Fort Hill State Memorial

This 1,300-acre preserve contains one of the largest and oldest contiguous forests in Ohio with some of the best back country hiking trails in the state. The large block of contiguous forest is critical for signature deep forest birds such as Cerulean and Worm-eating warblers. There are many rare plants here and an impressive carpet of flowering spring ephemerals. This forest belongs to the central hardwood region of the Eastern Forest known as "mixed mesophytic," a forest type which extends from southern Ohio into the Southern Appalachians and boasts the highest tree diversity in temperate United States. Mixed mesophytic forests are known to have an impressive number of tree species, none of which particularly dominate over the others. Fort Hill shelters not only true mixed mesophytic forests, but oak hickory, beech maple, and riverine forests. Fort Hill also contains earthen and stone-walled structures built by the native Hopewell Culture around 2,000 years ago. The on-site museum at the park, open only on weekends, houses exhibits on the geology, natural history, and archaeology of the area.