Spring Mill State Park
Spring Mill State Park is a 1,319-acre (5 km2) state park in the state of Indiana. The park is located to the south of Bloomington, about 3 miles (5 km) east of the town of Mitchell on Indiana Highway 60.
After fighting the War of 1812, Samuel Jackson Jr. came to the area with his family and built a home and small wooden mill. When Indiana became a state in 1816, Jackson became owner of the valley. Two wealthy land developers, the Bullitt brothers, purchased the land from Jackson in 1817 and constructed a three-story limestone mill. As more people began to settle southern Indiana, business at the mill began to boom. The next owners, the Montgomery brothers, added a sawmill, distillery, tavern and post office. The Hamer brothers owned the land next, remodeling the two existing homes, starting a school, and naming the village “Spring Mill”. It was under the Hamer brothers that Spring Mill reached its peak, with village goods being sold in Louisville and New Orleans. Business declined in the following years with the arrival of the railroad and the Civil War. There were twenty families living in Spring Mill in the 1850s. In 1896 a cement company purchased the land, and the village was deserted.
A pioneer village can also be found in a valley in the park, featuring a historic grist mill, blacksmith shop, tavern, distillery, gardens, and several other structures. A stream runs through the village, which is fed by a spring in Hamer Cave and powers the grist mill. Interpretive naturalists play pioneers from the 1860s and demonstrate trades of the day. The Hamer Cemetery is located south of the village and the graves of several village residents from the mid-1800s are found there, as well as many more modern graves. The area, 295 acres (1.19 km2) total, was purchased for the state park from a cement company for a single dollar. The village had been prospering in the mid 1800s, but when the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bypassed it later in the century, it had become a ghost town. After acquiring the property, Richard Lieber and E.Y. Guernsey began reconstruction of the village, with six buildings being original, six being reconstructed, and four being moved to the property.
The park is located on the Mitchell Karst Plain, which allowed the park’s caves and sinkholes to form in the limestone. The caves include Bronson Cave, Twin Caves, Shawnee Cave (Donaldson Cave), Hamer Cave, and others. A boat tour of Twin Caves is run by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, which travels about 500 feet (150 m) into the cave. Donaldson Cave has a wet and dry side; the dry side is open for exploration.
http://www.in.gov/dnr/parklake/2968.htm
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