When the first pioneers came to the area around the Newark Earthworks, they found huge numbers of mature cherry trees. Within a few generations they were all harvested and sent to Cincinnati to be turned into furniture. But Brad Lepper speculates on how this “cherry valley” came to be here:

I think it’s entirely likely that cherry trees may have been artificially planted and grown, for the people coming to the earthworks for festivals, because they liked cherries, and maybe that was part of the foods that were consumed here. The profusion of cherry trees in the historic times may be the remnants of those groves that were here indigenously.

The name "Cherry Valley" is all over this area, on malls, roads, and businesses; though it may originate in deep antiquity.