Kansas has a new state park

IOLA (KSNT) - On Monday, Governor Laura Kelly ceremonially signed House Bill 2039 recognizing Lehigh Portland as an official state park.

The new state park sits on about 350 acres and features 13 miles of gravel trails, making it the largest mountain bike trail in southeast Kansas. It also has the largest body of water in Allen County.

The park is home to a diverse array of flora and fauna including ring-necked snakes, American giant millipedes, acute bladder snails, prairie tea, seductive entodon moss, fragrant sumac, Leavenworth's eryngo and more.

“This is a huge deal we feel like for economic development of our area,” said John Masterson with Iola Industries, Inc. “We think its [Lehigh state park] recreational value will make it attractive to businesses that might be going to locate or to our existing industries and their employees and, most importantly, we think it’ll help new employees to our businesses which I know that you probably haven’t heard this from other places but we desperately need in our industries and around Allen County.”

On top of establishing Lehigh Portland as a state park, HB 2039 also allows disabled veterans to be issued free permanent hunting and fishing licenses. Disabled veteran is defined as:

• was a member of the armed services
• has separated from the armed services under honorable conditions
• has a disability certified by the Kansas Commission on Veterans Affairs office as being service-connected and such service-connected disability is equal or greater than 30%.

Lehigh Portland, located in Allen County, is now the 28th recognized state park in Kansas.