Read time: 6 min.

I’ve visited five or six Native American mounds and earthworks over the years, but I’ve deliberately avoided writing about them. There’s a lot to unpack, and I’m keenly aware that I’m not an expert on Indigenous cultures. It’s an easy subject to oversimplify or get wrong, but New Castle’s Chrysler Enclosure is too fascinating to ignore: without any exaggeration, it may be 2,000 years old. 

The Chrysler Enclosure is an important archaeological site: it’s an isolated circular earthwork that dates to the Early and Middle Woodland periods as part of a broader span of pre-Columbian history stretching from roughly 1000 BCE until European contact in eastern North America¹. Archaeologists think the enclosure was built by the Adena culture and later used by people associated with the Hopewell tradition, which makes it a rare surviving reminder of East-Central Indiana’s ancient past². 

The Chrysler Enclosure was first recorded in 1892 by Thomas Redding, an attorney who later founded the Henry County Historical Society. “It is still in the wood though mostly cut off,” Redding wrote. “Its diameter is 115 feet, the height of the embankment from the bottom of ditch is about three feet. There is an open place, or gateway, on the east side, about twelve feet wide. There is the appearance of a small mound inside of the enclosure toward the west side, about fifteen feet in diameter and eighteen to twenty-four inches high. Width of ditch about eight feet, of embankment about fifteen feet³.” 

In Redding’s day, the enclosure was pretty far from the bounds of New Castle- more than a mile, according to an 1893 atlas of Henry County⁴. It was still far out by the 1930s, but an aerial image showed a farmer’s fence row that cut across the enclosure from north to south⁵. The site was overgrown by the 1930s, but was intended to be cleared to become an attraction for nearby Baker Park⁶ that was dedicated in 1937⁷. Just west, New Castle’s Walter P. Chrysler Memorial High School was built in 1958. In a survey conducted nine years later, the enclosure was situated just west of the building’s driveway⁸. 

New Castle’s ancient Native American earthwork and high school both bore the name “Chrysler” for many years because of New Castle’s industrial past. In 1907, the Maxwell-Briscoe automobile company established a factory in the town. When Chrysler acquired Maxwell in 1925, the plant became one of the city’s economic engines! During the 1940s and 1950s, it employed as many as 4,000 workers- about one out of every four people living in New Castle⁹. Chrysler’s enormous influence on the community made naming the new high school and its surrounds after its founder a natural choice.

As late as 1988, the Chrysler Enclosure had never been excavated¹⁰. Unfortunately, damage to the site when a sidewalk and storm sewer were rebuilt in 1997 destroyed some of the enclosure’s western embankment¹¹. Thankfully, a visit by the state Historical Preservation & Archaeology department helped rectify that. Today, the site sits just west of Ross Street between Baker Park and New Castle High School, which shed the Chrysler name in 2011. 

The Chrysler Enclosure was finally tested in 1998. Various digs uncovered historic debris probably left over from Baker Park’s early days, but also uncovered fire-cracked rocks and burned clay that could have been related to the mound’s prehistoric construction¹². The archaeological team didn’t dig enough to find any Native American bodies, but did locate an unmodified flake of Laurel chert- a material common to arrowheads¹³. That, along with ground analysis, was enough to date the Chrysler Enclosure to the Adena/Hopewell period. What’s more, the archaeological group determined that its gateway lined up with sunrise at the winter solstice¹⁴.  

Nobody knows exactly why the Chrysler Enclosure was built. Archaeologists have suggested that circular earthworks like this one served ceremonial or ritual purposes rather than functioning as villages or fortifications15. The alignment of its eastern gateway with the winter solstice sunrise hints that the people who built it carefully observed the movements of the sun, weaving the changing seasons into their ceremonies and daily lives. Whatever its original purpose, the enclosure reminds us that East-Central Indiana has been home to sophisticated societies for thousands of years.

In a region where so much history has been demolished or paved over, the survival of this modest ring of earth feels almost miraculous. It may have filled in a little in places and eroded away in others, but I’m glad that, despite a few close calls, it’s still there for future generations to discover.

Sources Cited
1 McCord, B.K. (1998). An archaeological Assessment of Three Unique Woodland Sites in Henry County, Indiana. Archaeological Resources Management Service. Ball State University [Muncie]. Report. 
2 Chrysler Enclosure – Henge in United States in Indiana (2007, January 15). The Megalithic Portal. Web. Retrieved June 24, 2026. 
3 Redding, T.B. (1892). Prehistoric Earthworks of Henry County, Indiana. Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science. Indiana Academy of Science [Indianapolis]. Journal. 
4 The county of Henry, Indiana : topography, history, art folio : including chronological chart of general, national, state, and county history (1893). Rerick Brothers [RIchmond]. Atlas.
5 (See footnote 1). 
6 Welch, G. (1937, September 10). Evidence of Science Shatters Doubts that Baker Park Mound is Prehistory. New Castle News Republican. Newspaper. 
7 Park HIstory (n.d.). Baker Park. City of New Castle Indiana [New Castle]. Web. Retrieved June 24, 2026. 
8 (See footnote 1). 
9 Pitts, E. (1999, July 26). Driving Ahead. The Muncie Star Press. p. 7. 
10 Cochran, Maust, Filkins, Zoll, Staley, & Richards (1988). The Hesher Site: A Late Albee Cemetery in East Central Indiana. Ball State University [Muncie]. Report. 
11 Harlos, D. (1967). Initial Henry County, Indiana Site Survey. Archaeological Reports 2:33-47. Ball State University [Muncie]. Survey. 
12 (See footnote 10). 
13 (See footnote 1). 
14 (See footnote 1). 
15 (See footnote 1).