Hello, and thanks for taking the time to check out my latest blog post. If you have followed any of my previous blogs you are most likely aware that I am a big fan of state parks. My love affair with the Indiana state park system is no secret to most of you. I was married in a state park, and if you have read my post about the Annual DNR pass, then you probably get that I am a pretty big fan of them. Today I revisited Spring Mill, located just outside of Mitchell, and I fell more in love with this park than ever.
When I woke up this morning I KNEW I was going to take a daytrip somewhere. I HONESTLY had planned on driving down to Santa Clause and buying myself a season pass to Holiday World. I justified this in my own mind as research, and figured that the $149.00 would go towards also taking my family down on several other outings this year. However, the lightning and thunder that I woke up to had me rethinking this plan. As I hung around the house trying to decide where else I might explore today, the thought struck me that I had already bought a season pass. My Annual DNR pass.
So now I was left with deciding WHICH location I wanted to use this pass at. I had been to Brown County recently, and as much as I love McCormicks Creek state park, it just didn’t seem like that was the right fit for the day. Spring Mill was only a short 20 minutes away, and I hadn’t been there in probably 10 years. Spring Mill it would be.
As I climbed into the car and headed down SR 37, the beauty of the drive hit me. Even though I live in the area, I am always amazed at the beauty of southern Indiana. I get almost misty eyed at driving through the limestone cutouts along the highway (if you are my friend on face book, see my profile pic) and I find myself comparing other regions cutouts to our own here in southern Indiana. None are as pretty. It seems Indiana limestone is even beautiful along our highways.
Aside from the limestone cutouts, I was struck by the beautiful greens of the trees. Green is my most favorite color. My youngest daughter, Elizabeth recently told me that she knows I love the color green because “that is what color everything is in the spring and summer”. Out of the mouths of babes.
After a short 20 minute drive I arrive at the park. After quickly flashing my annual pass and being waved on by the gate attendant, I decided to get some lunch. In all of the times I had been to Spring Mill, I had never been to the Spring Mill Inn. After parking, I made my way to the dining room, and enjoyed the buffet. The food was excellent, but I didn’t linger too long because that wasn’t really why I was here. I wanted to get to the park. As long as we are talking about the buffet, I will mention that while the food was really good, the deserts WAY outshined the rest of the food. I made sure to save room for a piece of strawberry/rhubarb pie (one of my favorites) but also had a small slice of cornmeal cake, as I knew this was a park specialty.
After leaving the inn, I drove to the Pioneer village in the park. This is probably the area most people think of when thinking about Spring Mill. If you have never been, this is a collection of actual homes and building from the 1800s. These are all really authentic structures from the time and area, although not necessarily originally located on the exact spot that they are currently located. There are many signs posted in and on these buildings telling you of their history. I could devote an entire blog to just the history of the buildings, but I will leave something for you to explore on your own. I have posted a few pictures on face book of some of these building if you are interested in seeing them. Being a big fan of history, specifically U.S. history of this era, I find the buildings and their stories fascinating.
In the center of all of these structures sits the actual mill that gives the park its name. This mill was built in 1817, and it still works. They produce cornmeal which you can buy for $2.00 a bag. I bought myself a bag, and can’t wait to use it. It is a really affordable souvenir that allows you to take a little of the park home with you, and enjoy with your family in a future meal. That is a win/win to me.
Inside of most of these buildings were employees of the park who were able to share a lot of historical information. I remember this to a certain degree from past visits, but on this visit almost every building had an employee present, and every one of these employees proved to have an enormous wealth of historical knowledge. I consider myself fairly well versed in Hoosier history, but I learned several things from talking with, and more importantly, listening to these very engaging experts. This truly enhanced my visit.
At this point it was after 3pm and I had one more place I wanted to visit before it closed at 4pm. I hurried back to my car. One thing I find interesting to observe while visiting some of these destination is looking at the license plates on the cars in the parking lot. I think this sort of helps gage the draw that tourist destinations have, and at Spring Mill I noticed that while the majority of the plates where from Indiana, every one of Indiana’s border states was represented, as well as one from Arizona, and even a Quebec plate. Additionally, a good majority of the Indiana plates were from northern counties, proving in my mind, that I am not the only person who finds Spring Mill one of the state park systems most impressive destinations.
So the final stop I wanted to make sure I visited was the Virgil I. Grissom memorial. Being a big fan of the space program, this was a must do for me. Driving out of the Pioneer village, I headed towards the Grissom memorial, but came across yet another spot that prompted me to take an unplanned stop. It was the Hamer cemetery which is where many of the original residents from the area, and their descendants are buried. Being a history buff, I couldn’t resist making a stop to look at some of the headstones. Many of these headstones are so old that they are no longer legible, but there were a few graves much more recent. In fact, there was a grave dated March of 2011. I found this interesting, as I assumed that being buried in this historical location was probably not an option today.
After this brief detour, I got back into my car, and made my way to the Grissom memorial, but as I entered the parking lot, I looked at my clock and noticed it was 3:51. I had nine minutes to explore a place I could easily spend an hour in. I went in anyway, but really don’t think that I will comment on this part of the park for now, because there is no way I could do it justice. I am going to return to the park very soon, and plan on spending a lot of time exploring the Grissom memorial. I may even devote an entire blog post to it, because I find the ties that it brings Indiana to the space program, and U.S. history in general fascinating.
Speaking of return trips to Spring Mill, my next visit is planned for this Sunday May 29th. The park is holding its first Civil War weekend, complete with battle reenactments and many other events. I will post a link to the Indiana DNR website at the end of this blog where you can go to learn more about Spring Mill, and all of the beautiful destinations in the state park system.
That is going to do it for this entry into the Hoosier Day Trip blog. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you feel inspired to visit some of the hidden treasures we have here in the Hoosier state. You really don’t have to travel that far from home to make some wonderful memories that will be passed down to future generations. Thanks for reading, and I hope to see YOU on my next Hoosier Day Trip.
Andrew
