From the park's website:

Lake Logan is located in Hocking County in southeastern Ohio. This territory once belonged to the Wyandot Native Americans, who had a large village known as Oldtown on the Hocking River, located one mile north of Logan. Logan was established by Thomas Worthington in 1816 and named after the Mingo Chief, James John Logan.

The Hocking River provided sufficient water power for the operation of grist and sawmills, particularly at the falls above Logan. The town of Logan was slow to progress until the opening of the Hocking Canal, a branch of the Ohio-Erie Canal, in 1838. Several industries prospered due to the rich mineral resources of the Hocking Valley. The discovery of immense quantities of coal gave rise to a flourishing mining industry. Towns appeared and vanished as quickly as mines opened and closed.

It was soon found that iron ore could be extracted from the sandstone bedrock of the area. During the Civil War, Ohio’s iron industry reached its peak as the leading producer of iron for implements and weapons. No less than 46 furnaces were firing in Ohio’s six-county Hanging Rock Iron Region.

The clay soils of the Hocking Valley helped Ohio become a leader in clay products. The valley’s firebrick industry manufactured clay tile, building and paving bricks, and clay sewer pipe. Evidence of the industry can be seen in the many brick houses and abandoned kilns of the area. Clay is still an important commodity in the region.

Lake Logan was developed in 1955 for recreational purposes. The area was administered by the ODNR Division of Wildlife until 1964, when jurisdiction was transferred to the Division of Parks and Recreation. Originally known as Hocking Lake, the park was renamed Lake Logan to reflect the Native American heritage of the area and to avoid confusion with nearby Hocking Hills State Park and Forest.

Pictures

The view from Eric's operating position: 1 | 2 | 3
Eric's station

Description

On Friday, October 24, 2024, one member of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed a successful activation of Lake Logan State Park (US-1969) in Ohio as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program.

While driving home from doing errands in Columbus, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, stopped at Lake Logan State Park to perform the activation. Eric was accompanied by his wife Vickie, and their two small dogs Theo and Ginny.

Arriving at Lake Logan State Park, Eric first looked at the picnic shelter and tables near the swim-beach area but chose to continue to the fishing peninsula, which turned out to be unoccupied and in the late afternoon sun—a benefit on this beautiful but cool day. Eric quickly deployed his Tufteln (link) 35' end-fed random wire antenna as a sloper to the top of his 31' Jackite telescoping fiberglass pole held upright in a drive-on base, placing a single 17' counterpoise wire directly on the ground pointing away from the radiator wire. Setting up his Elecraft KX2 transceiver on his camp-chair's flip-up table, Eric was on the air at 2137 UTC.

As at Eric's previous activations of this park, he had good cell-signal and would be able to spot himself on POTA Spots (link) and to use POTA Spots to identify possible park-to-park (P2P) QSO opportunities.

Eric's station; photo taken at the end of the
operation, when the sun had dipped below the trees.

Because he hoped to be able to work his buddy Mike, K8RAT, in north-central Ohio, Eric began his operation on 40m. After finding himself a clear frequency to run, Eric began calling "CQ POTA" and self-spotted himself on POTA Spots. His first QSO came at 2141 UTC with WA4RXO in North Carolina. The 40m band was more productive than Eric had expected it to be, and QSOs came very quickly, with his eleventh QSO coming at 2150 UTC with VE3UXJ in Ontario. This run included the hoped-for QSO with K8RAT and QSOs with operators located in North Carolina, Pennsylvania (2), Kentucky, Illinois, Connecticut, Tennessee, Ohio, New York (2), and Ontario.

The view of Lake Logan from Eric's operating position.

Switching to 20m, Eric found a clear frequency to run, began calling "CQ POTA", and self-spotted himself on POTA Spots. His first QSO in this run came at 2155 UTC with N7JTT in Washington. QSOs came very quickly, with his twenty-first QSO in this run coming at 2213 UTC with KI1H in Florida. This run included a P2P QSO with KE9BHN at Moraine Hills State Park (US-1012) in Illinois and QSOs with operators located in Washington, Idaho (2), Texas (2), Georgia (2), Florida (3), Kansas, Illinois (2), Oregon, Colorado, Virginia, Alabama, Arizona (2), Connecticut, and Kentucky.

In all, Eric made thirty-two QSOs, with one P2P QSO, in about thirty-three minutes of on-air time. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made with five watts output.

Eric also submitted his log to the World Wide Flora and Fauna in Amateur Radio (WWFF; link) program.

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