Ranger Station Mound

The OES visited Ranger Station Mound on November 20, 2010. Ranger Station Mound is a conical burial mound located within the boundary of Zaleski State Forest. A community park, dedicated to contributors of the forest service, encompasses the mound at the entrance to the forest. Ranger Station Mound was likely built by the people of the Adena culture sometime between 800 BC and 200 AD. At 14.4 feet tall, Ranger Station is the tallest of the three remaining mounds of the Zaleski Mound Group. The grouping originally consisted of six mounds, but three of them were destroyed sometime before the group was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The other two remaining mounds are Markham Mound, located on private property, and Methodist Church Mound, located behind the Zaleski United Methodist Church. In the 1850s, Zaleski residents dug into the northern side of the mound to construct a cold cellar inside. At least one burial was removed during the cellar’s construction and the common consensus is that it was given to a local doctor. By 1959, the cellar was no longer needed and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources restored Ranger Station Mound to its original shape.

Location Information: Public Park

Ranger Station Mound is located near the intersection of Broadway Street and Webb Hollow Road in Zaleski; Vinton County.

Photographs