The lakes--and the land--made by man

LAND BETWEEN THE LAKES, Ky./Tenn. - The sun poked through as we crossed the Ohio River from Illinois into Kentucky, and by the time Paducah was in our rear-view mirror and we were turning south off the interstate at Kentucky Highway 453 toward Grand Rivers, there was hardly a cloud in the sky.

The sunshine was welcome for our two-day visit to the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area (LBL), whose 170,000 acres (265 square miles) stretch between two rivers-turned-lakes halfway down southwestern Kentucky and into northwestern Tennessee. It was late June, so we could only imagine the colors visitors would experience during the October-November fall drive season, one of the LBL's peak times.

Damming the rivers

This rectangle of land with more than 300 miles of pristine shoreline, coves and bays came about in two steps.

First, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in 1938 began building the Kentucky Dam on the Tennessee River, which created 160,000-acre Kentucky Lake, the largest man-made lake in the eastern United States. Then, the Army Corps of Engineers in 1959 began work on the Cumberland River's Barkley Dam, which created 58,000-acre Lake Barkley to the east. A canal links the two lakes just below the dams at the northern end of the LBL.

While the dams were built to provide flood control and hydroelectric power, the island-like land they left behind is today a recreational center for boating, fishing, swimming, birding and hiking. It also has a living history farm, elk and bison prairie, planetarium and small zoo. Nobody has lived here since 1968, but a few cemeteries and historic ruins remain as memorials to the hundreds of people who were displaced over the years.

Following The Trace

Our adventure began a mile or so past Grand Rivers, the "Village Between the Lakes," where Kentucky 453 becomes The Trace, a winding scenic route that runs south along the spine of the 40-mile-long recreation area.

We stopped for information at the North Welcome Station, where Betty Stiles introduced herself as someone who was "rare these days" -- a local who had never lived anywhere but in the Land Between the Lakes and its neighboring towns.

Stiles, 67, was born and grew up in the mining community of Hematite, where the Woodlands Nature Station now is near Lake Barkley.

Before the TVA project began, she told us, there were seven "communities -- not towns" on what is now the LBL, "which had everything needed to produce iron: ore, wood and limestone." Today all that remains of Hematite and the other communities with such lyrical names as Golden Pond and Tiptop are the cemeteries. (Two bigger, real towns that had been regularly flooded on the Cumberland River were relocated.)

She was just 5, but Stiles said she remembered President Harry Truman coming to dedicate Kentucky Dam in 1945. In the 1960s, President John F. Kennedy made the LBL a National Recreation Area.

We continued our drive on The Trace to Silver Trail Road, one of dozens of smaller roads -- some paved, others gravel -- that web the LBL today. We followed it to the Woodlands Nature Station ($3, $2 ages 5-12, free 4 and under).

There we found a small museum of natural history, an elegant garden of colorful native wildflowers and a small zoo, where paths lead among grassy enclosures occupied by raptors and turkeys, a bobcat, coyotes and other local animals. Interpretive programs are offered daily. Several miles of hiking trails wind through the woods here, and canoes can be rented at the nature station from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day -- and after then on weekends through October.

There are no hotels or motels in the LBL, though the many nearby gateway communities offer plenty of accommodations. There are no "restaurants" either, though hamburgers, fries and other fast-food items can be purchased at Wranglers Outpost at Wranglers Campground. Otherwise, all you'll find are vending machines with snacks and drinks at the North, South and Golden Pond Visitors Centers, and at The Homeplace and Woodlands Nature Station.

Plan ahead, if camping

Camping, however, is popular on the LBL at four campgrounds: Hillman Ferry and Piney, where hundreds of sites provide electricity, water and sewers; Wranglers, which offers the same amenities (plus horses are welcome); and smaller Energy Lake, which provides electricity, water and a dump station.

Be advised that because camping vacations are so popular on the LBL, sites fill up fast. Early on a Sunday evening, we checked into the last available slot at Energy Lake, a tree-shaded campground in an elegant hilltop setting, where motor homes and trailers park side by side with tents. Fishing from the lake's dam above Lake Barkley and swimming in the cobalt lake are among activities campers come to enjoy.

After dropping off our trailer, we drove back to Silver Trail Road and followed it to its end at the still-imposing stone and brick ruins of Center Furnace, one of two remaining iron furnaces here.

The furnace, built in the 1840s, ran 24 hours a day, six days a week, and in a year could turn out more than 2,000 tons of pig iron -- enough, according to a placard, "to make four million horseshoes." Forty men worked the furnace and 200 more provided support for the nearly 60 cords of wood and two tons of limestone required every day. It closed in 1912 when, as Stiles had told us earlier, "there was no more wood to burn."

When the TVA and Corps came to build the dams, these hills had been logged nearly bare. Now they are once again thickly forested with tall oaks and hickories.

We ended the day on the other side of the LBL, watching a fine sunset over Kentucky Lake.

The next morning we left the campground and drove a few miles south to the 750-acre Elk and Bison Prairie (cost: $5 per vehicle)
, where we saw some of the 48 bison and 72 elk that live there. The elk are tagged and monitored because of concerns about chronic wasting disease, we were told by Jerry Mewbourne, information specialist at Golden Pond Visitor Center. But, he said, the populations of both species are growing.

Living history

Exhibits at the museum at the visitor center told the history of the area and lakes. There also was a planetarium with an 85-seat theater, where, under a 40-foot dome, visitors can watch "Search for Life in the Universe" and other programs exploring outer space ($3/$2).

Our next stop was The Homeplace, a 40-acre living history farm with 16 restored antique log buildings moved from elsewhere on the LBL, fields of crops such as tobacco, vegetable gardens, an array of farm animals and a half-dozen interpreters in period dress who illuminate life on a 19th Century-style farm ($3/$2).

Among them on the day we visited were Jessica Gertig, who was piecing a quilt on the porch of the dog-trot house, and cooper Bob Holliday, who was crafting a water-tight vessel from wood staves outside one of the barns. Holliday also sculpted wooden chair legs and banister rails on a spring-powered lathe -- a primitive but ingenious device. Tours of the farm are self-guided; we recommend allowing at least an hour.

Just south of The Homeplace is the well-preserved, pyramid-like Great Western Iron Furnace. It was built in 1854 to process ore into pig iron for rolling mills in the East. Because of a lack of ore and a rebellion among the slaves who worked it, this furnace was in use for less than a year.

Civil War connection

Near The Trace's south end in Tennessee is the Ft. Henry Trail system. In early 1862, the fort was held by the Confederates, but after heavy rains flooded it, Union Gen. Ulysses Grant's troops forced the Confederates to flee following a brief battle. Remains of the fort were permanently submerged by the creation of Kentucky Lake, but hardy hikers can follow the Southerners' retreat (with Grant hot on their trail) to Ft. Donelson, 11 miles east, just outside the recreation area. (To visit Ft. Donelson National Battlefield by car, drive east on U.S. Highway 79 just past the LBL's South Welcome Station.)

There are other, shorter hikes to take here and elsewhere in the LBL. For those who have the time and stamina, there are longer hikes, too, including a 65-mile trail that spans the entire length of the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area.

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IF YOU GO

GETTING THERE

The Land Between the Lakes is about 395 miles south of Chicago. To drive there, take Interstate Highway 57 south to Interstate Highway 24 southeast to Kentucky Highway 453 south.

THE BASICS

The Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area is open year-round. The Golden Pond Visitor Center is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. The North and South Welcome Stations are open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. March through November (except Thanksgiving). The Elk and Bison Prairie is open from dawn to dusk daily. Hours/dates for the Golden Pond Planetarium and The Homeplace vary by season.

LODGING

LBL has four main campgrounds; some have primitive cabins, and one (Wrangler) is open to horseback riders and their horses. Wrangler is open all year, but the others are closed from December through February. Basic campsites cost $12, and go up to $16 with electricity, $20 with water and $24 with sewer -- but facilities vary. There also are numerous primitive camping sites. Reservations: 877-444-6777.

Otherwise, you'll have to spend the night outside the LBL. The best places to find accommodations are in the gateway communities of Grand Rivers, Aurora, Dover and Cadiz (see regional information below).

DINING

Wranglers Outpost at the Wranglers campground has fast-food service, but hours vary by season (call 270-924-2200 or 270-924-2269). That's it for food -- other than those vending machines.

INFORMATION

For the LBL: 270-924-2000 or 800-LBL-7077; www.lbl.org

For regional information: www.lbl.org/AreaResources Gate.html; (Kentucky) 800-448-1069 or 270-928-4411; www.kentuckylakebarkley.travel; (Tennessee -- Stewart County) 931-232-8290; www.stewartcountyvacation .com.

-- P.S.