Forty miles east of Columbus sits Newark, a Licking County town of around 51,000 that punches well above its weight. Founded in 1802, before Ohio even achieved statehood, it grew rich as a stop on the Erie Canal and the Pennsylvania Railroad. But its most remarkable claim to history predates all of that by well over a millennium: the Hopewell Culture earthworks, built between the first and fourth centuries A.D., which are among Ohio's only UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Two of the UNESCO-listed Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks are in Newark itself. The Great Circle Earthworks is a geometric enclosure about 1,200 feet across, centred on Eagle Mound; a couple of miles northwest, the Octagon Earthworks pairs two enclosures linked by an avenue. A free museum at the Great Circle site (open Wednesday to Sunday) helps make sense of what you're seeing and hands out maps for the rest.
Newer history gets its due too. The Webb House Museum is a 1907 Arts and Crafts home filled with the Webb family's antiques, open Thursday afternoons April through December. Out at the Dawes Arboretum, the Daweswood House Museum offers weekend guided tours May to October, and the grounds — nearly 2,000 acres of trails, Dawes Lake, a Japanese garden and one of the few northern cypress swamps — are open all year. The adjacent Beard-Green Cemetery holds graves of Revolutionary War soldiers.
Downtown Newark feels like classic small-town Ohio, anchored by the 1876 Licking County Court House, the Louis Sullivan Building and the historic Midland Theatre. It's a good browsing stretch: handmade goods from local makers at Couple of Crafty Creations, books and vintage records at Kicks Mix Bookstore, and old-family-recipe sweets at Goumas Candyland, which has been in business since 1911.
The food scene is stronger than most passers-by expect. Elliot's Wood Fired Kitchen & Tap does gourmet pizzas and craft cocktails; 1922 On The Square serves steak and seafood with a family lineage back to a 1922 fine-dining restaurant; and Buckeye Winery pours local wines, runs the Uncorked restaurant, and lets you try DIY winemaking. On Fridays from May through October, the Canal Market District farmers market brings food trucks and live music to 36 East Canal Street, moving indoors to the Newark Historic Arcade for the winter months. Summer visitors can also catch the Newark Strawberry Festival and the Midland Theatre's Summerfest.
Who's this for? Road-trippers linking Columbus and Pittsburgh (about 150 miles apart) or Cleveland, plus anyone curious about pre-Columbian North America who'd rather skip the crowds of bigger attractions. Come April through October for warm weather and full access to the outdoor sites, and consider a half-hour side trip east to the village of Dresden for more quaint shops and river trails.