ouabache state park

Ouabache State Park

Return to Indiana DNR Index

Autumn, 2005

When Ouabache State Park, east of Bluffton, Indiana along the Wabash River, was first created in the 1930s as the Wells County State Forest and
Game Preserve, it comprised over 1000 acres of low-lying land. It was once planted heavily in pine trees, and my earliest memories are of roads lined
with them. Much of the pine forest has died off, and deciduous forest is taking over.

Civilian Conservation Corps workers built roads, picnic shelters and Kunkel Lake. There are three stone-and-timber picnic shelters and an all-weather
lodge built with material from a large mill that once stood along the Wabash River. The workers lived in a large wooden dormitory overlooking the lake.
After the end of the CCC, the park was maintained by inmates from the Indiana Department of Corrections state prison farm system, who were housed
in the old CCC dormitory.

In the 1950s inmates were caught making moonshine whiskey in a remote part of the forest. Two local residents were arrested for providing them
with mash from a cider mill and distributing their product. As compensation for labor and expertise, the locals had been providing the inmates with women.
That incident set off considerable local protest against using prisoners to maintain the park. In midsummer pre-dawn hours someone moved the
discussion along by torching the dormitory. No one was injured, but the building was completely destroyed; we could see the glow in the sky from our
place, about five miles away. The state returned the convict workers to the state prison system and started operating the park with paid employees.

A few years ago, the City of Bluffton purchased about 100 acres of poor-performing farmland in the Wabash flood plain and donated it to the park. DNR
staff and contractors, with the help of local volunteers, have planted the land with prairie plants and many trees native to the area, and it's already
becoming quite beautiful in autumn. A popular 6-mile paved rivergreenway along the Wabash connects downtown Bluffton with the park.

Kunkel Lake has been drained and refurbished; surrounding brush and undergrowth have been removed and the levee and water control structures have
been rebuilt. Game fish were removed and taken to a state fish hatchery as the level declined, and returned after the lake refilled. The last time I
remember the lake being drained was almost fifty years ago.

The year-around lodge is on the far side of the lake. It has heat, plumbing and a large kitchen, and is popular for receptions and reunions. The lodge
must be reserved.

Indiana state parks and forests had more than thirty fire towers in the 1930s; most were in the
southern part of the state. This is one of fourteen or so remaining. In the early 1950s this one was no
longer manned, but the alidade used to determine the location of fires was still there and partly intact.
It's a kick to climb the tower on a clear full-moon night and see the vista open up suddenly as you
climb above the treetops.

Does anyone else see the ambiguity in this sign's wording? "Anyone with ... small children should be closely supervised."

Going Up!

The American Bison are all the confined animals that remain from the game preserve era; one is lying beside the wooden structure next to the fence.
Once there were elk, too, and maybe other species. There was a game farm that raised thousands pheasants for release. Later that was contracted out
to local people who could take a number of chicks and raise them with feed and supplies provided by DNR and release them on a designated day.
My brother raised pheasants a couple of years. I remember going with him to the park to pick up feed; when we opened the door to the storage building,
the place was crawling with rats, dozens if not hundreds, and they didn't even bother to run. They just ignored us and kept eating.