Meeman Shelby Forest State Park

Well, in our next segment, we're off to West Tennessee. That's where photographer John Guider visited Meeman Shelby Forest State Park and brings us this story from just north of Memphis. Meeman Shelby Forest State Park is a beautiful park. It's a 12,539 acre state park and we do border the Mississippi River. It's about 20 square miles. My name is James Wilkinson. I'm the park manager here at Meeman Shelby Forest State Park. We're right outside of Memphis and Mellington area and just being a place to be able to get, for people to get away from the hustle and bustle of life of that fast pace. They can come out, sit out in nature and enjoy. Originally this park was run under the Department of Interior under National Park Service as a national recreation area back in the 30s, back during the CCC, the Civilian Conservation Corps and the WA projects. They worked here at this park. There is an old group camp that they actually stayed at while they were working in this area and they planted trees as well as other, to work on the erosion issues. And then in 1944, federal government turned it over to the state of Tennessee. So we are located on the Chickasaw Bluff and so what's really nice about that is we do have the 200 foot bluff. So it really does make it unique and a lot of people, we get that from a lot of folks that travel through that say, I was expecting this place to really be flat. And so it's a great, and we tell them, hey, go down here, drive through, take this trail and so that they get out and can see some of those areas. I've been here at MEMA Shelby for about 23 years. I've always wanted to be a park ranger. When I was real young, we'd always go to either Real Foot Lake State Park or Harris Landing State Park and just meeting the rangers and all that just made me wanna be a park ranger one day. I love every aspect of it. I like getting out and talking to people, finding out how they're doing, where they're from and just getting to know people as well as just finding out everything and being able to be able to help support our folks to make sure that everything is nice, professionally kept, clean as well and making sure that they have the supplies that they need as well as interpretive supplies to make people's trips and visits enjoyable. My favorite season, I love the fall season when the fall colors occur, just great to see all the different colors that we have with our beautiful forest. Wintertime is nice as well. You know, we get, last year we had snow on the ground so it's kinda nice to see. In springtime, we do have our wildflowers that come up and so we will do hikes as well as, it's a great place to see a lot of our wildflowers. Being on the Mississippi River, we are a pathway for migratory birds and so it's a great opportunity here to see a lot, many different species of birds that come through. People come out to our park for many different reasons. They come out for hiking, walking their dogs. We have over 20 miles of hiking trail. They come out for visiting, coming together with family and friends and visiting together. Also, they come out for camping, staying overnight. We have six rental cabins which are located right on the banks of Poplar Tree Lake. We also have one group camp that will sleep about 136 people and we have a newly renovated 48-site RV campground. We do rent some john boats. We also rent kayaks, single and tandem. We also, on Poplar Tree, we also allow people to bring their fishing boats out and they will fish for bass, lots of different species. While you're visiting our park, you will see many different types of wildlife. You'll see different species of owls. You'll see hawks. You will see, you might even see a bald eagle that's flying or fishing out of Poplar Tree Lake. I hope that y'all come to see us and visit with us, whether it's staying in our facilities, renting or just coming out for a day's hike or a program. Thank you and look forward to seeing you.