Ribbon cutting held for new story book trail at Cove Lake

“Little Owl’s Night” at Cove Lake State Park

By Charlotte Underwood

CARYVILLE, TN (WLAF)- A ribbon cutting ceremony was held for the new storybook trail titled “Little Owl’s Night” at Cove Lake State Park on Tuesday late afternoon.

Friends of Cove Lake State Park applied for a grant to get the story board updated and the “Books from Birth” Governor’s Early Literacy Foundation provided funding for the project. Several Caryville community leaders, along with park staff, parents and kids turned up for the event.

“Our president Brandi Carson wrote the grant, and the state provided the funding so we could do the new story board, update those and get a new story up and we have books to hand out to the kids today,” said Friends of Cove Lake Vice President Melissa Davis.

Cove Lake State Park Manager Casey Hatmaker spoke briefly, thanking the Friends of Cove Lake for heading up the project.

“We initially put the first story book trail in in 2019 and had a dedication then. We swapped books once with another park. We saw that the story boards on the trail were looking a little rough, so we talked with the Friends Group, and they decided to apply for a storybook trail refresh grant. The group picked an awesome story, and we plan on buying more stories later to add to our collection so we can swap it out every year or so,” Hatmaker said. He also thanked Park Ranger Jordan Cross for putting the story book panels together.

“It took the whole group, and I am really proud of this Friends Group,” Hatmaker said.

Caryville Mayor David Chambers attended the event and performed the ribbon cutting, noting that promoting literacy was a worthy project.

“Congratulations on the work that you all did, because this is good work, to promote literacy… When I see this, that we can promote literacy to get children down here to walk this trail and get them interested in books, because these are still important, so congratulations to all of you for working on this, you all are the real heroes here,” Mayor Chambers said. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-10/22/2025-6AM)