From the 12/8/06 Chillicothe Gazette:

 

 

Hopewell Park a must-see sight

By LORI McNELLY

Gazette City Editor

 

The Great Barrier Reef, the Great Wall of China, the old city of Jerusalem and Stonehenge are all on the list of the United Nations must-see world treasures.

 

And, maybe, one day, so will the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park.

 

Historians and state officials are taking the first steps of a long application process that could eventually see the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park on UNESCO's World Heritage List...

 

(McNelly can be reached at 772-9366 or via e-mail at [email protected])

 

http://www.chillicothegazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061208/NEWS01/612080317/1002/rss01

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From the 12/7/06 Western-Star:

 

 

Fort Ancient seeks World Heritage Site designation

By Daniel Wells

Staff Writer

Thursday, December 07, 2006

 

Fort Ancient State Memorial may join the ranks of Versailles, Stonehenge and Australia's Great Barrier Reef if an Ohio Historical Society plan is successful.

 

The society wants the ancient Hopewell Indian site in Washington Twp. and two other Hopewell sites in Ohio to be placed on the United Nation's World Heritage Site list, which currently includes 830 sites across globe...

 

 

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4527 or [email protected].

 

http://www.western-star.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2006/12/07/ws120706fortancient.html

 

"There's a lot of interest in Native American cultures in Europe, and I don't know that Ohio has done a lot to kind of sell itself to European tourists," Alexander said.

 

The Germans have a real fascination with native Americans, but more the "Wild West" plains indians.  Still, the woodland indians also hold an interest as James Fenimore Coopers' "Leatherstocking Tales" and "Last of the Mohicans" have been translated into German and are popular there, too.

 

The Mound Builders are a lot earlier than that, of course. 

 

As for the UNESCO World Heritage list, the US has comparatively few sites on the UNESCO list, compared to Europe.  Most of our sites are National Parks of one sort or another, only very few are from the era of European settlement.  Some places that could be on the list, like the Chicago Loop or the Frank Lloyd Wright houses in Oak Park and Chicago (which have international signifigance to the development of modern architecture), are not listed.

 

The Europeans not only have individual sites, but entire regions or landscapes (like the Rhine valley with its castles) listed.

 

 

 

 

the germans are also fascinated with the amish too.

 

i am glad to read some news about the mound builder sites. they should be world heritage sites no question. yet another thing state tourism ought to promote more.