Pine Mountain State Resort Park
The Pine Mountain State Resort Park is a 615 hectare State Park in Bell County in the US state of Kentucky . It was founded in 1924, making it the oldest state park in Kentucky.
investment
The park is located near Pineville in the southeastern mountains of the Pine Mountains , a 200-kilometer ridge of the Cumberland Mountains that stretch from Pineville to the Virginia border. The park borders the Kentucky Ridge State Forest . As a resort park, it has a lodge with 30 rooms and a restaurant. The oldest part of the lodge, the Upper Lobby , was built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps from sandstone and chestnut wood as a park office. 20 huts, nine of which date from the 1930s, offer additional overnight accommodation. The park also contains the Wasioto Winds Golf Course , an 18-hole course, an outdoor pool, a playground and a mini golf course.
One of the park's attractions is Chained Rock , a gigantic rock on a cliff above Pineville. In 1933, Fred Chappell , Pat Caton and Arthur Asher , three teenagers from Pineville, had the idea of setting up the rock on the mountain and chaining it to the cliff with a powerful chain so that it appeared to be securing the rock from falling on the city. With numerous helpers and supporters, the rock was erected in two parts on the cliff and fastened with a 1.5 ton chain. The Laurel Cove forest clearing in the park has been converted into an open-air amphitheater with 2,000 seats, which celebrates the Laurel Mountain Festival on the last weekend in May . Nine different hiking trails with a total length of 19 kilometers lead through the park.
Flora and fauna
The park is covered with a primeval forest of beech , hemlock and tulip trees. Of the numerous other plant species that can be found in the park, laurel roses and Corydalis flavula , which grow in the dry forests in the park and are not found anywhere else in the region, deserve special mention. The park is home to a growing population of black bears .
history
In 1924, numerous citizens of Pineville donated the land to the state, which opened Kentucky's first state park here. The park was founded under the name Cumberland State Park until the Cumberland Falls State Park was founded in 1938 . To avoid confusion, Cumberland State Park has been renamed Pine Mountains State Park. In the 1920s, the park was little developed until, from 1933, the Civilian Conservation Corps expanded the park with paths, bridges and the first overnight huts. The second major expansion of the park took place in the 1960s when the lodge, additional overnight huts, the outdoor pool and the golf course were built. The lodge was named after Herndon J. Evans , an editor of the local Lexington Herald-Leader newspaper . From 1997 to 1999 the buildings and facilities were extensively renovated.
literature
- The Kentucky Encyclopedia. Edited by John E. Kleber. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1992, ISBN 978-0-8131-1772-0
- Brook Elliot: Hiking Kentucky. Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics, 1998. ISBN 978-0-88011812-5
- Susan Reigler: The complete Guide to Kentucky State Parks. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2009, ISBN 978-0-8131-9208-6
Web links
Coordinates: 36 ° 45 ′ 4 " N , 83 ° 42 ′ 15" W.