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Meade State Park and Fishing Lake
Nesting Mississippi kites, red-headed woodpeckers, northern orioles, and western kingbirds are at home among park users, who often camp and picnic under tall cottonwoods. The large cattail marshes at the north end and at the spillway area are alive in the evenings with swarms of red-winged blackbirds and barn swallows. During winter the lake attracts flocks of ducks and geese. The cedar trees on the north side of the lake also attract eastern bluebirds, robins, cedar waxwings, and Townsend's solitaires. At the picnic area adjacent to Meade Fish Hatchery a tapped artesian well provides spring water to a narrow stream partly overgrown by watercress. This spring is inhabited by the Arkansas darter-a small fish that lives in the watercress in spring-fed streams in the region and is threatened in Kansas. An interpretive sign identifies the area. Another sign tells the history of the park, dating to its purchase from the Turkey Track Ranch in 1927. Buffalo and elk were kept in what is now the public hunting/wildlife area area to the west of the lake. The tall fencing around this acreage speaks to this legacy. White-tailed deer are frequently seen in the woods around the fish hatchery and along the hiking trail around the west side of the 80 acre lake. These woods are also a favorite roosting site for the local turkey vultures.
Ownership:
The entity responsible for management of Meade
State Lake is the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks
& Tourism.
Contact them at (620)
873-2572 if you have specific questions about use or
management of the site. 803 acres
Questions or comments about Natural Kansas may be directed to
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Primitive camping.
A short nature trail is
located at the northwest corner of the lake.
Questions or comments about Natural Kansas may be directed to Jim Mason