Newark golf course lease on American Indian earthworks site headed to trial

NEWARK, Ohio (WCMH) – Nearly a year and a half after the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the state could evict a golf club from the site of 2,000-year-old American Indian earthworks, the parties will finally go to trial to determine just how much money the golf club’s lease is worth. 

The Ohio Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear a procedural appeal from the Moundbuilders Country Club, meaning the previously delayed jury trial to determine leaseholder value will soon be underway. The members-only club, which sits in the middle of the Octagon Earthworks, asked the court to allow its appeal of the exclusion of its expert witnesses’ testimony about the lease's value.

The Ohio History Connection, which has leased the land to the country club for 90 years, has sought control of the property for years to fully open the Octagon Earthworks to the public. The earthworks, one of three earthworks in Newark, were ceremonial and spiritual meeting grounds for many American Indian groups and were built 2,000 years ago to track the lunar cycle, according to the Ohio History Connection. The Newark Earthworks are the largest earthworks in existence and are one of eight in Ohio built by indigenous groups who were part of the Hopewell Culture. 

Moundbuilders Country Club, whose lease is slated to end in 2078, fought the appropriation of the land. The Ohio Supreme Court sided with the Ohio History Connection in December 2022, sending the case back to Licking County for a jury trial to determine the value of the remainder of the lease. The state cannot take the land from the country club until the leaseholder value is determined.

That trial was supposed to happen in October, but the club appealed to higher courts after, at the request of the Ohio History Connection, the Licking County judge threw out expert testimony from two of the country club’s witnesses. The witnesses had estimated the value of the remaining lease to be between $9.8 million and $22.7 million, basing their estimates on how much it would cost to build another golf course and the “historical, scientific and cultural significance of the mounds themselves,” according to the lower court ruling.

The judge ruled those estimations improper and inadmissible, saying case law is clear that just compensation does not require the Ohio History Connection to fund the construction of a new golf course. Further, the club provided no evidence demonstrating that the value of the earthworks contributed meaningfully to their club membership rates.

“The Country Club is not entitled to the value of the mounds,” Judge David Branstool wrote in his October order. “The inclusion of that speculative value in some sort of cost reproduction method is completely unreliable when determining the fair market value of the Country Club’s lease.”

As a result, the jury would only hear testimony from the Ohio History Connection’s experts, who valued the lease to be between $1.18 million and $2 million. After an appellate court rejected the country club’s appeal, it took its case to the Supreme Court in February.

Allowing the trial to proceed without the country club’s expert witness testimony would make it a “trial in name only,” the club argued in its merit brief to the high court. The club further argued that not being able to appeal until after a jury determines the leaseholder value – at which point the state can immediately seize the land – would cause irreparable harm.

“It is true that a jury will determine the amount of compensation MCC is to receive. But that jury-trial right is hollow and empty if the jury is making a determination based solely on evidence presented by the appropriating governmental agency,” the club’s merit brief to the Supreme Court read. 

Joe Fraley, attorney for the country club, said he plans to ask the Licking County judge to reconsider the exclusion of the club's witnesses before the case goes to trial.

"It puts us in the position that we're going to have to do a trial with essentially no witnesses," Fraley said. "That's not really a fair trial."

In September, the state’s Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, including the Octagon Earthworks, were added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites, making them the first sites in Ohio to receive the global designation. Neil Thompson, spokesperson for the Ohio History Connection, said it was a process two decades in the making.

The legal fight between the state and the country club didn’t help with that timeline. But Thompson said the Ohio History Connection is appreciative of the legal process and pleased that the case will – hopefully – soon be resolved.

“Our guiding principles throughout this process remain the same: to enable full public access to the Octagon Earthworks while ensuring the country club receives fair market value for the lease,” Thompson said.