On a terrace of the Great Miami River, just south of downtown Dayton, is SunWatch Indian Village Archaeological Park, a partially reconstructed, 800-year-old Fort Ancient era Native American village with an impressive museum. While in Dayton, also tour the Carlysle Fort earthworks preserved in a city park, and of course the Wright Brothers Historic District and the National Air and Space Museum.

Downstream along the Great Miami, the 68-foot high Miamisburg Mound, in a hilltop park in the town of the same name, is the largest conical burial mound in Ohio, while the historic district in the nearby village of Springboro contains important Underground Railroad sites.