McCormick's Creek State Park, Indiana

Two boys playing on the waterfall. 

All photos FujiX-H1, Fujinon XC 16-50 f3.5-5.6 and 50-230 f4.8-6.3 lenses.

 

The weather, in keeping with the sad passing of my sister, provided rain and cloudy skies, followed by more rain and more cloudy skies for nine of the ten days of our trip to Indiana. She could handle only brief visits each day, so rather than sit around at her house or in our travel trailer, I was hoping for an opportunity to go to Parke County to photographed some of their 31 covered bridges, the most of any county in the U.S., and truly, more covered bridges than most entire states can boast.

We finally got one clear day and headed north on two-lane, heavily traveled U.S. Highway 231. The distance was about 95 miles, however, we were late getting away, and by the time we reached Spencer I realized we would be too late to locate the bridges and have good light to photograph them.

Fortunately, my photographic motto is "Indecisiveness is the key to flexibility,” so I quickly switched plans and made for McCormick's Creek State Park, just two miles north of Spencer.

Even though I grew up in Indiana less than a hundred miles away and McCormick's Creek is Indiana's oldest state park, dedicated in 1916, I don't recall having ever been there -- although I might possibly have been there at a 4-H camp when I was in high school. That was a long time ago and I just don't remember.

Although I well remember a girl I met at that camp, wherever it was.

John McCormick, a captain in the Revolutionary War, homesteaded nearly a hundred acres along the canyon by the waterfalls in 1816. In subsequent years settlers ran cattle and farmed small patches of ground, most of which has now gone back to forest. 

The Stone Arch Bridge

 The park is an interesting place. The waterfall is tiny by the standards of our southern mountains, as is the canyon, but both are beautiful. Unfortunately, we were too late for good fall color, as many of the leaves had already dropped, but I made the best of what I could find. 

McCormick's Creek, above the canyon.

Of special interest were the remnants of the Peden farm. The land was inherited by Nancy, the daughter of John McCormick, who with her husband Jesse built a cabin, a barn, and a springhouse which is still in good condition, although the cabin is long gone. The barn burned in 1857 and their son Tom built an enormous barn on massive limestone pillars which still stand as mute testimony to the skill of the builders. 

Massive limestone pillars of the Peden barn.

Whoever created the map in the brochure handed out at the park entrance evidently never visited the place.

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(Photographs copyright David B. Jenkins 2020)

Soli Gloria Deo

To the glory of God alone