Formed by a retreating glacier more than 14,000 years ago, Buckeye Lake first existed as a shallow, swampy pond that Ohio Company explorer Christopher Gist named Buffalo Swamp in 1751. Beginning in 1826, the State developed it as a water source for the Licking Summit of the Ohio and Erie Canal, the highest level between the Scioto and Licking rivers. Engineers dammed the north and west sides of the swamp, inadvertently creating a unique floating sphagnum-heath bog surrounded by water. Cranberry Bog, with boreal vegetation typical of glacial-era Ohio, is a registered National Natural Landmark. After the summit level of the canal became inactive in the 1890s, the State developed Licking Summit Reservoir, or Buckeye Lake, for recreation. The lake has 3,800 acres of water, 35 miles of shoreline, and twenty islands. Millersport, Buckeye Lake Village, Thornport/Thornville, and Hebron all developed as a result of the lake and canal system. Buckeye Lake Park, a popular regional resort, operated until the mid 1960s. Today the lake area is the water recreation center of central Ohio, providing boating, swimming, fishing, water skiing, golfing, picnicking, and ice sports, and the lake extends into Fairfield, Licking, and Perry counties.

Photo: William Fischer, Jr.

Photo: William Fischer, Jr.

Photo: William Fischer, Jr.

Photo: William Fischer, Jr.

Hebron, Ohio · USA