Over view of the Portsmouth area 2000 years ago.
The Horseshoe Mound
This effigy mound constructed and used by Native Americans of the Hopewell Culture is located in Mound Park at the northeast corner of Grant Street and Hutchins Street in Portsmouth. It is one of two horseshoe-shaped platforms that formerly laid at the northern terminus of two parallel earthen walls which ran southeasterly to the Ohio River and which continued on the Kentucky side of the river, where they led to two concentric circular enclosures.
It is theorized that the Horseshoe Mound was used for ceremonial purposes rather than for burial.