Adams Lake State Park is a public recreation area that surrounds Adams Lake on the far northern edge of the village of West Union, Adams County,

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, in the United States. The park's are equally divided between land and water and include a rare dry-prairie remnant, Adams Lake Prairie State Nature Preserve. The park offers fishing, boating, picnicking, and hiking.

History

Adams Lake was created to supply

drinking water Drinking water or potable water is water that is safe for ingestion, either when drunk directly in liquid form or consumed indirectly through food preparation. It is often (but not always) supplied through taps, in which case it is also calle ...

to the village of West Union, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

of Adams County. When ownership of the lake and its surrounding land was transferred to the state of Ohio in 1950, Adams Lake State Park was founded.

Ecology

The park is home to one of the last pockets of

prairie Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

habitat in Ohio. Native American and naturally caused fires, grazing by

megafauna In zoology, megafauna (from Ancient Greek, Greek μέγας ''megas'' "large" and Neo-Latin ''fauna'' "animal life") are large animals. The precise definition of the term varies widely, though a common threshold is approximately , this lower en ...

, and periodic severe droughts may have played a role in maintaining this landscape. Plants found in this disjunct area of prairie include

purple coneflower ''Echinacea purpurea'', the eastern purple coneflower, purple coneflower, hedgehog coneflower, or Echinacea, is a North American species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to parts of eastern North America and present t ...

, prairie dock, and little bluestem flowers. The Adams Lake prairie is a dry, sparsely vegetated area. The only trees in the prairie opening are sporadically occurring red cedar,

post oak ''Quercus stellata'', the post oak or iron oak, is a North American species of oak in the white oak section. It is a slow-growing oak that lives in dry areas on the edges of fields, tops of ridges, and also grows in poor soils, and is resistant ...

, and others which can survive the extreme soil conditions. Rare plants in the prairie include cylindrical blazing star, scaly blazing star, rattlesnake-master and

blackjack oak ''Quercus marilandica'', the blackjack oak, is a small oak, one of the red oak group ''Quercus'' sect. ''Lobatae''. It is native to the eastern and central United States. Description ''Quercus marilandica'' is a small deciduous tree growing to ...

Activities and amenities

The lake offers swimming, Basketball, Disc Golf, boating (electric motors), and boat launch and provides a habitat for

bluegill The bluegill (''Lepomis macrochirus''), sometimes referred to as "bream", "brim", "sunny", or, in Texas, "copper nose", is a species of North American freshwater fish, native to and commonly found in streams, rivers, lakes, ponds and wetlands ea ...

channel catfish The channel catfish (''Ictalurus punctatus''), known informally as the "channel cat", is a species of catfish native to North America. They are North America's most abundant catfish species, and the official state fish of Kansas, Missouri, Nebra ...

carp The term carp (: carp) is a generic common name for numerous species of freshwater fish from the family (biology), family Cyprinidae, a very large clade of ray-finned fish mostly native to Eurasia. While carp are prized game fish, quarries and a ...

, bullhead, and

largemouth bass The largemouth bass (''Micropterus nigricans'') is a carnivorous, freshwater fish, freshwater, ray-finned fish in the Centrarchidae (sunfish) family, native to the eastern United States, eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada an ...

. Park amenities include picnicking areas, walking path, and trails through the nature preserve.

References

External links

Adams Lake State Park
Ohio Department of Natural Resources
Adams Lake State Park Map
Ohio Department of Natural Resources
Adams Lake Prairie State Nature Preserve
Ohio Department of Natural Resources {{authority control State parks of Ohio Protected areas of Adams County, Ohio Protected areas established in 1950 1950 establishments in Ohio Bodies of water of Adams County, Ohio Lakes of Ohio