The area is surrounded by bits and pieces of Ohio’s past.  The mysterious Serpent Mound, one of the largest effigy mounds in the United States, is just a short drive to the southwest of the park in Adams County. To the southeast, Buckeye Furnace, a restored iron blast furnace from a century past, is a reminder of a once-industrialized southeastern Ohio. Even the forestland around the park was once used as an artillery range during World War I.