Lakeshore Park Arboretum

Lakeshore Park Arboretum is located on a 185-acre public park owned by the City of Knoxville, Tennessee, and managed by Lakeshore Park Conservancy, a Tennessee nonprofit 501 (c)(3) corporation. Lakeshore Park is located along the Tennessee River, with over 1 million annual visitors is easily the most visited public park in Knoxville, is a popular location for runners and walkers, and provides spectacular vistas of the Tennessee River and the Great Smoky Mountains.

A brief history of Lakeshore Park begins with knowing that the land was used by the Cherokee Indian tribes for hunting, fishing, and gathering. Captain William Lyon purchased the property in 1809, and he and his family owned the property until 1874 when 300 acres were sold to the State of Tennessee for the East Tennessee Hospital for the Insane, which opened in 1886 and remained in operation for 127 years until its closure in 2013.

Lakeshore Park Arboretum has a great diversity of trees, including some well over 100 years old, with over 95 labeled (with scientific and common names) species of trees and more than 1000 individual trees listed in the City’s inventory for the Park. To date over 550 trees have been labeled. London Planetree, Pin Oaks, and Red Maples lead the count (over 90 each) followed closely by Southern Magnolia and Willow Oak (over 70 each). Other common tree species include Flowering Dogwood, Black Walnut, Common Hackberry, Chinese Elm, Sugar Maple, Black Gum, and Eastern White Pine.