The Public Square in downtown Mt. Vernon is home to a nice park which includes a Civil War Soldiers Monument in the middle, a fountain and the Veterans Walk of Honor. Shops and restaurants surround the Public Square. Dancing Bee Market and Studio, Paragraphs Bookstore, Happy Bean Coffee Shop, North Main Cafe.

Located in Mount Vernon, Ohio, the park is a stunning 250-acre example of adaptive reuse, created on the former site of a glass-making factory. It offers architectural ruins, lakes, observation tower, walking trails, steel sculptures, a museum, and connections to both the Kokosing Gap Trail and the Heart of Ohio Trail.

The Kokosing Gap Trail is a paved, 14-mile recreational trail built on a former Pennsylvania Railroad line with endpoints in Mount Vernon and Danville, Ohio. Visitors will traverse the Kokosing River twice on railroad bridges more than 250 feet long with forests, wetlands, agriculture and villages along the way. A 1940 Alco 0-6-0 locomotive and a 1924 Chesapeake & Ohio caboose sit next to the trail in Gambier, and a wonderful park with play structures is adjacent to the trail in Howard.