Jenny Wiley State Resort Park

About this park

Jenny Wiley State Resort Park in Floyd County was founded in 1954 as Dewey Lake State Park, centered on the lake of the same name, before being renamed for Jenny Wiley, a pioneer woman famously captured and held by a Cherokee raiding party in the 1780s who gave birth during her captivity and eventually escaped through this same mountainous terrain. The park became a full resort park in 1962 with the opening of May Lodge. The park is a genuine showplace for the performing arts in eastern Kentucky: the Jenny Wiley Amphitheater staged professional summer productions, including The Wizard of Oz and A Chorus Line, for decades, and the nearby Mountain Arts Center in Prestonsburg remains the year-round home of the Kentucky Opry. The Jenny Wiley Trail, which retraces part of her legendary escape route, is rated as difficult and recommended only for experienced hikers traveling in groups. Beyond its performing-arts and historical draws, the park offers a nine-hole golf course, a marina with pontoon and canoe rentals, an RV campground with full hookups, and a lodge dining room, and it sits close to several other regional attractions, including Butcher Hollow, the Van Lear Historical Coal Camp Museum, and the Kentucky Appalachian Artisan Center.