Not What You Expect
People hear “Ohio” and think flat farmland. Southern Ohio is something else entirely: rolling hills, hardwood forest, creeks, lakes, and topography with character.
Jackson is a small city that works. It has grocery stores, restaurants, banks, a Walmart, gas stations, and the everyday services a family or project team actually needs. Holzer Medical Center is minutes away. It is not remote. It is simply uncrowded.
By the Numbers
Jackson County population
Median household income
High school graduation
Holzer safety grade
Annual property tax
Max Ohio income tax
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau ACS, BLS FRED, Leapfrog Group, Jackson County Auditor.
Outdoor Recreation
This region already pulls visitors from across the Midwest for scenery, trail systems, and public land.
- Hocking Hills State Park draws millions of annual visitors for waterfalls, caves, and forest scenery.
- Baileys Trail System is a major Wayne National Forest mountain-biking network with 88 planned miles.
- Wayne National Forest includes 244,265 acres of public land.
- Lake Katharine State Nature Preserve sits in Jackson County and is the largest state nature preserve in Ohio.
- Local water includes Hammertown Lake, Lake Alma, Lake Jackson, and Lake Hope.
- Serpent Mound remains one of North America’s most significant surviving effigy mounds.
Within Reach
Education
- Ohio University is about forty minutes away and includes a NASA partnership.
- University of Rio Grande is roughly twenty-five minutes away.
Major Cities
- Columbus is about 85 miles away.
- Cincinnati is about 105 miles away.
- Huntington, West Virginia is about 60 miles away.
Family Attractions
- Cincinnati Zoo is roughly two hours away.
- Columbus Zoo is roughly ninety minutes away.
- Kings Island and Cedar Point remain practical day-trip destinations.
Healthcare & Airports
- Holzer Medical Center is roughly five minutes away.
- Tri-State Airport and Columbus International cover regional and national access.
The Changing Economy
The Appalachian Regional Commission invested $36.9 million in FY 2025 for workforce training, infrastructure, and business development. Then March 20, 2026 changed the local trajectory again: the DOE and SoftBank-backed PORTS announcement, combined with the confirmed Google data center in adjacent Scioto County, repositioned southern Ohio as a real corridor rather than a hypothetical one.
For International Buyers
Ohio hosts 852 Japanese-affiliated business establishments employing 72,860 people, or roughly 27% of all foreign investment in the state. Honda has invested $4.4 billion in Ohio since 1982. The SoftBank project now extends that U.S.-Japan investment relationship directly into southern Ohio.
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