Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Walnut Creek, OH

Walnut Creek is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Walnut Creek Township, Holmes County, in the heart of Ohio's Amish Country.

Amish farmer Jonas Stutzman settled at Walnut Creek in 1809, making the community the cradle of what grew into the world's largest Amish-Mennonite settlement.

Walnut Creek was laid out in 1826 and was originally named New Carlisle, but it was renamed Walnut Creek when its post office was established in 1841 because another New Carlisle already existed in Clark County.

Walnut Creek had a population of 908 at the 2020 census, up slightly from 878 at the 2010 census.

The community sits atop a roughly 200-foot-high ridge between Goose Creek to the north and Walnut Creek to the south, and the CDP covers about 2.2 square miles.

Holmes County has the highest concentration of Amish residents anywhere in the world — roughly 48 percent of the county's population was Amish in 2020.

Beginning in the 1990s, local business leaders developed Walnut Creek into an American-Victorian themed tourist town, a striking contrast with the plain dress and lifestyle of its Amish neighbors.

The Farm at Walnut Creek lets visitors hand-feed more than 500 animals from around the world, including giraffes and zebras, by car or horse-drawn wagon.

The German Culture Museum in Walnut Creek displays chairs made by Jonas Stutzman, who famously built an extra-large chair in anticipation of Christ's Second Coming.