Buckeye Lake State Park is a public recreation area in Fairfield,

Licking Licking is the action of passing the tongue over a surface, typically either to deposit saliva onto the surface, or to collect liquid, food or minerals onto the tongue for ingestion, or to communicate with other animals. Many animals both gro ...

and

Perry Perry, also known as pear cider, is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented pears, traditionally the perry pear. It has been common for centuries in England, particularly in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire. It is also made ...

counties,

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

in the United States. The park consists of a of shore areas, islands, and water. Shore areas and islands include Brooks Park, Fairfield Beach, Liebs Island, Mud Island and North Shore. Activities include boating, fishing, swimming, picnicking, wildlife observation. and winter recreation. Wildlife visible in or from the park include

cormorant Phalacrocoracidae is a family of approximately 40 species of aquatic birds commonly known as cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed, but in 2021 the IOC adopted a consensus taxonomy of seven ge ...

heron The herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 72 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genera ''Botaurus'' and ''Ixobrychus ...

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...

osprey The osprey (''Pandion haliaetus''), , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings. It is brown o ...

, and numerous waterfowl.

History

The park is named for Buckeye Lake, which under its original name, Licking Summit Reservoir, was built in the 19th century to supply water to the

Ohio and Erie Canal The Ohio and Erie Canal was a canal constructed during the 1820s and early 1830s in Ohio. It connected Akron with the Cuyahoga River near its outlet on Lake Erie in Cleveland, and a few years later, with the Ohio River near Portsmouth. It also ...

. After the 1894

Ohio General Assembly The Ohio General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Ohio. It consists of the 99-member Ohio House of Representatives and the 33-member Ohio Senate. Both houses of the General Assembly meet at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus ...

declared that feeder reservoirs should be established as public parks, the reservoir's name was changed to Buckeye Lake. In 1949, the area became Buckeye Lake State Park once the Ohio Department of Natural Resources was created.

References

External links

Buckeye Lake State Park
Ohio Department of Natural Resources
Buckeye Lake State Park Map
Ohio Department of Natural Resources {{authority control State parks of Ohio Protected areas of Fairfield County, Ohio Protected areas of Licking County, Ohio Protected areas of Perry County, Ohio Protected areas established in 1949 1949 establishments in Ohio