The Great Serpent Mound is a 1,330-foot (410 m)-long, three-foot-high prehistoric effigy mound located on a plateau of the Serpent Mound crater along Ohio Brush Creek in Adams County, Ohio. Maintained within a park by the Ohio Historical Society, it has been designated a National Historic Landmark by the United States Department of Interior. The Serpent Mound of Ohio was first reported from surveys by Ephraim Squire and Edwin Davis in their historic volume Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, published in 1848 by the newly founded Smithsonian Museum.

The Alligator Effigy Mound is a nationally recognized historic site in Granville, Ohio, United States. A prehistoric earthwork, the mound was likely built between AD 800 and 1200 by the Fort Ancient culture. An archaeological investigation of the mound conducted by Brad Lepper and Frolking in 1999 recovered a piece of charcoal from the base of the mound. The charcoal was radiometrically dated to 1,000 years BP (about 950 CE). The mound was not used as burial mound but likely as a ceremonial site. Alligator Mound is one of two known effigy mounds located in the state of Ohio, the other one being Serpent Mound in Adams County, Ohio

Two serpent mounds – nine hundred miles apart

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Most readers can probably remember some Native American archaeological site called the “Great Serpent Mound” of Ohio. Most likely, people, who grew up in Ohio, fondly remember it as a destination on a school-sponsored “Ohio History” trip. Have you even heard of the Great Serpent Mound of Florida? Probably you have not!

The serpent head has an open mouth extending around the east end of a 120-foot-long hollow oval feature. Scholars posit that the oval feature symbolizes an egg, the sun, the body of a frog, or merely the remnant of a platform.

The rattlesnake is significant as a symbol in the Mississippian culture, which would help explain the image of the mound. But there is no sign or indication of a rattle.

Venomous/Nonvenomous Snakes
Brown snake, midland
Copperhead, northern
Fox snake, eastern
Garter snake, Butler's
Garter snake, eastern
Garter snake, eastern plains
Green snake, eastern & western smooth
Green snake, rough
Hog-nosed snake, eastern
Kingsnake, black
Kirtland's snake
Massasauga, eastern
Milk snake, eastern
Queen snake
Racers, black and blue
Rat snake, black
Rattlesnake, timber
Red-bellied snake, northern
Ribbon snake, eastern
Ring-necked snake, northern
Smooth earth snake, eastern
Water snake, copperbelly
Water snake, Lake Erie
Water snake, northern
Worm snake, eastern & midwest