A bit farther out along US 50 lies Milford, on the banks of the Little Miami on a spot once surrounded by Hopewell era geometric earthworks. Long before the growth of this eastern Cincinnati suburb, Squier and Davis described one of the Milford Works:

Diverging lines extend to the south-west, terminating in a maze of walls unlike any others which have yet fallen under notice. A portion of the parallels and the diverging lines just mentioned are much reduced, and when the crops are on the ground, are hardly traceable. From the hill an extensive prospect is afforded, bringing in view the sites of several large groups of works in the vicinity.

The “diverging lines” once topped the small hill above the historic Main Street. Faint ghosts of walls appear on old aerial photographs of a nearby cemetery. Yet if taken together with nearby Turner, these figures comprise one of the most extensive geometric complexes anywhere in the Ohio Valley region.

Just southeast of Milford lies another small village, Newtown, where along Round Bottom Road, two mounds lie inside Flagg Spring Cemetery (also called “Flagstone Cemetery” on Google maps, and formerly known as “Odd Fellows Cemetery”). Only one of the mounds is prominent and stands at the center. Nearby in the village, during excavations at the fire house, two spectacular shell gorgets were discovered, with detailed incised animal figures, created by a later culture that flourished here.

Squier and Davis’s 1848 drawing of the Milford Earthworks, with the unique “diverging lines” to the left.

Cincinnati, Little Miami

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