The Muskingum River Parkway State Park System was designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The Muskingum River begins at the confluence of the Walhonding and the Tuscarawas Rivers in Coshocton, Ohio.

The state park is a home to the nation’s oldest hand-operated lock system as West Point graduate Major Samual Curtis designed a system of 10 dams and 11 locks to connect to the Muskingum River to the Ohio and Erie Canal, which made water navigation possible from Lake Erie in the North all through down to Marietta in the South. The Muskingum River Parkway features 20 campsites at Lock 11, north of Zanesville and a boat-only campsite at Lock #5, Luke Chute in Morgan County.