Adams County welcome center nears opening at Adams Lake State Park

The new Travel and Visitors Bureau Welcome Center at Adams Lake State Park was nearly finished. The building is a practical stop for travelers and a marker of outdoor access, local history and a stronger tourism economy in Adams County.

Tom Cross, executive director of the Adams County Travel and Visitors Bureau, said the idea drew skepticism when it was first raised, but the project survived the pandemic, soaring construction costs and multiple plan redraws. Cross said county commissioners, past and present, backed the effort, and Economic Development Director Paul Worley helped secure the last funding needed. The project’s construction funding totaled $693,000, anchored by two Ohio General Assembly capital-budget awards of $350,000 each in 2021 and 2024, with additional money coming from the Adams County Board of Commissioners, the travel bureau, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, ODOT, McCoy Lumber and The Nature Conservancy.

Adams Lake State Park is a 50-acre park surrounding a 47-acre lake, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. There is no camping there, only hand-powered craft and electric motors are permitted, and a small launch ramp near the entrance provides access to the water. An accessible 3/4-mile trail runs along the south shore, with additional prairie preserve trails nearby.

The welcome center has a large front porch with a lake view, public restrooms and a water fountain, and it sits directly across from the boat ramp and parking area. Inside, visitors will find murals, memorabilia, the courthouse bear, local taxidermy, historic county photos and a Liberty Star quilt square painted by the West Union High School Art class. An ODNR naturalist will have a desk there and will offer programs at Adams Lake.

Cross said the center is meant to point travelers toward outdoor recreation, lodging, Amish shops, events, festivals, quilt barns, nature preserves and Serpent Mound. Serpent Mound is an internationally known National Historic Landmark, the most widely recognized effigy mound in the world and the largest surviving and well documented prehistoric effigy mound in the world, according to the Ohio History Connection. The state’s 2024 impact report puts visitor spending at $57 billion in economic impact, $4.7 billion in state and local tax revenues and more than 443,000 jobs supported statewide. Adams County’s tourism spending has also been growing by about 6% to 8% a year in recent years, and the travel bureau’s social media following has climbed to nearly 34,000.