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Kim Moore of Jacksboro is promoted to Director of Operations over Tennessee State Parks

Kim Moore is now the Director of Operations over all of Tennessee’s state parks.

By Charlotte Underwood

JACKSBORO, TN (WLAF)- Campbell Countian Kim Moore was recently promoted to Director of Operations over all of Tennessee’s state parks. Having “grown up” at a Tennessee State Park, Moore knew he wanted to be a park ranger since he was little.  This December marks his 36^th year of full-time service to the Tennessee Parks system.

Moore, who lives in Jacksboro, received the promotion in July and said that he was excited about his new position and all that entails.

Currently there are 58 parks in the Tennessee State Park system and three more “in the works.”

“We just dedicated our state’s 58^th park last week,” Moore said. He will oversee the “operations side” of things at Tennessee’s parks, helping managers make decisions regarding projects, facilitating budgets, new hires, etc.

Moore has a long history of working for the Tennessee Parks system, in fact you could say it’s in his blood as his mother spent a career working in the parks system as well.

Moore “grew up” in Montgomery Bell State Park in Dixon County in Middle Tennessee, helping his mom, as well as hiking, fishing and swimming in the park.”

“We grew up at that state park, lived our life there. She had me working with her from a young age,” Moore said.

His family moved to the area in 1967/1968 when he was two years old, and his mother Karen immediately began working at Montgomery Bell State Park as a cashier. She worked her way through the ranks and became a restaurant manager and then on up to become the Inn Manager at Montgomery Bell State Park in the 1980s. She also worked at Henry Horton State Park.

Kim Moore, of Jacksboro, was recently promoted to Director of Operations over Tennessee State Parks. Moore spent over 30 years at Cove Lake State Park, first as a park ranger, then as park manager, before being promoted up to Area Manager over 10 state parks. His recent promotion has him over operations of all Tennessee State Parks.

Growing up in the parks system helped influence Moore’s career choice and he set a “career path” for himself at a young age.

“I started my career in state parks, other than just growing up in them, in 1983 when I became a lifeguard at Montgomery Bell State Park at the age of 16 or 17,” Moore said.

From there he went to college at UT Martin and got into the State Parks Seasonal Ranger Program. Through that, he was a seasonal ranger at Warrior’s Path State Park. He was also a seasonal ranger at Norris Dam State Park for a year, before he got hired as a full-time park ranger at Cove Lake State Park in December of 1988. He served as a park ranger at Cove Lake State Park for 14 years before being promoted to Park Manager of Cove Lake, a position he filled for “just shy of 16 years” before being promoted to area manager over Area 5.

Each position and promotion allowed him more freedom to help make decisions and to help “lead and guide” the direction of Tennessee State Parks operations.

“It was a career; I set a path to be a park ranger as a kid and I went to college to be a park ranger. That’s why I went to UT Martin, they had one of the best programs in the Southeast that was placing a lot of people in park ranger positions across the nation. I got into that, and I knew I wanted to stay with Tennessee State Parks, and I just followed that dream, that goal from the time I was little and through college,” Moore said.

His last position before his recent promotion was as a Tennessee Parks Area Manager over Area 5, which consisted of 10 eastern state parks in the region.

“I was overseeing 10 and doing that as an area manager, just helping them to make day to day decisions, facilitate budgets, facilitate hiring and those type of things, so this promotion has really just pushed me into a bigger area of what I will be responsible for,” Moore said.

During his 36-year career, Moore has “built a lot of support in state parks and has built a lot of really good relationships across the state.”

“I never thought I would be a director of operations for Tennessee State Parks, but as overwhelmed as I am, I am definitely excited about building those additional relationships and helping steer the direction,” Moore said.

Some of his duties will include visiting the parks and building relationships in each of the state’s parks so he can better understand the challenges and projects that each individual park has.  He will be working with the different interdepartmental groups such as marketing, human resources, maintenance and others.

“I will be working with every team and will kind of be that guy between state parks and our deputy commissioner and help navigating communication up and down and there will be an overarching role of being involved in those conversations. Even with developing the new parks, l will be involved with input and the things we need to look at and to consider, so it will be a wide variety and very diverse opportunity for me,” Moore said.

He shared some of the exciting news of additional state parks that are in the works in the near future, thanks to funding from the state.

“Governor Lee has been really good to Tennessee State Parks. The state has seen our value in terms of economic value and what we bring to the table educationally as well in our school systems though interpretive programs and education. We have some of the most unique resources across the United States in Tennessee; Tennesseans love Tennessee, and the governor has been very understanding of that and appropriated funding for us to develop and acquire new lands to create new parks,” Moore said.

One of these new parks was just recently dedicated last week called Middle Fork Bottoms, which is about 15 minutes north of Jackson, Tennessee.

“We just hung a sign on it on Monday, that says established in 2024, so that’s the direction we’re going and we’re moving pretty quick. We’ve got more parks to develop that need to be developed and we’re moving quickly; we’re moving at a pace in Tennessee State Parks that I have never experienced before, and it is a good thing!”

He said over the years, he has had “so many rewarding aspects of his job.” In his 36 years of full-time service as a park ranger, he has “seen and done a little bit of everything”, from helping to save someone having a heart attack, to helping campers find the perfect camping spot.

“One of the most rewarding things I take away from Tennessee State Parks is just the individual relationships I have built with hikers and campers over the years. Those are always rewarding at the end of the day, to have built those relationships and had those conversations with those individuals … There’s a lot of little things you remember, fond memories with campers that have since passed away, but all those memories have blessed my life with a career that I have enjoyed from day one. From day one till today, I am just as excited about state parks as what I was in 1988, or even when I was a kid growing up in Montgomery Bell, I am still excited about Tennessee State Parks,” Moore said.

Click this link to check out some of the exciting new things happening with the Tennessee State Park System!

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