Luckey

How Luckey began

Luckey takes its name from Captain James B. Luckey, a Civil War veteran who bought 180 acres and built a sawmill on the site in 1879; the town was surveyed two years later and grew around a post office, a stave factory and a hotel. It incorporated in 1940. From 1949 to 1958 a plant near the village produced beryllium under contract to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, leaving a federal radioactive-waste cleanup site that outside testing was still probing for groundwater contamination in 2025 -- a Cold War legacy the peaceful farm village did not choose and has spent decades living beside.

Settled 1879 (Captain James B. Luckey's purchase and sawmill), platted April 1881, surveyed by George Kirk for Isaac W. Krotzer, incorporated village, 1940, by Captain James B. Luckey; George Kirk for Isaac W. Krotzer.

Where the name comes from

Luckey is named for Captain James B. Luckey, who served in the U.S. Army from 1861 to 1864 and later bought 180 acres at the site, building a sawmill there in 1879.

Before the town

No mound, earthwork or named Native village specific to Luckey was found in any source consulted; the county's own 1897 history states that no such evidence exists anywhere in Wood County.

Nations recorded here: Ottawa.

Timeline

1. 1879 — Captain James B. Luckey buys 180 acres and builds a sawmill at the future townsite.
2. 1881-04 — George Kirk surveys the town for Isaac W. Krotzer, laying out a broad main street running west from the railroad, with a row of brick business buildings on its north side that the county history says 'would do credit to a town of 10,000 inhabitants.'
3. 1881 — The post office is established with George Luckey as the first postmaster; a post office, a stave factory and a hotel are established the same year.
4. 1892 — A Catholic mission is established by Father Kress, using the purchased former Evangelical building as a chapel; the same year, the Evangelical congregation moves its own former building from the Reason Whitacre farm in Cygnet to Luckey for worship.
5. 1893-07-12 — A fire destroys two business buildings in the village.
6. 1940 — Luckey is incorporated as a village.
7. 1949 to 1958 — A production facility near Luckey manufactures beryllium under contract to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, part of Cold War nuclear-weapons material production.
8. 2019 — NSG begins building a float glass plant near Luckey to supply First Solar, described as the first new glass plant built in the United States since 1980.
9. 2025 — Toledo Blade testing finds high levels of radioactivity in groundwater around the former beryllium plant site, and reports document a buried test reactor there, prompting further federal investigation under the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program.

Stories

A Cold War plant the village did not choose

For nine years during the early Cold War, from 1949 to 1958, a plant near Luckey processed beryllium, a light, strong metal used in nuclear weapons components, under a federal contract with the Atomic Energy Commission. The work ended in 1958, but what it left behind did not: the site was later designated for cleanup under the federal Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program, and government contractors have spent millions of dollars -- one demolition contract alone valued at $11.8 million -- tearing down former production buildings. In 2025, testing commissioned by the Toledo Blade found high levels of radioactivity in groundwater around the site and turned up records of a test reactor buried there decades earlier. Officials said they had found no current danger but promised further investigation, leaving a farm village named for a sawmill-building army captain still living, three generations later, beside the unfinished cleanup of a weapons program most of its residents never worked for.

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

Lake Erie, intake crib roughly 3 miles offshore of the Collins Park plant in Maumee Bay near Oregon, OH The water here

• Northwestern W and SD - Toledo Svc Area100% of residentsLake Erie

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public libraries (1)

Museums, historical societies, gardens and zoos (1)

Police stations (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2025: 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.
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-12-03

Source: Ohio EPA eDocument portal (edocpub.epa.ohio.gov), indexed 2026-10-14. Facilities are placed on the map from Ohio EPA's own map layers, EPA's Facility Registry, coordinates written in the filings, or a geocoded street address. A permit filed under a private person's name (most are household septic systems) is counted but never named, placed or linked; licenses for individual workers and open-burning notices are left out entirely.

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