Read time: 5 min.

My mom had an early morning meeting in Richmond a couple years ago. I’d heard about a spring at Glen Miller Park I suspected was a flowing well, so I asked to tag along. As it turns out, I was right. Even better, Mom and I found four! I only learned about a fifth after she dropped me off at home, so I went back to find the old Iron Water Spring the next day. Mom finally got to see it on a return trip last summer. We can confirm- it was still flowing strong! 

Despite its unusual name, Glen Miller Park in Richmond has no connection to the famous bandleader. After the Civil War, Col. John F. Miller bought a glen, or valley, to transform into a recreational area. Later, he sold the land to the city of Richmond. Glen Miller has been owned by the city since 1885¹! As you might expect, the two-hundred-acre park is rich in history. 

Flowing wells -springs, as they’re known in Richmond- play an integral role in the story of Glen Miller Park. Early on, Cook’s Spring was one of the park’s main attractions. Thirsty patrons like me still come from miles away to visit another, the scenic Spring Water Spring, which sits just within the park’s entrance off of the National Road. Its water is more refreshing than Fiji or Evian. 

The Iron Water Spring is not nearly as prominent. Sometimes known as the North Spring² or the Lincoln Spring³, it sits far away from its peers on Lakeshore Drive. The well’s “north” name is self-explanatory, but the Lincoln name comes from Lincoln Rock, an enormous boulder nearby that was dedicated in memory of the Great Emancipator in 1909 on his hundredth birthday⁴.

My first trip to the Iron Water Spring took me from Grand Boulevard to Lakeshore Drive. I headed east. The road changed into Cypress Drive just as I realized I was leaving the park! I turned back around, drove slowly, and found a place to pull off. There, I was surprised to find the Iron Water Spring a couple feet below the gravel lot. I told Mom all about it and even wrote about the adventure, but it took a year for us to go back.

Mom and I ran into some difficulties when we both returned. The main problem was that Lakeshore Drive was closed! Instead of driving up to the well, we parked at Glen Miller’s northern playground and hoofed it around the curve and down the hill. There, the Iron Water Spring continued to flow into a trough behind its stone retaining wall. Unlike the clear fountains of the Spring Water Spring, Iron Water’s reddish hue stained its basin and the bed of a small creek that trickled down into the woods.

Although it’s accessed by a concrete path today, the Iron Water Spring was once reached by a wooden set of stairs put in by Benjamin Starr around 1890. Before Starr moved the steps to Glen Miller, they led to a scaffold in front of the Wayne County jail where Nathaniel Bates, the only man ever executed in Richmond, was hung in 1886! Several years later, Starr moved them to the spring⁵. Unfortunately, the aging steps were removed in 1925.

A century after the wooden steps were dismantled, the concrete path leading to the Iron Water Spring is showing its age. Trash has built up and the site is hardly picturesque, but the well still flows. Without human intervention, it’ll likely keep going long after I’m no longer here to enjoy it! I hope so, at least. Flowing water holds the power to calm and soothe a restless soul. I connect with it.

Glen Miller Park has a lot to offer a history enthusiast. It’s a dynamic place full of architectural heritage, historical artifacts, impressive gardens, and fantastic flowing wells. Much of the place reflects Richmond’s past promise, but the park remains a vibrant place filled with grandeur, symbolism, and a sense of mystery frozen in time. I can’t wait to return and learn more about it. Who knows? Aside from Iron Water, Spring Water, and Cook’s old spring, there may even be more hidden wells waiting to be discovered.

Sources Cited
1 Warrick, C. (1977, July 24). Filling those jugs. The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 8.
2 Field, B. Historic Richmond Indiana Photos (2018, September 18). Shame that its condition has deteriorated so much over the years.  First photo was taken by another member in the [Post]. Facebook.
3 Lincoln Spring at Glen Miller Park Temporarily Closed (1930, September 16). The Richmond Item. p. 14.
4 Lincoln Rock At Glen Dedicated On Centennial Of Emancipator’s Birth (1947, July 27). The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 6.
5 Haas, E.M. (1942, April 7). How Many Recall Old High Point Hotel? The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 12 12 Park’s New Spring Ready for Use (1936, May 13). The Richmond Palladium And Sun-Telegram. p. 11.