Roaming Shores

How Roaming Shores began

Roaming Shores is one of Ashtabula County's youngest and most unusual communities: a planned lake-resort development rather than a nineteenth-century farm town. St. Louis-based Development Services Incorporated, led by Kenneth F. Gorman, bought 1,700 acres straddling Rome and Morgan townships in 1966 and built an earthen dam across Rock Creek, filling the 550-acre Lake Roaming Rock -- Ohio's largest private lake -- by January 1967. The Rome Rock Association governed the resulting lakefront subdivision alone for thirteen years until, facing a bankrupt water and sewer utility and wanting to capture tax revenue for a growing year-round population, residents incorporated the Village of Roaming Shores in 1979. The village bought its own water company in 1985 and the dam itself from the Association in 2004.

Settled 1966 (Development Services Incorporated begins land acquisition and dam construction), platted 1966, incorporated 1979, by Development Services Incorporated (developer, led by Kenneth F. Gorman); incorporated as a village by its residents in 1979.

Where the name comes from

The village takes its name from Lake Roaming Rock, the reservoir created by damming Rock Creek in 1966-67, whose own name combines the creek's name with a developer's marketing choice of "Roaming" for the resort community built around it.

Before the town

No Native American village, trail, or site specific to the modern village of Roaming Shores is documented in the sources consulted; the land was rural farm township (Rome and Morgan townships) until the 1966 lake development.

Timeline

1. January 6 - June 10, 1966 — Development Services Incorporated (DSI), a St. Louis development company, buys 1,700 acres from 36 property owners in Rome and Morgan townships to build a lake-resort community.
2. June 17, 1966 — The Rome Rock Association incorporates as the homeowners' association for the planned development, while DSI forms the Roman Rock Corporation as its development subsidiary.
3. 1966 — Construction begins on a Class I earthen dam across Rock Creek, costing a little over $800,000; the finished lake is 550 acres with 22 miles of shoreline, larger than the 450 acres originally planned.
4. January 31, 1967 — Lake Roaming Rock fills completely behind the new dam.
5. 1966-1979 — The Rome Rock Association governs the lakefront community alone as a private residential association, developing 30 miles of paved roads, 15 miles of water and sewer lines, a 100,000-gallon water tower, a clubhouse, an Olympic-sized pool, beaches, a playground, and a marina.
6. 1979 — The Village of Roaming Shores incorporates, with 342 houses and 583 residents, chiefly to take over a bankrupt water and wastewater utility and capture tax revenue for the growing community.
7. 1985 — The village purchases the water company from the Rome Rock Association.
8. 1989 — The village establishes its own police department.
9. 2004 — The village acquires the dam itself from the Rome Rock Association.
10. 2010 — A new Village Hall is built.

Stories

A lake built to sell house lots

Unlike nearly every other community in Ashtabula County, Roaming Shores did not grow gradually from a pioneer cabin or a mill site -- it was built, deliberately and fast, as a real-estate product. In January 1966, Development Services Incorporated, a St. Louis company run by Kenneth F. Gorman that had already built 44 similar lake subdivisions around the country, began buying up 1,700 acres of rural farmland straddling Rome and Morgan townships. By June the company had closed deals with 36 different property owners and incorporated a homeowners' association, the Rome Rock Association, to govern the resort community it planned to build. Crews then threw an earthen dam across Rock Creek, a tributary of the Grand River, at a cost of a bit over $800,000 -- and the resulting lake outgrew even DSI's own plans, filling to 550 acres and 22 miles of shoreline by the end of January 1967, well past the 450 acres the company had originally designed. The company platted thousands of lots, paved 30 miles of road, and built a full water and sewer system, a clubhouse, a pool, and a marina, all before most residents had even moved in. It took thirteen years and a bankrupt utility before the community decided it needed a government of its own, incorporating as the Village of Roaming Shores in 1979 -- turning a company's development plan into a self-governing Ohio village.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · roamingshoresoh.gov · roamingshores.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• Roaming Shores Village65% of residentsLake Erie
• Rock Creek Village35% of residentsLake Erie

High-hazard dams (1)

Police stations (1)

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 2025-03-18

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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