Horse Creek Recreation Area could see major renovations in the future

CHUCKEY, Tenn. (WJHL) — The U.S. Forest Service is planning major renovations at the Horse Creek Recreation Area due to concerns over visitor safety.

There are three main renovations included in the project and smaller touch ups needed in different areas of the park.

District Ranger Leslie Morgan said the Forest Service is concerned about the low water bridge that crosses Horse Creek.

“When Horse Creek gets up really high and it crosses this low water bridge people can’t get out and we can’t get to them if there’s an emergency,” Morgan said. “It floods really quickly and so it’s just a really dangerous situation for folks that are trapped over here on the other side because there is no other way out of here.”

Morgan said the agency plans to replace the bridge with a higher one that can handle the large amounts of rain in Greene County.

“Our proposal is to flip flop where the day-use area and the campground currently sits so the campground would be on the other side of the creek,” Morgan said.

Morgan told News Channel that by putting the campground on the road side of the creek, campers would be safe and be able to easily exit the campground during flooding. She also added that renovating the campground will add pull-up spots to campsites and provide electric and water hookups for visitors.

“In addition to the recreation work we are also looking at doing ecological restoration of the stream,” Morgan said. “That would mean removing the dam down at the bottom.”

The dam is currently falling apart and sediment has filled what used to be where guests would swim.

“Removing the low water dam and the bridge, it is going to allow the stream to flow naturally,” said Morgan. “We will also do some stream restoration where there is a lot of in-sized creek banks.”

Other minor renovations include restoring the historic pavilion in the recreation area, updating bath houses, and adding dump stations for RV campers. However, planned renovations will have to go through a process for approval.

“The actual decision has not been signed as of yet but we’re really close,” Morgan said. “We’re actually waiting to get concurrence back from our tribal entity on the work that we want to do in here.”

The project would be broken down into multiple phases but Morgan said they hope to have Phase 1 complete by the time the campground opens next season.