Friends of Lake Darling will be celebrating a milestone on Saturday with the 75th anniversary of the opening of Lake Darling, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held for their new educational trail.  

The new interactive trail features ten signs with information on Ding Darling and his impact on conservation. Darling was a cartoonist turned conservationist who helped transform the agency that eventually became the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Darling was a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist for the Des Moines Register. 

Friends of Lake Darling board member Don Kline shares what can be expected Saturday, “We planned the ribbon cutting about 1 o’clock, right above the lodge there is a parking lot, and we’ll meet there. After we have the ribbon cutting people are free to walk the trail. We will have a brochure where you can see what’s there and follow the trail. We hope people come down to the lodge because we are going to have some refreshments and stuff down there, plus, we are going to have some displays. We got the solar panels going up on the lodge, one of our projects, and our newest project coming up is a kayak lodge. We also plan to have some historical pictures. We got some pictures that people took in 1950 at the dedication. There were probably 1500 people there. Ding Darling was there and other people from the area. About 3 o’clock we will have the official 75th dedication.”  

In 2008 the lake was completely drained and the park and its 300-acre lake were reopened in 2014 after undergoing extensive refurbishment.