November 30, 2005--Fore! Kemo Sabe.
Since I love anything having to do with Druids, the last time I was in England I visited Stonehenge. It was a great experience except for one thing—I had brought along my golf clubs but there was no place to pitch and putt at Stonehenge.
So when I read in the NY Times recently that in Newark, Ohio there is a golf course at the Moundbuilders Country Club where the holes and sand traps are laid out over hundreds of acres of 2000 year old American Indian mounds, when I learned about this unique course, I made plans to visit and hit a few balls (see link below for full story).
These mounds were shaped by the Hopewell Indians, who over decades moved seven million cubic feet of earth to form them, using just sharp sticks and clam shells as their tools. I learned further that the so-called Newark Earthworks are the world’s largest ancient mound site and that it is, like Stonehenge (which could fit in its entirety into just one small section of the Newark Earthworks) an ancient astronomical observatory—the geometric shapes align with the moon at its northernmost point in the heavens every 18.6 years, and that these mounds are twice as precise as a lunar observatory as Stonehenge.
So it must have seemed fitting to destroy a large part of them so they could be turned into a golf course. Since the mounds in Newark range in height from three to 14 feet, think about how the golf course designers and builders did not have to move around too much earth to create their undulations and hazards. The job was half done for them 2000 years ago! It doesn’t get any better than that.
But of course things always get a little complicated when boys just want to have fun and games (and get in a little drinking at the 19th hole). Actually, there are some Indians remaining (who we didn’t manage to get onto reservations) who consider the mounds sacred ground. A local professor, Richard Shiels from Ohio State’s Newark campus says, “Playing golf on a Native American spiritual site is a fundamental desecration.” (To get a full view of these incredible mounds, I have attached via the link below an aerial view.)
Be that as it may, the course got built and it is very popular, including among amateur archeologists who have been seeking permission to come to the golf course at just the right lunar moments to check out if the old observatory is still working. But the golf course folks have not been that cooperative, claiming that the visitors will run all over the course and ruin the putting greens. The Moonrise Committee, which wants to visit occasionally, was rebuffed the other day when the Moundbuilder Country Club demanded that they purchase golf-green insurance for $23,252. A steep figure for folks who just want to watch the moon rise.
By the way, on October 22nd, a propitious day to use the mounds as an observatory, a few dozen members of the golf club dragged themselves from their watering hole for a private view. And maybe a little meditation and prayer.
To quote Tonto, “Hi Ho Kemo Sabe.”
So when I read in the NY Times recently that in Newark, Ohio there is a golf course at the Moundbuilders Country Club where the holes and sand traps are laid out over hundreds of acres of 2000 year old American Indian mounds, when I learned about this unique course, I made plans to visit and hit a few balls (see link below for full story).
These mounds were shaped by the Hopewell Indians, who over decades moved seven million cubic feet of earth to form them, using just sharp sticks and clam shells as their tools. I learned further that the so-called Newark Earthworks are the world’s largest ancient mound site and that it is, like Stonehenge (which could fit in its entirety into just one small section of the Newark Earthworks) an ancient astronomical observatory—the geometric shapes align with the moon at its northernmost point in the heavens every 18.6 years, and that these mounds are twice as precise as a lunar observatory as Stonehenge.
So it must have seemed fitting to destroy a large part of them so they could be turned into a golf course. Since the mounds in Newark range in height from three to 14 feet, think about how the golf course designers and builders did not have to move around too much earth to create their undulations and hazards. The job was half done for them 2000 years ago! It doesn’t get any better than that.
But of course things always get a little complicated when boys just want to have fun and games (and get in a little drinking at the 19th hole). Actually, there are some Indians remaining (who we didn’t manage to get onto reservations) who consider the mounds sacred ground. A local professor, Richard Shiels from Ohio State’s Newark campus says, “Playing golf on a Native American spiritual site is a fundamental desecration.” (To get a full view of these incredible mounds, I have attached via the link below an aerial view.)
Be that as it may, the course got built and it is very popular, including among amateur archeologists who have been seeking permission to come to the golf course at just the right lunar moments to check out if the old observatory is still working. But the golf course folks have not been that cooperative, claiming that the visitors will run all over the course and ruin the putting greens. The Moonrise Committee, which wants to visit occasionally, was rebuffed the other day when the Moundbuilder Country Club demanded that they purchase golf-green insurance for $23,252. A steep figure for folks who just want to watch the moon rise.
By the way, on October 22nd, a propitious day to use the mounds as an observatory, a few dozen members of the golf club dragged themselves from their watering hole for a private view. And maybe a little meditation and prayer.
To quote Tonto, “Hi Ho Kemo Sabe.”
posted by Steven Zwerling at
10:59 AM
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