Blue Rock State Park in southeastern Ohio, about eleven miles southeast of Zanesville, is a public recreation area centered on Cutler Lake and surrounded by Blue Rock State Forest. The park covers 322 acres within a much larger 4,573-acre forest. Its modern setting took shape in the late 1930s as Ohio acquired land for the forest beginning in 1936 and completed the dam that created Cutler Lake in 1938. In 1949, Blue Rock became an official state park with the creation of the state’s Division of Parks and Recreation. Together, the park and forest reflect Ohio’s mid-20th-century conservation and outdoor recreation efforts.