Geological age ~447 Mya Ordovician limestone and shale
Epoch Late Ordovician (Cincinnatian Series); Waynesville, Liberty, and Whitewater formations
Taxa 611 plants, 203 birds, 653 insects, 19 mammals, 203 fungi, 17 reptiles, 18 amphibians, 74 arachnids
Most observed Eastern Forktail (Ischnura verticalis) (Erythemis simplicicollis) (Ischnura posita) (Pachydiplax longipennis) (Libellula luctuosa)
Native lands Shawnee (Shawanwaki) · Myaamia (Miami) · Hopewell culture (300 BCE-600 CE) · Fort Ancient culture (1200-1600 CE); Fort Ancient Earthworks, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, located in Warren County; creek named for Caesar, an enslaved Virginian who escaped bondage c. 1774, was adopted by the Shawnee, and used the valley as hunting grounds; Shawnee and Miami ceded southern Ohio via Treaty of Greenville 1795; remaining Ohio Shawnee removed west via Treaty of Wapakoneta 1831
Displacement & Tenure Cession 11: Treaty of Greenville (1795); U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began acquiring Caesar Creek Valley land in the mid-1960s under eminent domain authority of the Flood Control Act of 1938; construction started 1971, dam completed 1978; village of New Burlington condemned and inundated, approximately 300 residents displaced involuntarily; last resident departed April 20, 1973; state park opened 1978, managed by Ohio DNR under lease from the Army Corps.
Shadow History The creation of Caesar Creek Lake required the forced inundation of New Burlington, a functioning rural community straddling the Warren/Clinton County line at the confluence of Caesar Creek and Anderson Fork. Approximately 300 residents were displaced beginning in the mid-1960s when the Army Corps of Engineers began acquiring land under eminent domain; the last resident, 87-year-old Lawrence Mitchner, departed April 20, 1973, after refusing to meet with Corps appraisers. The community included a post office, Quaker meetinghouse, school, churches, a Masonic lodge, and farms. John Baskin documented the displacement in New Burlington: The Life and Death of an American Village (1976). The Caesar's Creek Quaker Meetinghouse was relocated rather than demolished. A 1976 archaeological reconnaissance conducted prior to inundation documented pre-contact sites in the reservoir footprint; earlier surveys had recorded a Hopewell-era village of 60-70 acres near the creek, featuring burial mounds up to 8 feet high with 79 documented burials; these and other sites were permanently inundated without preservation. The creek's name carries an additional layer: it memorializes Caesar, an enslaved Virginian who escaped bondage c. 1774 and was adopted into the Shawnee nation, a detail absent from most park signage.
Ecology Oak-hickory and beech-maple upland forests with northern floodplain forest in creek valleys; restored native prairie and wetland complexes support grassland-dependent birds including grasshopper sparrow, Eastern meadowlark, bald eagle, and osprey; over 200 bird species recorded.
Hydrology Caesar Creek is a tributary of the Little Miami River (a National Wild and Scenic River), draining a 237-square-mile watershed in Warren, Clinton, and Greene counties; the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dam (completed 1978) impounds a 2,830-acre reservoir; Anderson Fork converges with Caesar Creek at the former site of New Burlington.
Acreage 7,530
GPS 39.5146° N, 84.0365° W
Caesar Creek State Park I · 2025-11-17
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Caesar Creek State Park II · 2025-11-17
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Caesar Creek State Park III · 2025-11-17
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Caesar Creek State Park IV · 2025-11-17
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Shawnee Lookout →
Public Lands Institute — ongoing project
CC0 Public Domain
