Welcome to Kentucky Lakes

Kentucky Lake, The Tennessee River, was created in 1944 by the Kentucky Dam. It is 184 miles in length and has 2,064 miles of shoreline.

Lake Barkley, The Cumberland River, was created in 1964 by the Barkley Dam. It is 118 miles in length and has 1,004 miles of shoreline.

Home of Land Between the Lakes National Recreational Area

An inland peninsula formed when the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers were impounded to create Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley in the 1960's. President John F. Kennedy designated the peninsula as a national Recreational Area in an effort to demonstrate how an area with limited timber, agricultural and industrial resources could be converted into a recreation asset to stimulate economic growth in the region. It remains the only such demonstration in the country bringing over $600 million to the tourism industry in the region. It hosts an average of two million visitors a year! Managed by the USDA Forest Service, it has more than 170,000 acres and 300 miles of undeveloped shoreline.

We spent a rainy afternoon discovering the Land Between the Lakes and it's 700-acre Elk and Bison Prairie in June of 2007. There are actually two different areas to view the bison. The first place is a free stop along the road where we saw a herd of about 60. I spoke to very nice retired gentleman while I was gazing at the herd and it turned out he worked there and was a wealth of information. There were about 40 women in the herd, 16 kids and three bulls. The calves ranged from one week to a couple of months old. I sure didn't see any calves that looked a week old - these babies are huge! He was telling me that last year during mating season there was quite the fight between the dominant bull and another one who got thrown over the fence. I loved his stories and took his advice and drove further up the road to the Elk and Bison Prairie.

I think this is the newborn calf on the left hand side of the first picture below.

We paid to drive through the 700 acre Elk and Bison Prairie seen in the pictures below. We drove for a while before we saw the herd of grazing bison. They were a slow moving group munching as they took each step. We also saw a beautiful elk in the trees with a huge rack as well as a few other locals out enjoying the afternoon! We decided to drive it again since it's the same price no matter how many times you drive through it. On our second trip through we spotted an elk that was trapped between the grazing buffalo and the road. It nervously kept watch as the buffalo poked their way around it. What a beautiful way to spend a rainy day!

Calloway County was formed in 1823. In 2000 the population was 34,177 in a land consisting of 384 square miles. The county seat is the town of Murray. Its central location is within a day's drive from most of the eastern United States. Murray is only eight miles from the Tennessee state line. It is 125 miles north of Nashville, 225 miles southeast of St Louis and 228 miles southwest of Louisville. It is named in honor of Col. Richard Callaway. You will see his name spelled two different ways throughout history. He was part of Col. Boone's group that began the First Road of Trace from Long Island on the Houston River to Boonesborough on the Kentucky River. His family was among the first families to reach Boonesborough in about 1775. He was credited for the first crop raised in Madison County - corn!

The town of Murray is home of Murray State University, first known as Murray State Teachers College in 1922. For the 17th year U.S.News and World has ranked this university among America's top universities!

Kentucky Lakes Development is a subdivision tucked in against the lakes just above the Tennessee border. It is a beautiful subdivision that has been around since the 60's or 70's. There are several homes throughout it - beautiful homes mixed in amongst some older trailers from years back. It was a very friendly area with neighbors stopping along the way to make sure we were okay. I noticed several people pulling their boats during the day on their way to go fishing! One gentleman that stopped to talk to us shared his interesting story. He had moved here several years ago so he could have his own private retirement place to go fishing. But now there has been growth in the area and it's getting too busy for him. I laughed a bit to myself as the subdivision remains for the most part undeveloped and treed. But yes indeed there are plenty of homes in all shapes and sizes. We even saw a few deer running through the woods!

One of the residents has a cute little platform set up in their front yard and are feeding the squirrels - too cute!

I nicknamed this area A Frame Alley because there were cute A frames in a row!

The area is heavily treed with rolling hillsides. There is a beautiful marina down the road where we stopped to get a bite to eat at a wonderful restaurant. I listened to the people sitting beside us in the restaurant talk about how they had journeyed here every year to enjoy their place. It is a busy marina with a boat launch, several beautiful boats in the slips and a dock. There were several turtles swimming in the water which I was surprised to see! I had no idea turtles lived in this part of our world! Very cool!

These next photos were taken when we visited the public boat launch in the subdivision!

Enjoy! Char the Explorer : )

August 2007