In the early 1890s, Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect who designed Central Park in New York, came to Kentucky to design one of his masterpieces: the Louisville parks system. Olmsted created a halo of parks and parkways that remain one of our city’s treasures — Cherokee Park in east Louisville, Iroquois Park in southwest Louisville, and Shawnee Park in west Louisville, among many others. At the time, the parks were built beyond the edge of the municipal boundaries, but as the city grew around them, they blossomed into Olmsted’s dream of “bringing nature into neighborhoods.”

21st Century Parks dba The Parklands of Floyds Fork serves as stewards entrusted to preserve and sustain unexcelled parklands that reflect the needs and values of our whole community. The vision of The Parklands is to extend Olmsted’s legacy into the 21st century. Louisville has flourished as a gateway into the future because we understand that people feel more settled when they live amid the waterfalls hidden along our trails or the green-and-golden-rust panorama of the Kentucky landscape. Our urban park corridor belts the outskirts of Louisville right now, but as the city continues to grow, The Parklands will remain a haven where people can still enjoy foliage and clean air and a standard of living that’s second to none.

Master Gardeners assist the Parklands at Floyd Forks with their volunteer efforts, but volunteering is not limited to Master Gardeners. If you’d like to get involved with the Parklands, you can find more information on their website: https://www.theparklands.org/