Hopewell Earth Ovens May Lie Beneath an Ohio Sweet Corn Field

A 32-acre farm field in Ohio’s Cuyahoga Valley hides some of the best evidence yet of Hopewell life in Summit County. Archaeologists have found two circles of darkened soil, each 6 to 8 feet across, that mark ancient earth ovens, and geophysical work suggests the field may hold as many as 11. Now the park system that owns the land wants to protect part of it, and the farm family that grows sweet corn there has not publicly responded.

A Field With 10,000 Years of History

Everett Field sits in the Cuyahoga Valley near Summit County’s only remaining covered bridge. Megan Shaeffer, the cultural resources supervisor at Summit Metro Parks, says it is one of the county’s largest Hopewell sites, and possibly the largest. The field belongs to the Everett Knoll Complex, a prehistoric site that spans more than 67 acres and includes land owned by Summit Metro Parks, Cuyahoga Valley National Park and private owners.

The Hopewell culture flourished across the Midwest during the Middle Woodland Period, roughly 100 BC to AD 450. The Everett Knoll Complex dates mainly to that era, but the artifacts there stretch much further back. They range from the Early Archaic Period, around 8,000 BC, through the Late Woodland Period, which ended around AD 1350. That span covers about 10,000 years of Indigenous presence.

People have known about the area for a long time. Residents found artifacts in the late 1800s while building a school on the knoll. In the 1970s, an archaeologist from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History identified artifacts and ancestral remains, and the complex joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

What the Excavations Found

From 2021 to 2025, Summit Metro Parks archaeologists and University of Akron students dug parts of the field. They recovered arrowheads, beads and pottery. The most significant finds were the two earth ovens, which show up as circles of darkened soil 6 to 8 feet across. Earth ovens are pits where people cooked food, and they give researchers a direct look at daily life rather than ceremony alone.

Geophysical surveys of the field suggest the ovens may not be alone. The scans point to as many as 11, although only two have been excavated so far. Until crews dig the others, that number remains a prediction rather than a confirmed count.

Parks and Farmers Face a Lease Decision

Summit Metro Parks has leased the field to area farms since the 1930s, and the Szalay family has farmed it for corn for much of that time. Szalay’s Farm and Market is well known locally for its sweet corn. The park system has proposed keeping 12 acres for park use and letting Szalay’s continue to farm the remaining 22.5 acres. The new lease would take effect at the end of the 2027 growing season.

Szalay’s has not publicly responded to the proposal. The family farms 141 acres in the valley, so the 12 acres in question make up about 8 percent of that total. Headlines may describe a fight, but the reporting so far describes an open negotiation, not a lawsuit or a public dispute.

Working With Tribal Nations

Summit Metro Parks says it is working with tribal representatives to return the artifacts and ancestral remains to descendant communities. Heather Miller, a member of the Wyandotte Nation and a NAGPRA coordinator, says repatriation can take months to years, and the process will name a lead tribe. Any future excavation would happen together with tribal nations.

The history behind that process matters. Ohio has no federally recognized tribes today because of removals in the 19th century, yet more than 45 federally recognized tribes have ancestral ties to the state. The Wyandotte were the last tribe to leave Ohio, in July 1843.

Caveats and Open Questions

Several questions remain open. The reporting does not give a radiocarbon date for the ovens themselves, so calling them 2,000 years old is an estimate based on the Hopewell period, which ran from about 100 BC to AD 450. No scientific paper has been published, so the details come from the park system and a local news report. Researchers also have not confirmed how many ovens exist, and the lease talks could change how much of the field gets protected.

For now, the story shows how a working farm field can hold deep history. Whatever the park and the farm family decide, the people who lived at Everett Field two millennia ago left a record that archaeologists are only beginning to read.

Sources

• Summit Metro Parks and University of Akron excavations at Everett Field (no paper published)
• Signal Akron, Brittany Moseley, 22 October 2026