The Serpent Mound

The serpent head was first described by Squire and Davis in "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley" in 1843. It was saved from destruction in 1885 by Fredrick Ward Futnam, Professor of American Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University. The land included in the park was secured by subscription obtained by Ladies of Boston in 1887, when it was deeded to the trustees of the Peabody Museum of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., and was exempted from taxation by an act of the legislature of Ohio in 1888. In May 1900, Harvard University transferred it to the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society for perpetual care.

Ohio · United States