A View From the Top of the Adena Mound, Moundsville, West Virginia

Grave Creek Mound, in Moundsville, West Virginia, is a perfectly circular hill that is almost seven stories high.  The last time I was in town, I didn't take the time to stop in at the visitor's center or to climb the mound itself.  This time I did.

Actually, I had intended to go to the Archive of the Afterlife: the National Museum of the Paranormal, which is also here in Moundsville, but they were closed due to a mold issue in their building.

Nothing is known about the people who built this enormous mound 2,250 years ago.  It's thought that the mound was only one part of a much larger ceremonial sacred site.  Only a few bodies were found interred here.  The small museum that gives access to the mound also has artifacts from Moundsville's other minor claims to fame--the Marx Toy Factory (long since defunct) and some company that manufactured china.

And of course, the mound is directly across the street from Moundsville's other great tourist attraction, the West Virginia Penitentiary.  It really gives an otherwise typical Ohio Valley town a gothic and almost sinister appeal.