Aurthor Niehoff, former Ohio First Lady Taft host talk on visiting 8 Hopewell Earthworks
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Ohio’s 160-mile Hopewell trail will be the topic of the Granville Historical Society’s next program featuring two of the individuals who walked and explored the entire distance.
Retired attorney and author Buck Niehoff and former Ohio First Lady Hope Taft will present the program "Walking Ancient Ohio" at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 3, in Denison Hall at The Granville Inn. Admission is free.Niehoff, a 1969 Denison University graduate, published the book Walking Ancient Ohio in 2022 after he and Hope Taft, along with others, sojourned the trail, visiting eight ceremonial Hopewell Earthworks and exploring the architectural achievements at each site.
The walkers followed in the footsteps of the ancient people who, like them, made pilgrimages between these sites. They discovered that the spaces between the earthworks’ locations—where both ancient and modern pilgrims walked—may have been as important to the sacred experience as the earthworks themselves.
Niehoff, of Cincinnati, retired ten years ago after 40 years in the legal profession and since then has written and published seven books. He was active in Cincinnati’s civic life, serving as the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Museum Center and the Mercantile Library. He served on Denison’s Board of Trustees and, to attend his 40th class reunion, rode his bicycle from Cincinnati to Granville, a distance of 185 miles in two days.
Taft was first lady of Ohio from 1999-2007. During that time she developed a passion for native plants and the environment and created Ohio’s botanical garden of native plants on the grounds of the Governor’s Residence. She still volunteers to help maintain it. She has since become involved in the conservation of the Little Miami River and the effort to elevate the Hopewell Culture in Ohio to World Heritage status.
Information submitted by the Granville Historical Society.
This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Aurthor and former Ohio First Lady host talk on visiting 8 earthworks
