East from downtown Cincinnati (follow US 50, Columbia Parkway), a series of picturesque suburbs conceal many important ancient sites. The valley of the Little Miami River once held the Hopewell era’s second-largest concentration of earthworks, including the spectacular Turner site.

Mariemont’s English ambience is complete with a Tudor Inn and a Gothic parish church. But street names like “Cachepit Way” and “Flintpoint Drive” hint at a much longer history, and out along Miami Bluff Drive, a long, ancient earthwork still stands among the trees. Cincinnati archaeologist Bob Genheimer:

At the edge of the bluff, they’re sitting right there, similar to works at Fort Ancient or Miami Fort where they’re at the edge of these really precipitous drops. We know that they’re real because Charles Metz, who’s normally considered the father of Cincinnati archaeology, noted them, recorded them in the 19th Century way before the village of Mariemont was ever developed.

In Mariemont’s town center, there’s a fine bistro for lunch and a chance to sample Cincinnati’s world-famous Graeter’s Ice Cream. An overnight stay can be had amidst all this English village ambience at The Mariemont Inn (Best Western).

The streets in Mariemont’s southern residential district all lead to Miami Bluff Drive (and the ancient earthwork), while at the end of the street a historical marker commemorates the “Madisonville Site” and the importance of this high terrace location in antiquity, and in the development of American archaeological knowledge.

The beautiful village of Mariemont was carefully planned in the 1930s to resemble a picturesque English village.

Cincinnati, Little Miami

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