Tolen Creek Park
Tolen Creek
1400 Cattle Drive
Parsons, KS 67357
Contact
620-421-7030
Hours: Daylight to Dusk
Features
- 1890s Stone House
- Art Feature
- Bike Trail
- Bird Watching
- Fishing Pond
- Open Space
- Parking
- Picnic Areas
- Picnic Tables
- Trails
About Tolen Creek Park
Tolen Creek Park is the newest park and trail system in the City of Parsons. Residents can enjoy more than 1.5 miles of natural walking trails, bird watching through the native habitat, fishing in the pond, or enjoying a picnic by the Stone House circa 1895. Little Labette Creek runs through the property as well providing for diverse wildlife habitat.
Other Events
Tolen Creek Park is home to several other events throughout the year including the Labette County Tourism Darrell Stice Memorial Kid's Fishing Derby. Community groups host 5K fun runs, archery shoots, and a variety of other events.
Art Features
Stan Herd is a Kansas artist best known for turning fields of crops into artworks. Since these are naturally temporary (and only visible from the sky), his efforts on the landscape have been underappreciated by the average traveler.
Perhaps with an eye toward leaving a permanent public mark, Herd built two big sculptures out of rocks in a park in Parsons. The first, titled "Ancient Man," is a 13-foot-high head carved with an air chisel out of 45 tons of limestone blocks. Herd completed it in 2016. It took him another four years to assemble his second rock sculpture in the park, "Turtle Island," 32 feet long and 14 feet wide, which references the Native legend that America is actually a mound of earth on the back of a giant turtle.
