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So what’s the largest park in Johnson County Kansas? It’s Shawnee Mission Park, which is just a few minutes from my home in Western Lenexa Kansas. I’m very fond of this park having spent MANY weekends in the late 1980’s waxing my car, playing football and generally keeping an eye on the girls passing by in cars. Ah, the good old high school years, when cell phones came with 12″ by 12″ carry bags! Rumor also has it that some troublesome kids used a water-winger to launch water balloons off the big park tower for 20 minutes before the park police confiscated the evidence – but that’s just a 20-year-old rumor and there’s no proof that I was anywhere nearby if it did happen.

Shawnee Mission Park is a 1,250 acre park located within BOTH the cities of Shawnee and Lenexa — I’ve always found that aspect of the park interesting. It also may have played a role this year in the park not hosting the Fourth of July fireworks show for which it had become famous. There must have been some funding issues and I’m guessing they were related to the lower tax base that many cities are facing in our current economy. I don’t know if one city or the other backed out first or if maybe it was a mutual decision but it was a huge disappointment for many area residents. Maybe they’ll find the funds to make it happen again at some point in the future.

In addition to being the largest park in Johnson County KS, Shawnee Mission Park is the most visited park in the entire STATE. That’s amazing and one of the local allures is the park’s 120-acre lake that can be used for small boats, fishing and sail boarding. The park also has 12 shelters of varying sizes for cookouts and family get-togethers. The area’s nature trails are excellent for viewing the park’s out-of-control deer population. Now if you think I’m going to get off on a tangent on that controversial issue, you’re crazy.  OK, maybe you’re not crazy and all I’m going to say about the matter is that planned deer harvest needs to happen. With the deer population running more and more out of control, a controlled hunt is much better than leaving the deer population to die a prolonged death by starvation. And I’m speaking as a guy who’s never shot a bird or a deer or killed an animal in my life — except maybe a road kill here or there.

Shawnee Mission Park

The park also has the popular Theatre in the Park, which this year featured Annie, Jesus Christ Superstar, All Shook Up and Cinderella. As you’d expect, there are many trails running throughout the park, one of the main  ones being Mill Creek Streamway – a winding 11 mile asphalt trail through the forest on the park’s west side.  There is also the South Shore Trail, North Shore Trail and the shorter 0.4 mile Sertoma Woodland Trail. Don’t be surprised to see foxes, turkeys, woodpeckers, cardinals, ducks, whip-poor-wills and the occasional bald eagle. Other special park features include a dog park, an archery range, tennis courts, a radio-controlled airplane field and a beach at the east end of the lake.

Posted by Jason A. Brown

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