It was named in honor of Kenneth Denman, an attorney from nearby Medford, Oregon, who lobbied for the creation of the area in 1954.

[2] The area is adjacent to TouVelle State Recreation Site and the Upper and Lower Table Rock lava formations.

His father, George Washington Denman, was superintendent of Benton County schools and began practicing law soon after the birth of his son.

After World War II, Denman was offered a position in the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (then called the Game Commission).

The 174 km2 (67 mi2, 43,000 acre) training facility had remained in service until the end of World War II, and almost all of it was sold as real estate.

The other, north of the Industrial Park and the TouVelle State Recreation Site, contains frontage on both sides of the Rogue River and on the Little Butte Creek.

Features in this unit also include partially underground World War II-era ammunition storage buildings, ponds and marshes.

[3][5] Another project in the works is a 10-year plan to restore the flow pattern of Little Butte Creek, a tributary of the Rogue River which was straightened into a man-made canal during the 1950s.