Blue Rock Township, Muskingum County

How Blue Rock Township, Muskingum County began

Blue Rock Township, on the southern edge of Muskingum County along the Muskingum River, was organized from Salt Creek Township on December 3, 1810, with its first township election held January 6, 1814. It took its name from a large blue-tinted rock landmark on Blue Rock Creek. Early settlement clustered along the river, where sawmills, a string of at least ten salt factories and, from the 1860s, early oil wells drove the local economy, and small landings such as Rural Dale, Gaysport and Kiefer grew up as river trade points. No municipality was ever incorporated inside the township, and the unincorporated hamlet of Blue Rock remains its largest place today.

Settled 1810 (organized from Salt Creek Township), incorporated December 3, 1810 (township organized).

Where the name comes from

Named for the Big Blue Rock, a landmark on Blue Rock Creek and the Muskingum River.

Before the town

No Native American village, mound, trail or treaty line specific to Blue Rock Township turned up in the sources reviewed. The township's river frontage places it within the wider Muskingum valley documented for Adena and Hopewell mound-building activity and later Shawnee, Wyandot and Mingo travel and settlement, but no site-specific record for this particular township was found.

Timeline

1. 1810 — Blue Rock Township is organized from Salt Creek Township on December 3 (first township election held January 6, 1814, at Lewis Allwine's house).
2. 1816 — George Gibbons builds the first structure in the Rural Dale area; the same year Nathaniel Ayers's family bores the first salt well on the river.
3. 1820 — John Trimble operates a sawmill below Rural Dale.
4. 1822 — A salt well is developed by Nathaniel Ayers at Gaysport.
5. 1828 — Blue Rock Regular Baptist Church is constituted with thirteen members, building a 30-by-30-foot log meeting house.
6. 1830s — The township supports a sawmill and at least ten salt factories.
7. 1854 — Rural Dale (originally called Rockville) is laid out by J. B. Milhous.
8. 1861 — The township's first oil well is drilled (oil production in the area had begun as early as 1819).
9. 1880 — Gaysport is founded by Asa Gay, Sr.

Stories

Salt on the Muskingum

Blue Rock Township's economy for much of the 19th century ran on salt. Nathaniel Ayers's family bored the river's first salt well in 1816 and developed another at Gaysport in 1822, and by the 1830s the county memoir counts at least ten salt factories working the township alongside a single sawmill. The brine wells sat beside the Muskingum River, where flatboats and later steamboats could carry the kettled salt to market. The industry faded as cheaper rock salt reached Ohio by rail later in the century, but it explains why river landings like Rural Dale and Gaysport, not a courthouse town, became the township's population centers.

Local history sources: usgenwebsites.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• Muskingum County Water - Se62% of residentsMuskingum River buried valley aquifer (wells near Duncan Falls)
• Mcconnelsville Village30% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Morgan Meigsville - Sr 3764% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Malta Village3% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Morgan Meigsville Rural0% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)

High-hazard dams (1)

Bridges rated poor (2)

Shale and injection wells (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (3)

Money issues on the ballot since 2021: 1 of 1 passed.

Ballot issues

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked.

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-09-17

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