Logan County, Ohio

Logan County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Bellefontaine
Year Organized: 1817
Square Miles: 458

Court House:

117 East Columbus

Bellefontaine, OH 43311-2055

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Residents named the county in honor of Benjamin Logan, a hero of the American Revolution and wars with Ohio’s Indian population.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

On December 30, 1817, the Ohio government authorized the creation of Logan County. Residents named the county in honor of Benjamin Logan, a hero of the American Revolution and wars with Ohio’s Indian population. Previously, the county had been part of land reserved to Ohio’s Indian people, under the Treaty of Greeneville.

Logan County is located in northwestern Ohio. It is predominantly rural, with less than one percent of the county’s 458 square miles consisting of urban areas. The county seat is Bellefontaine. With a population of 13,069 people, Bellefontaine was the county’s largest community in 2000. Many residents of Ohio’s rural communities are seeking better lives and more opportunities in the state’s cities, but Logan County’s population grew between 1990 and 2000. The county experienced an 8.7 percent population growth rate between 1990 and 2000, bringing the total number of residents up to 46,005. The county averages just over one hundred people per square mile.

Manufacturing businesses and service industries, such as health care and tourism, are Logan County’s largest employers. Retail positions and farming rank third and fourth, respectively. Among the county’s tourist attractions are Lake State Park, the Zane Caverns, and the Ohio Caverns. In 1999, the per capita income in the county was almost twenty-five thousand dollars, with 9.5 percent of the people living in poverty.

Most voters in Logan County claim to be independents, yet in recent years, they have overwhelmingly supported Republican Party candidates at the national level.

Logan County’s Campbell Hill, 1,548.81 feet above sea level, is the highest point in the United States between the Rocky Mountains and the Allegheny Mountains

Sources

Logan County, Ohio History Central, July 24, 2008,

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1961&nm=Logan-County

Neighboring Counties:

Hardin County (north)
Union County (east)
Champaign County (south)
Shelby County (west)
Auglaize County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Belle Center	village	Incorporated Area
- Bellefontaine (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Bloomfield	township
- Bokescreek	township
- De Graff	village	Incorporated Area
- Huntsville	village	Incorporated Area
- Lake	township
- Lakeview	village	Incorporated Area
- Liberty	township
- Pleasant	township
- Quincy	village	Incorporated Area
- Richland	township
- Rushcreek	township
- Rushsylvania	village	Incorporated Area
- Russells Point	village	Incorporated Area
- Stokes	township
- Valley Hi	village	Incorporated Area
- West Liberty	village	Incorporated Area
- West Mansfield	village	Incorporated Area
- Zane	township
- Zanesfield	village	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resource Guide

Counties: US Map

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of our country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."

Penn Foster High School

Custom Search