FLAG POND (AP) — Gov. Bill Haslam has renamed a state park to honor Tennessee's senior U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander.

Haslam announced Monday he had signed an executive order renaming Rocky Fork State Park in Unicoi County as Lamar Alexander Rocky Fork State Park.

The outgoing governor says the Republican senator's commitment to preservation and record of service prompted him to make the change.

Alexander helped secure more than $30 million to purchase the Rocky Fork tract in 2006 and add it to the Cherokee National Forest.

In 2012, Haslam announced he would convert more 2,000 acres (809 hectare) of the Rocky Fork tract into Tennessee's 55th state park where Alexander was in attendance.

Rocky Fork is a 10,000-acre (4,050 hectare) tract of mountainous land with elevations as high as 4,800 feet (1,463 meters).