Buck Creek State Park

Buck Creek State Park is a 4016acre Ohio state park in Clark County, Ohio in the United States, around part of Buck Creek (or Lagonda Creek). The park is leased by the state of Ohio from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It includes C. J. Brown Reservoir and Dam, a flood control dam and reservoir built by the USACE as part of a flood control system in the Ohio River drainage basin. Buck Creek State Park is open for year-round recreation including camping, boating, hunting, fishing, swimming, picnicking and hiking.HistoryIndian warsThe land in and around Buck Creek State Park was inhabited by various Indian tribes prior to settlement by American pioneers. As happened all over the Ohio Territory white settlers from the east sought to drive the Indians from the land. One of the first major conflicts in Clark County happened in 1780 when George Rogers Clark, for whom Clark County is named, led a group of some 1,000 men from Kentucky in an attack against the Indians in Ohio. This attack forced the Shawnee to abandon their camp near what is now Xenia. They fled Old Chillicothe for Piqua near the present site of Springfield and Buck Creek State Park. Clark pursued the Shawnee and defeated them at the Battle of Piqua. Many of the Shawnee were not killed in the battle and managed to escape into the woodlands. Tecumseh was one of those Indians and he vowed to gain vengeance on Clark and his fellow attackers. George R. Clark, Joe Williams and their men did not hold the land they gained in the battle. They retreated back to Kentucky and the Shawnee built a new Piqua on the banks of the Miami River. Hostilities between whites and Indians were at a brief standstill in the area of Buck Creek and the Mad River.