Do you Remember (OCP’s) Heyday Traditional Cache

Otter Creek Park has been through many chapters in its life of serving the public. It started out as land given to the city of Louisville by Fort Knox in 1947 to create a park for others to enjoy the beautiful area.

The Louisville Parks System always seemed to struggle on ways to make the park profitable and not a drain on the park system. One of the biggest problems at first was a road that ran down the middle of the park that was a county road. The other problem was its distance from the city of Louisville and the struggle to figure out just what kind of park it was going to be. In the early to mid-80’s the park threw a considerate amount of money at improvements to the park to include a beautiful stone walled lodge and restaurant overlooking the Ohio River. They also constructed a hotel with some of the best views looking over the river and into the cornfields of Indiana. There was also 5 or 6 cabins built along the ridge nearby to rent out. After all these improvements the park still could not get out of the red, so in 2001 in a last ditch effort, a master plan was developed, the parks finally rerouted the road to have only one entrance and then started to cut out anything that did not make money. They closed down the restaurant and opened it to private parties only and they also shut down the hotel. The hotel fell into such a bad state that it was torn down. Very few people renting the restaurant and it finally closed and vandals threw rocks through the windows to the point where water has entered and dangerous levels of mold are now throughout the building, I suppose it will not be long before it is torn down as well. In 2008 the city said it was losing $500,000 a year on the park and closed the gate.

Finally after a deal was made with the Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife in 2011 the park was reopened but it came with a price, a $3 per person fee would be required to enter and a prized hunting area would be open to hunting. Also after 3 years of the park being closed, many things have fallen apart to include the old restaurant and the cabins, these will probably never return to the park. The Department of Fish & Wildlife have made many improvements and the park has entered a new chapter in its life but the park that could have been will never be. So have a look around while some of these old buildings are still around and remember when they had seafood buffets at the restaurant on the weekends, Do You Remember?