Taylorsville Lake State Park

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Taylorsville Lake State Park is a park encompassing 1,625 acres (7 km²) in Spencer County, Kentucky, roughly between Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky. Taylorsville Lake, its major feature, extends into parts of Anderson County and Nelson County.^[1]

Taylorsville Lake gains its name from the nearby town, named for President Zachary Taylor's father, Richard Taylor, who donated sixty acres of his own land for creation of the town. The lake was created when the United States Army Corps of Engineers chose to dam the Salt River, thereby creating the lake, with its public opening in January 1983. It total, it cost $28.8 million to build the dam, which measures a height of 163 feet and a length of 1,280 feet. The resulting lake is 3,050 acres in total area, has 75 miles of shoreline, and is 18 miles long.^{[2] [3] [4]}

There is both a park office, maintained by the state of Kentucky, and a visitors' center maintained by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The Visitors' Center is pyramid-shaped with a brown metal roof, and contains displays of the local trees, boating, and dam management. Fishing is the main attraction, as it is the most heavily stocked lake in the Commonwealth of Kentucky; it is known for its bluegill, and features bass and crappie. This is fully aided by rule that fish had to be 15 inches long minimum to be legally caught.^[5] There is also 17.3 miles of hiking trails, but are seen as poor quality by hiking enthusiasts as their use by equestrian traffic as well made the hiking trails like "a plow had chattered down them". Camping was not available at bthe park until 1998.^{[6] [7]}

[edit] See also

• List of parks in Louisville, Kentucky

[edit] References

v • d • e Protected Areas of Kentucky National Parks, Recreation Areas and Historic Sites Mammoth Cave National Park • Cumberland Gap National Historical Park • Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area • Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site State Nature Preserves Axe Lake Swamp • Bad Branch Falls • Brigadoon • Bat Cave and Cascade Caverns• Beargrass Creek • Blackacre • Blue Licks • Jesse Stuart • Natural Bridge • Six Mile Island State Resort Parks Barren River Lake • Buckhorn Lake • Carter Caves • Cumberland Falls • General Butler • Grayson Lake • Green River Lake • Greenbo Lake • Jenny Wiley • Kenlake • Kentucky Dam Village • Lake Barkley • Lake Cumberland • Natural Bridge • Pennyrile Forest • Pine Mountain • Rough River Dam State Historic Sites Boone Station • Constitution Square • Dr. Thomas Walker • Isaac Shelby Cemetery • Jefferson Davis • Old Mulkey Meetinghouse • Perryville Battlefield • Waveland • White Hall • William Whitley House State Recreation Parks Ben Hawes • Blue Licks Battlefield • Big Bone Lick • Carr Creek • Columbus-Belmont • Dale Hollow Lake • E. P. "Tom" Sawyer • Fort Boonesborough • General Burnside • John James Audubon • Kincaid Lake • Kingdom Come • Lake Malone • Levi Jackson Wilderness Road • Lincoln Homestead • Mineral Mound • My Old Kentucky Home • Nolin Lake • Old Fort Harrod • Paintsville Lake • Taylorsville Lake • Yatesville Lake State Forests Dewey Lake • Kentenia • Kentucky Ridge • Knobs • Pennyrile • Olympia • Tygarts State Forest Other Breaks Interstate Park • Daniel Boone National Forest • Kentucky Horse Park Kentucky Department of Parks (web)