"I have some great memories here," said Barker while casting a gaze across the water at the lake. "I walked the entire grounds here and saw all the initials carved into the trees; I recognized some of the names of some of the people, but those names are carved on the tree 15 feet in the air now. When they carved their names, the trees couldn't have been that tall yet."

Indeed, the trees have grown, the park has grown and Barker has grown. And he's grown into his new position well.

Barker is resident manager of Carroll Lake and owner of the bait shop located on the premises. He began his new job in February.

"Man this is like a working vacation. It's beautiful out here and it's so quiet in the mornings," he said. "I never thought I'd be doing this, but it's like living the American dream."

Barker says his primary focus at the lake will be for anglers to actually catch fish.

"If you are going to pay $3 to fish, you'd better catch fish," he said. "We have it stocked pretty well. I'm getting tired of weighing 10 lb. catfish; I know there's got to be some out there that are bigger than 30 lbs."

He said people have been flipping the bushes and catching crappie and bream by the dozens.

"We have bass, bream, blue gill, crappie, shellcrackers and bass out here," he said. "If you come out here, we want you to catch fish."

Barker said he hopes to upgrade the bait shop. In addition, he's ordered more grills and plans on putting in more restroom facilities.

"I wanted to clean the place up. I've raked about 98 percent of the grounds and gotten all the sticks and limbs up. We want this place to be presentable and safe," he said.

The park is under the purview of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. And while Barker is the park manager, he says he has no real jurisdictional duties, but can call on TWRA officer Greg Barker if there is a problem.

"I haven't had any problems that I couldn't handle myself," he said. "And I don't anticipate having any problems."

Barker agreed that the park is a well-kept secret and a quiet resource.

"I couldn't believe that people who have lived around here didn't know this park was here," he said.

But he said he did have an Internet visitor not long ago.

"A family from Wisconsin happened to be in Brownsville and looked up fishing in Tennessee on the Internet," Barker said. "They called up Carroll Lake and realized they were going to be in McKenzie anyway. They stayed at the Briarwood and then came on over."

Barker hopes to renovate the bait shop by this time next year and he wants to include top line tackle, rods and reels. He also hopes to install a snack bar there, serving hamburgers, hotdogs and chili.

"We already sell snacks and cold drinks," he said. "We offer boat rentals, too."

Barker said there has been an effort to slope part of the bank so fishermen with their own boats can get in and out easily."

The park is open a half-hour before sunrise until a half-hour after sunset seven days a week. The bait shop is open during those hours, except on Tuesday when the shop is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

"During the summer, the park is generally open from 5:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.," Barker said. "We are making improvements and we want this to be a fun place for the family to come and enjoy. We just have to get the word out."