The new visitor center at Mounds State Park explains plants, animals and geographic features in exhibits.
The new visitor center at Mounds State Park features live reptiles and amphibians. DNR staff share the space, too, in this hybrid facility, which opened in March.
Wildlife dioramas, a cultural history exhibit, interactive games for children, an archaeoastronomy exhibit, program area, and a bas-relief of the Great Mound are featured in the visitor center.
A staple of modern nature centers is a wildlife viewing room, and the Mounds Visitor Center has a thriller. Several large panels of glass minimally sectioned by pillars look out to a pond and waterfall, and the deep woods beyond.
The facility features modern meeting rooms, audio-visual projection, accessible restrooms, staff offices, storage and accessible parking.
Mounds State Park is located on State Road 232 on the east side of Anderson. The White River borders the west property line. It is one of Indiana's smallest state parks in acreage (290), but ranks eighth among state parks in visitation. Last year visitation was greater than 420,000 people.
The land was seen as special by white settlers, though it wasn't until recent time that the mounds had a stong relationship with astronomy.
Mounds State Park contains some of the largest and finest examples of 2,000-year-old earthworks (Adena) in Indiana and the Midwest.
Through partial excavations and archaeological surveys of these and other mound sites, it was discovered that a stratified society existed. The society was composed of hunter-gatherers, traders traveling hundreds -- perhaps thousands -- of miles, and religious rulers who kept track of solar and celestial events at the mounds.
The Bronnenberg family bought the land around 1820 and protected the mounds. The Indiana Union Traction Co. bought the land from the Bronnenberg family and developed an amusement park around the Great Mound, which operated from 1897 to 1929.
After the American stock market crash of 1929, the Madison County Historical Society bought the property and donated it to the people of Indiana for a state park.
The park was where the first woman state park superintendent, Anne Norton, was posted in 1934; she served 16 years.
The new visitor
center also has a wildlife pond.
