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Cèilidh at Clark Center Park

Saturday, Oct. 24, 1 to 4 p.m.

Advocates for the Oak Ridge Reservation

Opportunities for all to comment on ideas and discuss options for a new state park.

Schedule

River Run Outfitters will provide several kayaks from 1 until 4 p.m. for short-term use on the Pellissippi Blueway.
GREBE (Graduate Students in Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution) from the University of Tennessee will offer several children’s activities and projects.

What would you like to find at the future state park?

Do you have a good name for it?

Visitors to the event will get opportunities to give feedback on plans for Clark Center Park to become a Tennessee state park.

A large display of the draft design will be posted.

Ways for comments to be shared will be provided.

Clark Center Park swimming area.  Ben Pounds/Hellbender Press

Major effort needed to secure co-funding from local area

The state budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026 gives the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation $10 million to establish a state park at Clark Center Park, a 40-acre area owned by the Department of Energy and currently open to the public as a park.

Named for Clark E. Center, the Manhattan Project’s Superintendent of the K-25 Gaseous Diffusion Plant and holder of ID badge #1, this park includes a swimming area on Melton Hill Lake with a sandy beach. It features many picnic tables with grills, a boat ramp, two ball fields, two volleyball nets and a paved surface with basketball hoops. Wooded hiking trails include ones giving access to fishing areas. It also serves as the trailhead to the Gallaher Bend Greenway, which is a separate area.

The caveat

The Tennessee budget states the area can only become a state park if Anderson County, the county in which this area is located, provides $6,250,000 in matching funds before June 30, 2031. Substantial funding is required to replace the aged amenities of the park and provide the level of facilities that meet state park standards while accommodating more visitors.

“Clark Center Park is a hidden gem,” said Virginia Dale, board member and past president of Advocates for the Oak Ridge Reservation (AFORR). The nonprofit group is dedicated to conservation and preservation of the reservation’s unique assets for future generations.

A volunteer removes invasive plants from an Oak Ridge cedar barren as part of a Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning effort to keep the barren in its natural prarie state.  Anna Lawrence/Hellbender Press

Volunteers play the part of fire to maintain the native grasses and wildflowers at an Oak Ridge cedar barren

OAK RIDGE — It’s called a barren, but it’s not barren at all. It’s actually a natural Tennessee prairie, full of intricate, interlocking natural parts, from rocks and soil to plants and insects and animals.

There’s lots of life in these small remaining unique collections of grasses and conifers that are typically known, semi-colloquially, as cedar barrens. 

Many of these “barrens” have been buried beneath illegal dumping or asphalt, but remnants they are still tucked away here and there, including a small barren in Oak Ridge owned by the city and recognized by the state as a small natural area.