Lucas, OH

Lucas is a village in southeastern Richland County, about seven miles southeast of Mansfield on State Route 39. The village sits among the Rocky Fork and Black Fork rivers, with Charles Mill Lake to the east and Pleasant Hill Lake to the south. That mix of wooded hills, water, and back roads gives Lucas a foothold in the Mohican country and makes it a natural stop between Mansfield and the outdoor landscape farther south.

David Tucker founded Lucas in 1836, and the village's history now reaches well beyond its original town plat. Nearby Malabar Farm State Park preserves the home and working landscape of author and conservationist Louis Bromfield; the farm also became the setting for Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall's 1945 wedding. Lucas itself has appeared in films, including The Shawshank Redemption, while its storefronts, village offices, and local roads keep the everyday scale in view. The result is a small Ohio community with an unusually broad cultural and natural map: two rivers, two lakes, a famous farm, and a village center close to the Mansfield area.