Construction of the Licking Summit Reservoir between 1826 and 1830 flooded a wetland known as Buffalo Lick, sometimes called the Great Swamp in local accounts, to create a water source for the Ohio and Erie Canal system. Most of the swamp disappeared under the rising water. One section did not. A roughly 50-acre mat of sphagnum moss, young and buoyant enough to tear free from the surrounding peat, rose with the water instead of sinking beneath it, detaching to form a floating island that has drifted on what became Buckeye Lake ever since.
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The 1826 to 1830 dike construction created Buckeye Lake
Construction of the dike started in 1826 and was completed by 1830. It was constructed to prevent the South Fork of the Licking River from flooding and to collect water for the canals. According to Ohio History Central, the reservoir was initially known as Licking Summit Reservoir, whereas the marshlands were historically known as Buffalo Lick as far back as the 1750s. It served as a landmark for Native Americans traveling from the Ohio River to Miami villages. As the Ohio Department of Natural Resources notes, the reservoir ultimately proved too shallow to reliably feed canal barge traffic during dry seasons, and the canal system itself fell out of use within a few decades. The reservoir was renamed Buckeye Lake by the Ohio State Legislature in 1894, as stated in the Licking Township Comprehensive Plan (Part 2), from which time it began to be used for recreation purposes, as the canal period came to a close.
A section of bog mat rose with the water instead of sinking
What made this flood unusual wasn't the damage it caused, but what it left behind. In the swamp's northern reaches, a younger, more buoyant section of bog mat responded differently than the rest of the wetland: rather than submerging, it swelled like a water-saturated sponge, rose with the floodwaters, tore free from the surrounding peat, and became a true floating island.
The bog earned National Natural Landmark status in October 1968
The uniqueness of the floating bog has been officially acknowledged years after its discovery. The floating bog is one of the earliest National Natural Landmarks identified in Ohio, having been designated in October 1968, as stated in the list of National Natural Landmarks Designated 1967–1969 by the National Park Service, while the whole region was made a state nature preserve in 1977. According to the National Park Service, it is one of the few floating bog islands that are not connected to the land. Access to this fragile environment is restricted, though the Greater Buckeye Lake Historical Society organizes periodic tours, including a Cranberry Bog Day.
Sphagnum moss and carnivorous plants define the preserve
This bog has had its ecosystem since the end of the ice age, as explained in the description of bogs by the National Park Service. This is because the plant life associated with this area, sphagnum mosses and the American cranberry, which lends its name to the bog, originated during the time after the Wisconsin Glacier retreated and boreal plant communities common to Canada established themselves here and have persisted in isolation despite climatic changes.
In addition to this, the bog is home to carnivorous plants like round-leaved sundew and pitcher plants, as well as orchids that include pink calopogon, which flowers along with the cranberries every June. The water's acidity has historically sustained this plant community despite the warming climate surrounding it.
The bog has shrunk from roughly 50 acres to an estimated 21 acres today
Over time, the floating bog has shrunk from its original roughly 50 acres, as measured by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, to an estimated 21 acres today, with some estimates placing the actively floating portion at just 8 acres. It's worth noting the correlation between the bog's deterioration and shifting water chemistry in Buckeye Lake, where the acidity that once favored sphagnum moss and boreal plants has diminished over time. A similar acidity-driven decline has been documented at other bogs, such as Indiana's Pinhook Bog, according to the National Park Service. Nearly two centuries after an engineering effort meant to keep barges moving along central Ohio's canals, the accidental byproduct of that project, a piece of wetland adrift on rising water, has outlasted the canal system it was built for and become one of Ohio's most unique natural features.
