Lexington Lake Park, which has recently been added to the community of De Soto, has a unique history and provides many opportunities for De Soto High School students.

The DHS cross country home meet will be held at the park as soon as the plans for the course are finished.

Sophomore cross country runner Erin Pickert believes the park will be a great location to host a meet and that it will hopefully bring more supporters.

“Since we don’t have home meets, it’s a lot of traveling to faraway places. If we had a home meet [at the park], we might have people that are able to come out and support us,” Pickert said.

In addition to a location for a cross country meet at De Soto, the 465-acre park provides other activities for DHS students and community members to enjoy.

Erin’s father, Doug Pickert, is a landscape architect and park designer who helped design the cross country course at Lexington Lake Park.

He believes the park produces new activities that have not been available this close to DHS before.

“A long walking trail off-street and the fishing lake is probably the biggest thing for most people,” Doug said.

The park also includes a mountain bike course that might interest DHS students.

The land that the park is built on has history dating back to the 1950’s, when the private owners made a fishing lake, which is now the centerpiece of the park.

Due to the construction that the land had to undergo, some of its history has been erased.

“The previous owners had built a little fishing shack on the south side of the lake. They tore it down when they started to build. It was a neat little structure right on the shoreline, but most people wouldn’t know that now because it’s gone,” Doug said.

Lexington Lake Park adds an open space in De Soto for many activities including biking, fishing and running.

Lexington Lake Park is located west of DHS and north of Kansas 10 Highway on Sunflower Road.