Kentucky’s Cherokee State Park
A Beautiful Place with a Troubling Past — and Bright Future
Kentucky’s Cherokee State Park is a place of dazzling beauty with a complicated and troubling past. Now, almost 60 years after adjacent Kenlake State Resort Park absorbed Cherokee, a volunteer group is seeking to revitalize the park and use it as a teaching tool to help make the outdoors welcoming to all people.
Cherokee State Park opened in 1952 as Kentucky’s first and only state park for “Negro citizens” of the commonwealth, who were barred from all other state parks under Jim Crow laws that enforced racial segregation in most of the United States.
The 300-acre park, set on the shore of Lake Kentucky and filled with modern amenities, was praised by supporters of segregation. Surely, they argued, the park’s stunning location, cabins, lodge, dining hall, docks and other amenities were proof that Kentucky’s Black citizens had access to “separate but equal” public recreation facilities. Opponents of segregation viewed Cherokee’s creation as a step backward in the fight for equality.
When it opened, Cherokee was one of only six state parks in the U.S. that admitted Black citizens and the first such facility in the South. That horrible reality, combined with Cherokee’s scenery and amenities, made the park wildly popular with Black people looking to enjoy the outdoors. They came from as far away as Chicago, St. Louis and Alabama to swim, hike, fish, boat and camp.
Meanwhile, just across Kentucky Lake, White citizens enjoyed the same activities at segregated Kenlake State Park.
In what might seem a perfect example of “no good deed goes unpunished,” Kentucky’s 1963 move to integrate state facilities started a slow decline for Cherokee. The park was stripped of many of its amenities, including cabins, which were trucked or floated across the Lake to Kenlake. Eventually, Cherokee was merged with Kenlake. For several decades, the historic park was best known as a wedding venue, with the park’s stunning views providing a unique background and the renovated dining facility hosting receptions.
But a new century brought a new appreciation for Cherokee’s heritage and importance. In 2008, the Friends of Cherokee State Historic Park was formed to support, protect, preserve and highlight what is now known as Cherokee State Historic Park at Kenlake.
The group recently received a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to help restore Cherokee and tell its story.
In December, the Friends of Cherokee in partnership with Kentucky State Parks, debuted a deeply symbolic addition to the park; the Coach Lester G. Mimms hiking trail. Named for a beloved local educator who served as Cherokee’s first park superintendent, the two-mile path connects the Cherokee and Kenlake Park areas for the first time in their history. During segregation, the two parks were kept entirely separate, with no way for visitors to move between the contiguous facilities.
You can support the continued revitalization of Cherokee with a donation to the Friends of Cherokee Historic State Park.
Want to visit?
Cherokee State Historic Park at Kenlake is located just outside Hardin, KY. Kenlake has 90 camping spots with standard hookups, showers and bathrooms.