Falls of the Ohio State Park is a

state park State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural ...

in the U.S. state of

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...

. It is located on the banks of the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of ...

Clarksville, Indiana Clarksville is a town in Clark County, Indiana, United States, along the Ohio River and is a part of the Louisville Metropolitan area. The population was 22,333 at the 2020 census. The town was founded in 1783 by early resident George Rogers Cla ...

, across from

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

. The park is part of the Falls of the Ohio National Wildlife Conservation Area. The exposed

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

beds of the Jeffersonville Limestone dated from the

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, wh ...

period are the main feature of the park, attracting about 160,000 visitors annually. The Falls was the site where Lewis and Clark met for the

Lewis and Clark Expedition The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select gr ...

George Rogers Clark George Rogers Clark (November 19, 1752 – February 13, 1818) was an American Surveying, surveyor, soldier, and militia officer from Virginia who became the highest-ranking American patriot military officer on the northwestern frontier duri ...

's cabin.

The park includes an

interpretive center An interpretation centre, interpretive centre, or visitor interpretive centre is an institution for dissemination of knowledge of natural or cultural heritage. Interpretation centres are a kind of new-style museum, often associated with visitor c ...

open to the public. In 1990, the Indiana state government hired Terry Chase, a well-established exhibit developer, to design the center's displays. Construction began in September 1992, costing $4.9 million with a total area of . The center functions as a museum with exhibits that concentrate on the natural history related to findings in the nearby fossil beds as well as the human history of the Louisville area, covering pre-settlement, early settlement, and the history of Louisville and

southern Indiana Southern Indiana is a region consisting of the southern third of the state of Indiana. The region's history and geography has led to a blend of Northern and Southern culture distinct from the remainder of Indiana. It is often considered to be par ...

through the 20th century. Unlike at other

Indiana state parks The U.S. state of Indiana has 24 state parks maintained and operated by Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR). In addition, a separate state agency operates White River State Park in downtown Indianapolis. Marion County, Indiana, Marion an ...

, annual entrance permits do not allow unlimited free access (rather, only five people per pass per visit) to the interpretive center, as fees are still needed to reimburse the town of Clarksville for building the center. The Woodland Loop Trail features ten stainless steel markers denoting the plant life of the trails, thanks to an

Eagle Scout Eagle Scout is the highest achievement or rank attainable in the Scouts BSA program of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Since its inception in 1911, only four percent of Scouts have earned this rank after a lengthy review process. The Eagle Sc ...

project. Strange wildlife has been seen in the park, including

alligator An alligator is a large reptile in the Crocodilia order in the genus ''Alligator'' of the family Alligatoridae. The two extant species are the American alligator (''A. mississippiensis'') and the Chinese alligator (''A. sinensis''). Additional ...

s and

crocodile Crocodiles (family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to include all extant me ...

s. Humorously, in August 2006, a fisherman hooked a dead

octopus An octopus ( : octopuses or octopodes, see below for variants) is a soft-bodied, eight- limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, ...

, but Zachary Treitz, a 21-year-old Louisville college student, admitted he had put the octopus there after purchasing it dead from a local seafood shop for a film project.

Gallery

File:FotOSP Lobby.jpg, Interpretive Center Lobby File:2016WIKI FallsOfTheOhioSP3June13.jpg File:2016WIK FallsOfTheOhioSP.jpg File:2016WIKI FallsOfTheOhioSP2June13.jpg File:RSH 20211224100745-Pano 01.jpg, View from the shore looking towards Louisville.

References

WikiMapia
*

External links

Falls of the Ohio Organization
* ttp://www.uky.edu/KGS/geoky/fieldtrip/2005%20AIPG%20Guidebooks/FallsofOhio.pdf ''Silurian and Devonian Geology and Paleontology at the Falls of the Ohio, Kentucky/Indiana''- 42nd Annual Meeting of the American Institute of Professional Geologists, fieldtrip guidebook, 2005 {{DEFAULTSORT:Falls Of The Ohio State Park Protected areas established in 1990 Clarksville, Indiana History of Louisville, Kentucky State parks of Indiana Ohio River Paleozoic paleontological sites of North America Natural history museums in Indiana Museums in Clark County, Indiana Protected areas of Clark County, Indiana Nature centers in Indiana Fossil parks in the United States Paleontology in Indiana Local museums in the United States 1990 establishments in Indiana Devonian paleontological sites

Gallery

See also

References

External links