Indiana Ag Connection - State Parks' Start Linked to Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Indiana Ag News Headlines

State Parks' Start Linked to Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Indiana Ag Connection - 05/31/2016

Indiana State Parks and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway share more in common than the number they celebrate this year -- 100.

While Sunday marked the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 at the Speedway, the State Parks system is celebrating its centennial in 2016.

And it's fair to say that 100 years ago one of the most coveted locations for Indiana's first state park was in jeopardy until the original Speedway owners -- James Allison, Carl Fisher, Arthur Newby and Frank Wheeler -- provided a financial shot in the arm.

In 1916, Col. Richard Lieber led a committee tasked with pursuing state parks as a gift to Indiana citizens to commemorate 100 years of statehood. After being outbid at auction for what is now Turkey Run State Park, Lieber and his team began negotiating to buy the property from the winning bidder -- the Hoosier Veneer Company.

Various sources -- the Indiana Magazine of History, a Department of Conservation booklet on Turkey Run State Park's history, and Robert Frederick's doctoral dissertation on Lieber -- provide various accounts of what happened next.

Hoosier Veneer agreed to sell, but for $10,000 more than its winning bid of $30,000. It was money Lieber's team didn't have.

With a fund drive falling short of its goal, the parks committee invited Fisher to tour the Turkey Run site in October 1916. Impressed with what he saw, Fisher donated $5,000 to the cause and then convinced the Speedway board of directors to pledge a portion of gate receipts from the Memorial Day weekend race.

That added somewhere between $5,000 and $6,000, to which Newby pitched in $5,000 of his own money.

That was not the end of Newby's generosity.

When he died in 1933, Newby was described in a front page obituary in the Indianapolis Star as "a pioneer in the bicycle and automobile world and later known as a quiet philanthropist."

He gave $100,000 to Riley Children's Hospital and $50,000 each to Butler University and Earlham College, but The Star noted "one of his best known philanthropies" was the purchase of a 233-acre forested tract surrounding Turkey Run. Newby paid $10,000 for the land and turned it over to the state "at a time when the conservation department was without funds."

In the meantime, land in Owen County was acquired to establish the first state park -- McCormick's Creek.

Turkey Run became the second.

Although Newby, the other original Speedway owners, and Lieber are long gone, their efforts endure in two great Indiana institutions -- the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indiana State Parks system.

The Indiana Division of State Parks manages 32 properties today -- 24 state parks and 8 reservoir sites. The most recent addition, Prophetstown near Lafayette, fulfilled a Lieber goal of having a state park within an hour's drive of every Indiana resident.

Indiana State Parks have averaged just shy of 16.2 million visitors over the past five years. Brookville Lake, Brown County State Park, and Indiana Dunes State Park consistently rank as the top three most-visited properties at more than 1.1 million visitors each.

Together, the 32 properties offer 8,400 campsites, 700 miles of trails, 160 playgrounds, 631 hotel or lodge rooms and 149 cabins, 16 swimming pools, 15 beaches, and 75 marinas.

"Indiana's State Parks provide wonderful opportunities for partnerships like the one we shared with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and its owners in 1916," said DNR Director Cameron F. Clark. "Many of our parks have been purchased and opened through the years with the support of local counties and individuals. Today, donors contribute to support our programs and projects, and friends groups and individuals contribute over 90,000 volunteer hours annually."

For more on the State Parks centennial celebration, go to www.INStateParks100.com.

Other Indiana Headlines