it would be needed to pay off its debts and establish a new golf country club of equal value.

But after an independent review at the time, the OHC offered $800,000.

Now the ongoing lawsuit and upcoming jury trial will determine the value of the lease and the amount of payment to the club.

The OHC says they are committed to “enabling full public access to the Octagon Earthworks while ensuring the country club receives fair market value for the lease.”

But Kratoville told Daily Mail.com: “There is no exact one dollar amount required because Moundbuilders does not know where it will move if it moves.

“Every potential new location has different cost elements that need to be taken into account. It’s not a one size fits all situation.’

He added: ‘The amount paid will determine whether Moundbuilders can move or whether it ceases to exist after 114 years as a community institution.’