Taylorsville Lake State Park
Encyclopedia
Taylorsville Lake State Park is a park encompassing 1625 acres (7 km²) in Spencer County
Spencer County, Kentucky
As of the census of 2000, there were 11,766 people, 4,251 households, and 3,358 families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 4,555 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 97.50% White, 1.13% Black or African American, 0.22% Native...

, Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

, roughly between Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...

 and Lexington
Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 63rd largest in the US. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region...

. Taylorsville Lake
Taylorsville Lake
Taylorsville Lake is a artificial lake or reservoir located mainly in Spencer County, Kentucky. Construction by the United States Army Corps of Engineers started in 1974, and flooding began in 1983...

, its major feature, extends into parts of Anderson County
Anderson County, Kentucky
Anderson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It was formed in 1827. In 2010 the population was 21,421. Its county seat is Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. The county is named for Richard Clough Anderson, Jr., a Kentucky Legislator, U.S...

 and Nelson County
Nelson County, Kentucky
Nelson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of 2010, the population was 43,437. Its county seat is Bardstown. The county is part of the Louisville/Jefferson County, KY–IN Metropolitan Statistical Area.- History :...

.

Taylorsville Lake gains its name from the nearby town, named for President Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor was the 12th President of the United States and an American military leader. Initially uninterested in politics, Taylor nonetheless ran as a Whig in the 1848 presidential election, defeating Lewis Cass...

's father, Richard Taylor
Richard Taylor
Richard Taylor may refer to:*Richard Taylor , father of U.S. president Zachary Taylor*Richard Taylor , British general*Richard Taylor , son of U.S...

, who donated 60 acres (242,811.6 m²) of his own land for creation of the town. The lake was created when the United States Army Corps of Engineers
United States Army Corps of Engineers
The United States Army Corps of Engineers is a federal agency and a major Army command made up of some 38,000 civilian and military personnel, making it the world's largest public engineering, design and construction management agency...

 chose to dam
Dam
A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...

 the Salt River
Salt River (Kentucky)
The Salt River is a river in Kentucky that drains . It begins near Danville, Kentucky, rising from the north slope of Persimmon Knob south of KY 300 between Alum Springs and Wilsonville, and ends at the Ohio River near West Point...

, thereby creating the lake, with its public opening in January 1983. The dam, which measures a height of 163 feet (50 m) and a length of 1280 feet (390 m), cost $28.8 million to build. The resulting lake is 3050 acres (12 km²) in total area, has 75 miles (121 km) of shoreline, and is 18 miles (29 km) long.

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
Bluegill
The Bluegill is a species of freshwater fish sometimes referred to as bream, brim, or copper nose. It is a member of the sunfish family Centrarchidae of the order Perciformes.-Range and distribution:...

, and features bass and crappie
Crappie
Crappie is a genus of freshwater fish in the sunfish family of order Perciformes. The type species is P. annularis, the white crappie...

. This is facilitated by a rule that bass must be 15 inches (38 cm) long, at minimum, to be legally caught and kept; crappie must be 9 inches (23 cm); bluegill are not sport fish and there is no minimum size. There are also 17.3 miles (27.8 km) of hiking trails in the park, but these are seen as poor quality by hiking enthusiasts as their use by equestrian traffic has made the hiking trails like "a plow had chattered down them". Camping was not available at the park until 1998.
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