Made it home.
600 miles, 66 gallons of gasoline, 16 hours in the truck.
Hiked and canoed through some caves. Amazing how dark and silent it can be. Explored some preserved wilderness areas. It was really neat. Amazing how much nature retakes over a hundred year course. There was a satellite property that operated as a private park until 1913. Still had some buildings on it but they're heavily vandalized and scheduled to be taken down.
The preserved pioneer village in the park was from the 1830s, and restored in the 1930s by the CCC which built most of Indiana's state parks under Roosevelt from 1932? till ww2 offered other employment opportunities. Massive 3 story grist mill, and about a dozen other buildings. The Bullet brothers first distillery was on that site. They owned the first mill, and took 10% of the grain to be milled as payment which fed the still.
Private cemetery on the grounds has been in operation for the family since before the Civil War. Most headstones are unreadable. But there was one buried in June of this year, so definitely still an active gravesite. Brought on some tears reading some of the stones. Lots of children. Also lots of 80-90 year olds. One stone was a boy named Jack, 5 years 8 months. Born 1912. My son Jack is 5 years 11 months, born 2012.
Tons and tons of history on the site. It was a main point on a wagon trail west. The railroads made it obsolete in the mid 1800s.
It was a really neat trip. I'm glad we went.
