Photo Provided The Octagon Earthwork in Newark, Ohio, is part of the Newark Ceremonial Earthworks, with the circle closure adjacent to the Octagon, which is featured in the new exhibit at the Belmont County Heritage Museum along with mound builders.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — A new exhibit featuring Hopewell era culture from an artistic and archaeological perspective is traveling to the Belmont County Heritage Museum.

The traveling exhibit “Mounds, Moon and Stars: The Legacy of Ohio’s Magnificent Earthworks” will display aspects of the Hopewell culture and its skills in mathematics, astronomy and art and the legacy the people left behind. The exhibit will be open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday through Sundays beginning Aug. 22 and ending Sept. 28.

“Learn about the importance of that culture and the significance that they had in Ohio, and really how it ties into so much of the history that we have here in the county as well,” said Jackee Pugh, Belmont County Tourism executive director.

The Hopewell culture is a group of Native Americans who settled in Central Ohio and created mounds and earthworks in concentrations along rivers throughout the eastern United States.

This exhibit was developed to be accessible and informative for all Ohioans, from school age children to adults and seniors interested in the early history of the Ohio River Valley, according to the Belmont County Heritage Museum.

Heritage Museum Manager Cathryn Stanley said the exhibit will be interactive, with a puzzle and scavenger hunt. Essentially, visitors can answer questions throughout the exhibit, which will move them along through the scavenger hunt.

The exhibit will show how the Hopewell culture used rivers and tributaries to travel to sacred sites, such as the Newark Earthworks. A representative from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources will talk about the Hopewell culture at the exhibit, as well.

To prepare for this exhibit, the Belmont County Tourism office temporarily moved objects from the downstairs of the museum.

Two years ago at an Ohio Museums Association conference in Newark, Ohio, Stanley saw the exhibit. But it wasn’t until Pugh mentioned that heritage and cultural tourism are big buzzwords in Ohio right now that they decided to bring the exhibit to the museum.

Pugh also mentioned that people have been learning about the World Heritage Site at Newark since the designation of it last fall.

Pugh said her team has been looking at ways to bring repeat visitors back into the museum and give them a reason to come back and see what the museum has to offer, and this exhibit is the perfect opportunity to do that.

“It really was our way to try to bring a part of that culture and history to Belmont County to get people excited about it,” Pugh said. “But tie in so much of the culture and history that we have already here in the county.”