Ouabache ʊ'bɑːtʃi(a French transcription of the Miami Indian word for the river, ''waapaahšiiki'', meaning "it shines white", "pure white", or "water over white stones") is a state park in

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 s ...

. It is located south of

Fort Wayne, Indiana Fort Wayne is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 as of the 2020 Censu ...

near Bluffton, Indiana. It was originally the Wells County State Forest and Game Preserve, formed in the early 1930s. In 1962. it became the Ouabache State Recreation Area, before finally achieving state park status in 1983. The

Wabash River The Wabash River (French: Ouabache) is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 13, 2011 river that drains most of the state of Indiana in the United States. It flows from ...

runs through the park, which provides fishing and nature viewing. A fire tower offers an excellent view of the park. The park receives about 200,000 visitors annually. Until the 1960s, when the practice was stopped, it was the greatest producer of chicks of

pheasant Pheasants ( ) are birds of several genera within the family Phasianidae in the order Galliformes. Although they can be found all over the world in introduced (and captive) populations, the pheasant genera native range is restricted to Eurasia ...

s and

quail Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally placed in the order Galliformes. The collective noun for a group of quail is a flock, covey, or bevy. Old World quail are placed in the family Phasianidae, and New ...

s in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, making it known as the "Greatest Wildlife Laboratory in the U.S." Remnants of some of the old pens can still be seen. During the Great Depression, workers from the

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...

(CCC) helped to improve the park through various construction projects. Today, in the park's picnic area, is a statue commemorating the CCC's work in the park. The Friends of Ouabache State Park organization led a two-year fundraising effort to build the statue. The statue was dedicated in 2014. Similar statues commemorating the CCC exist across the

, but the only other such statue in Indiana is in Versailles State Park in Ripley County. The park is 1 of 14 Indiana State Parks that are in the path of totality for the 2024 solar eclipse, with the park experiencing 2 minutes and 47 seconds of totality.

References

External links

Indiana Department of Natural Resources official Web page
Protected areas established in 1962 State parks of Indiana Protected areas of Wells County, Indiana {{Indiana-protected-area-stub