Swatara State Park is a fairly new park for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It was opened in 1987 and is still largely undeveloped. The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources is working on plans to further develop the lands of Swatara State Park. The original plans called for the building of a dam and reservoir for recreational fishing and boating as well as to provide drinking water for the City of Lebanon. The PADCNR explored plans for developing the park without the recreational lake/reservoir, and in 2012 started developing the park with infrastructure improvements to increase access to the biking, hiking, canoeing, fishing and picnicking opportunities in the park. Improvements include installing 10 miles of crushed stone along the rail-trail and work on abandoned Old State Road.