Buckeye Lake State Park, Recreation area in Fairfield County, United States

Buckeye Lake State Park covers 3,349 acres (1,355 ha) of water, shoreline and islands in Fairfield, Licking and Perry counties, Ohio. Its shore areas and islands include Brooks Park, Fairfield Beach, Liebs Island, Mud Island and North Shore. Visitors boat, fish, swim, picnic and watch wildlife such as cormorants, herons, bald eagles, osprey and waterfowl.

The site began in 1826 as Licking Summit Reservoir, built to supply water to the Ohio and Erie Canal system during Ohio's early growth. The reservoir was central to the state's transportation and development efforts at that time.

The park's name comes from the Ohio buckeye tree, and the 1894 Ohio General Assembly declared that feeder reservoirs should become public parks, prompting the reservoir's renaming to Buckeye Lake. Visitors today boat, fish, swim, picnic and watch wildlife such as cormorants, herons, bald eagles and osprey.

Buckeye Lake State Park spreads across Fairfield, Licking and Perry counties, with shore areas and islands including Brooks Park, Fairfield Beach, Liebs Island, Mud Island and North Shore. Boating, fishing, swimming, picnicking and wildlife observation are the main activities, and winter recreation is possible too. Cormorants, herons, bald eagles, osprey and waterfowl can be watched from the shore.

Before the reservoir was built, explorer Christopher Gist crossed the area in the 1700s and called it the "Great Swamp", a bog left by glaciation. That wetland system preceded the lake visitors see today.