Muskingum County, Ohio

Muskingum County is a county in Ohio, United States, about 52 miles east of Columbus in the Appalachian foothills. It had a population of 86,410 at the 2020 census, an estimated 87,014 by 2025, and covers 665 square miles (1,720 km2) of land — 673 square miles in total — centred near 39°58′N 81°57′W.

Zanesville is the county seat and the county’s only city; its postal code is 43701. The county holds 1 city, 10 incorporated villages and 6 census-designated places across 25 townships, and it runs on Eastern Time. Its FIPS code is 39119.

Towns & Villages in Muskingum County

Muskingum County has 51 named places on record: 11 incorporated municipalities (1 city and 10 villages), 6 census-designated places and 34 smaller unincorporated communities. CDP stands for census designated place; communities without a table row below have no formal boundary or census count of their own.

The county’s 34 unincorporated communities are Adams Mills, Bloomfield, Blue Rock, Bridgeville, Cannelville, Chandlersville, Coal Hill, Cottage Hill, Darlington, Dillon Falls, Ellis, Freeland, Gaysport, Gilbert, High Hill, Hopewell, Ironspot, Irville, Licking View, Marquand Mills, Mattingly Settlement, Meadow Farm, Mount Sterling, Moxahala Park, Museville, Otsego, Rix Mills, Ruraldale, Sonora, Spratt, Stovertown, Sundale, White Cottage and Young Hickory.

Several names on this list are easy to confuse. Fultonham and East Fultonham are two different places: Fultonham is a village of 115 people, while East Fultonham is a separate CDP two miles away with its own PO-box ZIP. North Zanesville and South Zanesville are not parts of Zanesville city either — North Zanesville is an unincorporated CDP and South Zanesville is an independent village. Two villages straddle county lines: most of Gratiot lies west in Licking County, and Roseville extends south into Perry County, so their table figures count the whole village. Blue Rock names a hamlet, a township and a state forest in the county’s southeast.

Townships

Muskingum County is divided into 25 civil townships. Falls Township, wrapping around Zanesville’s north and west sides, is the most populous; Meigs Township in the far southeast is the smallest.

Some villages sit across township lines: Dresden spills from Jefferson into Cass Township, New Concord from Union into Highland Township, and South Zanesville from Springfield into Newton Township. Zanesville city is counted separately from all 25 townships.

ZIP Codes

• 43701 — Zanesville (also serves South Zanesville, North Zanesville and Pleasant Grove)
• 43702 — Zanesville (PO box)
• 43720 — Blue Rock
• 43727 — Chandlersville
• 43734 — Duncan Falls
• 43735 — East Fultonham (PO box)
• 43738 — Fultonham (PO box)
• 43746 — Hopewell
• 43762 — New Concord
• 43767 — Norwich
• 43771 — Philo
• 43777 — Roseville
• 43791 — White Cottage (PO box)
• 43802 — Adamsville
• 43821 — Dresden
• 43822 — Frazeysburg
• 43830 — Nashport
• 43842 — Trinway (PO box)

Gratiot’s ZIP, 43740, is administered from neighbouring Licking County and is not counted among Muskingum County’s own codes. Most of the smaller unincorporated communities — among them Sonora, Otsego, Rix Mills and Stovertown — have no ZIP of their own and take mail under the nearest post-office town’s code.

Geography

Muskingum County sits in the unglaciated Appalachian foothills of east-central Ohio, a landscape of steep wooded ridges and narrow creek valleys. Of its 673 square miles, 665 are land and 8.0 are water, about 1.2 percent, making it Ohio’s fourth-largest county by land area. The Muskingum River nearly bisects the county from north to south, and the Licking River joins it at Zanesville beneath the city’s three-way Y-Bridge. Dillon Lake, a flood-control reservoir on the Licking northwest of Zanesville, anchors Dillon State Park; Blue Rock State Forest covers ridges in the county’s southeast.

Coshocton County lies to the north, Guernsey County to the east, Noble County to the southeast, Morgan County to the south, Perry County to the southwest and Licking County to the west.

Demographics

The county counted 86,410 residents in 2020, and the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate puts it at 87,014 — essentially flat for three decades. Zanesville, with 24,765 people, holds more than a quarter of the county; North Zanesville, just beyond the city line, is the next-largest community at 3,116. Median household income is $60,780 against Ohio’s $71,389 (ACS 5-year figures), a gap typical of Appalachian Ohio. Population density works out to about 130 people per square mile of land, well under half Ohio’s average, and the census splits the county almost evenly between urban and rural residents.

Economy & Local Life

Education, health care and social assistance is the biggest employment group, with about 10,554 of the county’s roughly 39,100 workers, followed by retail trade at 5,175, manufacturing at 4,246 and construction at 3,224 (ACS 5-year). Genesis Hospital in Zanesville, formed in 2016 when the Good Samaritan and Bethesda campuses merged, is the dominant health-care employer. Three colleges operate in the county: Muskingum University in New Concord, Zane State College and Ohio University Zanesville. The area’s clay deposits once supported more than a dozen potteries, including Weller, J. B. Owens, Roseville Pottery and the Mosaic Tile Company, and pottery collecting still draws visitors. Dresden was the birthplace of the Longaberger basket company, founded in 1919 and nearly 2,000 workers strong at its peak; it liquidated in 2018, but its homestead attraction in Frazeysburg still carries the world’s largest apple-basket building.

History

Ebenezer Zane blazed Zane’s Trace through the area in 1797, and his son-in-law John McIntire platted Zanesville where the trace crossed the Muskingum River, opening an inn and ferry by 1799. Ohio’s legislature formed Muskingum County on 1 March 1804. The name comes from a Delaware word translated as “town by the river” or “elk’s eye”.

Zanesville served as Ohio’s second capital from 1810 to 1812, and the National Road — today’s US 40 — reached the city in the 1820s, driving rapid growth. During the Civil War, about 5,000 Union soldiers massed at Zanesville in 1863 to guard against Morgan’s Raid. Novelist Zane Grey, a descendant of the Zane family, was born in Zanesville, and astronaut-senator John Glenn grew up in New Concord, where the local high school carries his name.

Getting There

Interstate 70 crosses the county east-west through Zanesville, running roughly parallel to US 40, the old National Road. US 22 comes up from the southwest, while state routes 60, 93, 146, 555 and 666 fan out north and south along the river valleys.

• Columbus — 52 miles west
• Cambridge — 23 miles east
• Newark — about 25 miles northwest

John Glenn Columbus International Airport, about an hour west on I-70, is the nearest major commercial airport. Zanesville Municipal Airport, with two 5,000-foot runways, handles general aviation; its last scheduled airline flights ended in the early 1970s. No Amtrak route serves this part of Ohio — the nearest stations are in Cleveland and Cincinnati, each well over 100 miles away.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Muskingum County located?
In the Appalachian foothills of east-central Ohio, about 52 miles east of Columbus, bordered by Coshocton, Guernsey, Noble, Morgan, Perry and Licking counties.

What is the population of Muskingum County?
86,410 at the 2020 census, with a 2025 estimate of 87,014.

How big is Muskingum County?
673 square miles in total, of which 665 square miles (1,720 km2) are land — the fourth-largest land area of any Ohio county.

What is the county seat of Muskingum County?
Zanesville, platted in 1799 where Zane’s Trace crossed the Muskingum River, is the county seat and only city.

How many towns and villages are in Muskingum County?
Eleven incorporated places — Zanesville plus the villages of Adamsville, Dresden, Frazeysburg, Fultonham, Gratiot, New Concord, Norwich, Philo, Roseville and South Zanesville — along with 6 CDPs and 34 unincorporated communities.

What ZIP codes does Muskingum County use?
43701 and 43702 for Zanesville; 43720, 43727, 43734, 43735, 43738, 43746, 43762, 43767, 43771, 43777, 43791, 43802, 43821, 43822, 43830 and 43842 for the rest of the county.

What is Muskingum County known for?
Zanesville’s Y-Bridge over the Muskingum-Licking confluence, its art-pottery heritage led by Weller and Roseville Pottery, and New Concord as John Glenn’s hometown.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in Ohio.