Kentucky State Parks Commissioner Russ Meyer said the $7.5 million earmarked for Lake Barkley State Resort Park by the General Assembly earlier this year will mostly go toward infrastructure improvements and fixing an undisclosed design flaw of the 53-year-old lodge.
Long considered the jewel of the state park system, Meyer said the lodge at Lake Barkley State Park is its centerpiece.
click to download audioMeyer said a recent engineering study determined a design flaw with the lodge that will be addressed with this round of funding.
click to download audioThe commissioner would not detail precisely what the flaw was.
click to download audioMeyer said guests at the lodge will see a noticeable difference around the lodge rooms once work is completed.
click to download audioThe lodge, made of post and beam wood construction of Western Cedar, Douglas fir, and over three acres of glass, consists of 120 rooms and four suites in a horseshoe design that overlooks Lake Barkley.
The park booked about 31,000 rooms a year before the pandemic hit in 2020. Just as COVID-19 began to wane in the country, a fire in November 2021 severely damaged eight lodge rooms and damaged as many as 60. Two weeks later, the remaining lodge rooms were used as a triage center for residents displaced by the historic tornado that caused destruction in several western Kentucky towns.
Meyer said the financial hit suffered by the state park during these three major events would be recouped in several ways.
click to download audioThe 3,600-acre park was created in 1964, and the lodge and state park were dedicated in June 1970.
The lodge was designed by Edward Durrell Stone, whose works include Radio City Music Hall and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. It cost $5.5 million to build, which is the equivalent of nearly $39 million today.
