I’ve been hunting flowing wells across East-Central Indiana for a while now. The allure of the unknown, an adrenaline rush, and the sense of accomplishment I get once I find one turn my mundane trips into alluring adventures! I found five in Richmond’s Glen Miller Park in July, and my most recent exploit took me back to the Rose City in search of another at Springwood Park.
Glen Miller Park presents a treasure trove for history enthusiasts. Its flowing wells, known in Richmond as “springs,” are a captivating study in contrasts. Fortunately, Springwood Park features another compelling story.
The park sits just north of Thistlethwaite Falls, a manmade waterfall that dates to 1854 when a pair of entrepreneurs blasted through forty-seven feet of rock to power their sawmill1. In those days, the area that would later become Springwood Park was owned by Cornelius Ratliff, Esther Starr, William Parry, and Jane Reed2.
Water sprouted up. By 1932, William Rodefeld managed the land as a bathing beach and recreational center he called Springwood Lake3. Seven years later, the Wayne County Fish and Game Protective Association bought the property. The organization renamed the grounds “Conservation Park,” made improvements to the swimming area4, and developed the rest of it into picnic areas, shooting ranges, and playgrounds5.
Old postcards show an idyllic beachfront that blended natural beauty, aquatic adventures, and relaxation into a real treat for residents. Unfortunately, the truth rose to the surface in 1949 after a pair of tragedies: in June, seventeen-year-old Merritt Apple drowned in fifteen feet of water near the diving board6. Two months later, hundreds of fish were killed after a storm drain failed at the nearby Crosley Motors plant7.
The second episode was the first in a long history of contamination from nearby manufacturing concerns. Although the city of Richmond purchased the Springwood property in 1970, municipal ownership wasn’t enough to prevent pollutants from infiltrating the park’s waters8. Remnants from its days as a swimming resort remain, but officials say the lake is only safe to enjoy from a distance.
Swimming hasn’t been allowed at Springwood Park for decades. Fishing was banned in 2008, and the park’s northern baseball diamond was dismantled after inspectors found lead contamination9! I don’t often go looking for water under threat of being poisoned by it, but I was compelled to find the spring. Eventually, I did.
My mom has a recurring engagement in Richmond on Saturday mornings, and I asked to tag along. She handed me the keys and I parked near Springwood’s shelter. The locals who clued me in to the spring said it flowed from a pipe sticking out of the north side of the property. Unfortunately, they didn’t give me much else to work with.
I fumbled around for an hour but noticed a gated drive as I headed back to pick Mom up. Some quick research indicated that the spring sat further north of where I’d lallygagged, so Mom and I returned to the park. We snuck around the barrier and headed north towards where the spring was said to sit.
We soon came to a wetland. It was clear that the something fed it, but, we couldn’t find its source! The only possibility Mom and I found was a corrugated drainage pipe that snaked underneath the roadway. Neither of us noticed any signs of flowing water.
A dirt trail branched off the roadway past the drainage pipe. Thinking it might be a path to the spring, we followed it to a series of boardwalks where we found an L-shaped, concrete foundation. Could it have been left over from a spring house? We didn’t find any evidence to support our theory in the thick of things, so we continued on through the forest.
The trail circled back to the road, which ended at the open-air Springwood Chapel. Our hike back didn’t reveal any secrets, so we left. Skunked and disappointed, I got home and fired up Google. The only mention of the spring came from 1999, when it was temporarily closed after a week of heavy rain10. Feeling defeated, I turned to Facebook and asked the members of a historic Richmond Facebook group for help.
A slew of responses poured in overnight and revealed a couple interesting tidbits. Unrelated to the spring, one person remembered setting clay pigeons in a concrete trap house when the north side of the park featured a shooting range. I bet the foundation Mom and I found at the boardwalk was part of it!
The rest of the comments confirmed the location of the spring on the east side of the gated drive like I thought, about halfway back to the chapel near the wetlands we found. That said, I was bamboozled: there was no way a couple of pros like Mom and me could have missed it! My bewilderment turned to despondency as I scrolled and saw that a longtime employee of the parks department had chimed in. The spring was no longer visible, he said. In fact, he’d been the one to cover it with dirt twelve or thirteen years prior.
A few others reached out. Eventually, I connected with someone at Richmond Parks and Recreation who confirmed the culvert we noticed was the location of the spring. A hydrological quirk meant it didn’t drain directly into the wetland, so the corrugated pipe was installed to prevent the road from being flooded with springwater.
The tips were compelling. Armed with information, I returned to Springwood to see if anything remained of the old spring. I hiked back to the culvert and looked out towards the wetlands. This time, I could see flowing water! I clambered down into the bog, and I could hear flowing water. I was up to my ankles in the marsh when I whipped around and found the spring. It took all of ten seconds to find it! I felt like a fool.
The Springwood Park spring is, indeed, buried. It sits four or five feet below the road leading back to the chapel, so it’s no wonder Mom and I didn’t see it. Although the top is covered, water still flows from a pipe that extends a few inches from a wall made of river rock and lumber.
Some flowing wells gush with water, while others offer little more than a trickle. The Springwood spring was pretty vigorous! I’d compare it to a bathtub faucet at full blast, and the water looked as clear as I’ve seen anywhere. I forgot to grab a bottle to fill, but I bet it gives the springs at Glen Miller Park a run for their money in terms of taste, if not convenience. I didn’t drink, though. After I got home, I learned the spring was buried because it was contaminated!
I lingered at the forgotten spring for a while before I left, mesmerized by the sound of flowing water as I always am. Hidden in plain sight, the forgotten Springwood spring reminded me that the world is packed with treasures waiting to be uncovered by people willing to see beyond the obvious. It took me a couple tries, but I’m glad to have joined their ranks.
Unfortunately, my story isn’t complete without an embarrassing postscript: after I climbed back up, I discovered the spring’s wooden retaining wall was clearly visible from anywhere I chose to stand on the road leading back to the chapel. I’ll never know how a couple of seasoned well hunters like Mom and I missed it, but we did.
Special thanks to Jim Johnson, Tim Uhte, Josh Imhoff, and Brandon Panensky for their help in finding the spring at Springwood Park.
Sources Cited
1 Stegall, M. (1996, May 17). Marking of Thistlethwaite Falls important to historic preservation. The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 8.
2 Condit, Wright, & Hayden (1856). May of Wayne County, Indiana from government surveys and the most authentic sources. Middleton, Wallace, & Co. [Cincinnati]. Map.
3 Engle, B. (2011, April 11). Lake was popular watering hole. The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 2.
4 Fish, Game Club Names New Grounds Conservation Park (1939, May 23). The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 8.
5 Knight, M. (1969, October 11). Flood Control Dam Is Proposed In Center Of Conservation Park. The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 14.
6 Merritt Apple Dies In Springwood Lake (1949, June 23). The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 1.
7 Board of Health Investigation River Pollution (1949, August 10). The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 1.
8 Tests find metals, PCBs in lake ( 2011, April 10). The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 2.
9 Engle, B. (2015, June 7). Richmond Parks Showing Signs Of Neglect. The Richmond Palladium-Item. Pp. A1-A2.
10 Engle, B. (1999, January 26). High water forces springs to close. The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 3.
