Parks and Recreation System Master Plan Update (2016) parks_and_recreation_system_master_plan_update_oct | Page 5

SUMMARY
Humans have been visiting and living around
the Falls of the Ohio for about 12,000 years. The rich
diversity of plants and animals has continuously
attracted people who could make a living from the
abundant natural resources of the area including fish,
game, plants, and salt .
By 1811 when steamboats began navigating the
Ohio River, this new technology triggered an
extraordinary expansion of the economy and
population around the Falls of the Ohio – the only break
in navigation on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers
between Pittsburgh and News Orleans -- and marking
the urban origins of Louisville and Jefferson County. The
ensuing transition from forest and farmland to city and
Children at Play in Central Park, 1926
suburb, dating back more than 200 years, will be
essentially complete within the next few years. This Parks and Recreation System Master Plan
Update documents the need to continue planning for the park, recreational and open space
needs of existing and future residents of Louisville.
Louisville benefits enormously from the foresight of civic leaders who established jewels
such as the Olmsted parks and parkways, the Jefferson Memorial Forest, Waterfront Park,
McNeely Lake and Vettiner Parks, E.P. “Tom” Sawyer State Park, and many smaller parks and
greenways. Outside Louisville but still in the region, Otter Creek Park now owned by the
Commonwealth of Kentucky has also served Louisville residents as an important recreational
and natural open space for many years. Other important open space land that is open to the
public, privately owned and permanently conserved includes much of the Parklands of Floyds
Fork and Bernheim Forest and Arboretum. In addition, several thousand acres of privately-
owned and permanently protected conservation easements held by land trusts in the Louisville
area.
Those early civic leaders recognized that as the community grew, its livability would be
defined in large measure by parks and open spaces forming a counterpoint to urban
development – people and nature in positive symbiosis. The opportunity to complete this rich
heritage will be lost if it is not acted on quickly. By accepting the challenge and setting a positive,
sustainable course for ensuring that Louisville’s existing and future parks, open spaces and
recreational facilities, today’s civic leaders will join their forebears in conserving and enhancing
Parks and Recreation System Master Plan | SUMMARY
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