Prophetstown State Park commemorates a Native American village founded in 1808 by Shawnee leaders

Tecumseh Tecumseh ( ; October 5, 1813) was a Shawnee chief and warrior who promoted resistance to the expansion of the United States onto Native American lands. A persuasive orator, Tecumseh traveled widely, forming a Native American confederacy and ...

and his brother

Tenskwatawa Tenskwatawa (also called Tenskatawa, Tenskwatawah, Tensquatawa or Lalawethika) (January 1775 – November 1836) was a Native American religious and political leader of the Shawnee tribe, known as the Prophet or the Shawnee Prophet. He was a ...

north of present-day

Lafayette, Indiana Lafayette ( , ) is a city in and the county seat of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, located northwest of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette, on the other side of the Wabash River, is home to Purdue University, whi ...

, which grew into a large, multi-tribal community. The park features an

open-air museum An open-air museum (or open air museum) is a museum that exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts out-of-doors. It is also frequently known as a museum of buildings or a folk museum. Definition Open air is “the unconfined atmosphere� ...

at Prophetstown, with living history exhibits including a

Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...

village and a 1920s-era farmstead. Battle Ground,

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 ...

, is a village about a mile east of the site of the

Battle of Tippecanoe The Battle of Tippecanoe ( ) was fought on November 7, 1811, in Battle Ground, Indiana, between American forces led by then Governor William Henry Harrison of the Indiana Territory and Native American forces associated with Shawnee leader Tecum ...

in 1811, a crucial battle in

Tecumseh's War Tecumseh's War or Tecumseh's Rebellion was a conflict between the United States and Tecumseh's Confederacy, led by the Shawnee leader Tecumseh in the Indiana Territory. Although the war is often considered to have climaxed with William Henry Ha ...

which ultimately led to the demise of Prophetstown. The

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 ...

was established in 2004 and receives about 335,000 visitors annually.

History

The park was first proposed in 1989 but did not receive funding from the Indiana legislature until 1994. Land acquisition continued through 1999 when the legislature funded $3.7 million to create the park. Indiana Governor

Joe Kernan Joe Kernan or Joseph Kernan may refer to: * Joe Kernan (baseball), 19th-century American baseball player * Joe Kernan (Gaelic footballer) (born 1954) * Joe Kernan (politician) (1946–2020), American politician * Joseph D. Kernan (born 1955), Uni ...

formally dedicated the park in 2004. The campground opened the following year and was a partnership with Lafayette as part of the Lafayette Inn tax proceeds. Construction of the aquatic park began in October 2012 and was completed in 2013 after lobbying by local officials to drive more visitors to the park and Tippecanoe County. The Farm at Prophetstown is a non-profit organization that rents approximately from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to show farming life as it was in the 1920s.

Facilities and activities

* Historic Prophetstown farmstead, a 1920s living history farm. * Woodland Indian settlement with replicas of a Shawnee council house and medicine lodge * Hiking trail () * Bicycle trail () * Interpretative naturalist services * Picnic areas and shelters * Camping, with 110 campsites and a dumping station

References

External links

Indiana Department of Natural Resources' official Web pageThe Farm at Prophetstown
{{authority control Protected areas established in 2004 State parks of Indiana Native American museums in Indiana Farm museums in Indiana Museums in Tippecanoe County, Indiana Protected areas of Tippecanoe County, Indiana 2004 establishments in Indiana