Lowell is a village in Washington County, Ohio, United States, along the Muskingum River.

The first European settlers to the land that would become Lowell arrived in the late 18th century after the 1787 Northwest Ordinance opened the territory for settlement.

Soon after the Ordinance took effect, the Ohio Company of Associates purchased 1,500,000 acres (6,100 km2) of land along the Muskingum River and proceeded to survey the area.

The first settlement in what would become the state of Ohio was Marietta, founded in 1788 near the mouth of the Muskingum about 14 miles (23 km) downstream from the site that would become Lowell.

By 1789, settlement had spread north to the area where the Cats Creek enters the Muskingum River.

In 1836 the State Legislature approved a bill that appropriated $400,000 to create a series of locks and dams along the river as far north as Dresden.

Between 1837 and 1841, eleven dams and twelve locks were built at a cost that had ballooned to over $1.6 million.

The third lock was built within a one-mile (1.6 km) long canal constructed near the mouth of the Cats Creek to bypass a series of rapids in the Muskingum.

Two competing companies bought land near the canal with the intentions of building a town.

By the turn of the 20th century, Lowell's fortunes began to decline as river trade was replaced by the railroads and later automobiles.

Buell Island is also home to the historic Strait Run one room school house.