Places to Visit

Holmes County has relatively little publicly accessible land, virtually all of which is in the Killbuck Valley. 

• Most of the 5,700 acre Killbuck Marsh Wildlife Area is located in Wayne County, but the property extends all the way south to Holmesville (3.8 miles).  The best access is just south of the county line, east of SR 83, on CR 1, which provides access to the Killbuck Creek, a small pond, and marshland along both sides of CR 1. Be aware that the area between CR 1 and Force Road (Wayne County) is a wildlife Refuge area and is closed to the public. The ODNR does provide some parking areas, but otherwise, the Holmes section of the Wildlife Area is totally unimproved, with no maintained trails and no facilities.

• The Killbuck Watershed Land Trust owns multiple pieces of Holmes county property starting just north of Killbuck, and extending through the Killbuck Valley to just past the Coshocton County line. All of the land north of SR62 is open to public access.  Trails and parking improvement are rudimentary, but improvements are underway.  This land is not well documented on their web site, and a property map application like onX Hunt is recommended

  • Baker Swamp is located just north of the Holmes County Trail.  Park at the trailhead parking lot just east of Killbuck on County 622.  All of the land north of the trail, starting just west of the power substation and east to Township 91 belongs to the trust.  Walk east on the paved trail to TR 91 to access Killbuck Creek (see interactive map above).

  • Turtle Pond is a relatively new 80 acre acquisition immediately east of the village of Killbuck, between Killbuck Creek, County 621, and SR 520.  A small parking area on 621 just west of the bridge provides access to a 600 yard gravel walking path between the river and marsh. A second parking spot at the intersection of Holmes 621 and SR 520 (10114 OH-520, Killbuck, OH 44637) provides access to a wooded hillside and the NW corner of the wetland (see interactive map above).

  • A grant for the restoration of the newly acquired 150 acre Crane Swamp property on the Holmes/Coshocton line has been approved. This area is scheduled to be opened to the public in late 2025.

• Mohican State Scenic River Designation Study. This is a 55 page ODNR analysis of the Clear Fork/Mohican River created in 2006 leading up to its inclusion into Ohio’s Scenic Rivers System.  It provides an overview of the human and natural histories of the Mohican River and its tributary creeks, and includes detailed maps. There is no public access to the Mohican in Holmes County, but a number of small bridges provide some visibility into the Lake Fork Mohican tributary.

• Mohican River Water Trail Guide from ODNR.

County Observation Activity

This graph shows the total number of odonata observations for the county in brown, with the average for all Ohio counties in blue. The season is divided into 10 or 11 day segments by Month – basically early-month, mid-month, and late-month.