Strouds Run State Park
| Strouds Run State Park | |
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View from Vista Point
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 Location in Ohio
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| Location | Canaan Township and Ames Township |
| Coordinates | 39°20′57″N 82°01′56″W / 39.3492°N 82.0323°WCoordinates: 39°20′57″N 82°01′56″W / 39.3492°N 82.0323°W |
| Area | 2,606 acres (10.55 km2) |
| Elevation | 705 |
| Created | 1953 |
| Operated by | Ohio Department of Natural Resources |
| Website | Strouds Run State Park |
Strouds Run State Park is an Ohio state park located primarily in Canaan Township, Athens County, Ohio, with a small part in Ames Township. It comprises 2,606 acres (1,055 ha), and includes Dow Lake, a 161-acre (0.65 km2) artificial lake. The lake is stocked on an annual basis with several kinds of fish, including rainbow trout, which cannot survive the winters. The park is almost entirely within the Strouds Run watershed, although it does not include the entire watershed. The park is on the fringes of the city of Athens, Ohio, with park boundaries coinciding with city limits in several places.
The park borders on the city's 325-acre (1.32 km2) Strouds Ridge Preserve Project, which includes the Riddle State Nature Preserve, and with the Athens Conservancy's 75 acre (0.3 km²) Blair Preserve.
In addition, the 264-acre (1.07 km2) Baker Tract, managed by the Athens Conservancy, is a short drive away, with a public access trailhead on Ohio State Route 690.
Facilities include a campground (pit toilets, no shower), swimming beach, boat dock, boat and canoe rentals, pistol, picnic grounds and shelters, and hiking trails. Hunting is permitted in season. Shooting ranges are no longer available for the public.
Significant areas of the park are pine plantations (white and red) from the mid-twentieth century, when the land was purchased, originally as the Athens State Forest. There is also one small baldcypress plantation within the park. However, most of the area is mature hardwood forest. The park features many bluffs and rock outcrops of sandstone. Several beaver ponds are within the park boundaries.
Many of the trails are open to mountain bikes.
The lake is used by Ohio University for aquatic sports such as crew. The lake is also a very common destination of Ohio University students to enjoy the weather on sunny spring or summer days.
The original land for the park was purchased for the Athens State Forest in the 1940s and 1950s. In the late 1950s, construction was started on the Dow Lake Dam, which was completed in 1960, at which point the land became Strouds Run State Park in its entirety.
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Wikipedia