Clarkco State Park Manager talks about the park's upcoming 80th birthday celebration.

The Clarko State Park has history traced back to the mid-1930'S under President Roosevelt, during the Civilian Conservation Corps which afforded young men across the country with an opportunity to support their families. To several of those families today, historical memories are deeply important.

“ It’s a big celebration for us here, the park being 80 years old it’s one of those CCC parks which was built back in 1938, and they finished it then, and a lot of history here for people who come through these parks and far as done the work and all a lot of them have passed on, but we’re looking forward to some celebration as far as talking about old stories about things that happened here in the park as they were building and different things like that.”

Tony Fleming who has been with the park for three years and serves as the park manager says through time so many changes have been implemented in the park over the years.

“This park here, you got families that’s been coming back here for over 70 years having reunions, so you hear a lot of stories about how the parks changed through the years and back when they use to have the paddle boats to the big pier that was out there, and they dove out on it, people learning how to ski right here on this lake, so a lot of history here and the families come back and they can just kind of tell you all kind of different stories.”

According to Fleming, it will be worth wild for families to gather and share history so others can gain another piece of Mississippi’s history.

“ We’re asking for folks if they got stories, you know as far as what happened here in the park, you know we’re going to have a time for that, that day and all that. Kind of just tell us some things about their dad as far as when he was working here at the park, and they was coming back the guys that built this park every year all the way up till Katrina happened for the reunion ,so it meant a lot to them to be coming back and bringing their families as far as showing them to the work they did back in the day.”