Chickasaw Park
*The Natural Areas Division conducts Louisville ECHO Programming in Shawnee Park, supported by Wilderness Louisville, Inc.
About Chickasaw Park
This beloved Metro park is located along Southwestern Parkway and is one Louisville Metro’s famed parks and parkways designed by the firm of Frederick Law Olmsted. This park is supported by the Olmsted Parks Conservancy and largely managed by Metro Parks’ divisions other than the Natural Areas Division.
It boasts winding paths, picnic pavilions, and the only free clay tennis courts in the region. Nature-related outdoor infrastructure is planned within Chickasaw Park to facilitate expansion of the Louisville ECHO program. This includes the restoration of Chickasaw Pond for youth-oriented fishing, canoeing, and environmental education programming. It also includes creation of a forest play area in the woodland area in the southwest corner of the park and stabilization of the Ohio River bank to improve vista access.
Passive Use
Chickasaw Park has a lot to offer, but the natural spaces within the park need further attention to reach their full potential for outdoor nature-based recreation, education, and play. Plans are being developed to complete the restoration of the pond for safe fishing, canoeing, and Louisville ECHO programming. We also need to complete construction of the planned children’s forest play area in the park, and resolve riverbank erosion issues so that park users can gain safe access atop the shelf overlooking the Ohio River. Currently it is not ready for exploration, but we encourage community members to get familiar with the shovel-ready plans that are in place to bring nature back to the park in full.