Falls of the Ohio State Park is a

state park State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "Federated state, state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on accou ...

in the U.S. state of

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

. It is located on the banks of the

Ohio River The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its river mouth, mouth on the Mississippi Riv ...

at Clarksville, Indiana, across from

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville is the List of cities in Kentucky, most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeastern United States, Southeast, and the list of United States cities by population, 27th-most-populous city ...

. The park is part of the Falls of the Ohio National Wildlife Conservation Area. The exposed

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

beds of the

Jeffersonville Limestone The Devonian Jeffersonville Limestone is a mapped bedrock unit in Indiana and Kentucky. It is highly fossiliferous. The Vernon Fork Member contains Volcanic ash associated with the Tioga Bentonites. Description The Jeffersonville is a coarse grai ...

dated from the

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a period (geology), geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era during the Phanerozoic eon (geology), eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian per ...

period are the main feature of the park, attracting about 160,000 visitors annually. The Falls was the site where Lewis and Clark met for the

Lewis and Clark Expedition The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select gro ...

George Rogers Clark George Rogers Clark (November 19, 1752 – February 13, 1818) was an American military officer and surveyor from Virginia who became the highest-ranking Patriot (American Revolution), Patriot military officer on the American frontier, nort ...

's cabin.

The park includes an

interpretive center An interpretation centre, interpretive centre, or visitor interpretive centre is an institution for dissemination of knowledge of natural or cultural heritage. Interpretation centres are a kind of new-style museum, often associated with visitor c ...

open to the public. In 1990, the Indiana state government hired Terry Chase, a well-established exhibit developer, to design the center's displays. Construction began in September 1992, costing $4.9 million with a total area of . The center functions as a museum with exhibits that concentrate on the

natural history Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

related to findings in the nearby fossil beds as well as the human history of the Louisville area, covering pre-settlement, early settlement, and the history of Louisville and

southern Indiana Southern Indiana is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern third of the U.S. state of Indiana and borders the states of Illinois to the west, Kentucky to the south, and Ohio to the east. Spanning the state's southe ...

through the 20th century. Unlike at other Indiana state parks, annual entrance permits do not allow unlimited free access (rather, only five people per pass per visit) to the interpretive center, as fees are still needed to reimburse the town of Clarksville for building the center. The Woodland Loop Trail features ten stainless steel markers denoting the plant life of the trails, thanks to an

Eagle Scout Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Scouts BSA program of Scouting America. Since its inception in 1911, only four percent of Scouts have earned this rank after a lengthy review process. The Eagle Scout rank has been earned by over ...

project.

Gallery

File:FotOSP Lobby.jpg, Interpretive Center Lobby File:2016WIKI FallsOfTheOhioSP3June13.jpg File:2016WIK FallsOfTheOhioSP.jpg File:2016WIKI FallsOfTheOhioSP2June13.jpg File:RSH 20211224100745-Pano 01.jpg, View from the shore looking towards Louisville.

References

WikiMapia
*

External links

Falls of the Ohio Organization
* ttp://www.uky.edu/KGS/geoky/fieldtrip/2005%20AIPG%20Guidebooks/FallsofOhio.pdf ''Silurian and Devonian Geology and Paleontology at the Falls of the Ohio, Kentucky/Indiana''- 42nd Annual Meeting of the American Institute of Professional Geologists, fieldtrip guidebook, 2005 {{DEFAULTSORT:Falls Of The Ohio State Park Protected areas established in 1990 Clarksville, Indiana History of Louisville, Kentucky State parks of Indiana Ohio River Paleozoic paleontological sites of North America Natural history museums in Indiana Museums in Clark County, Indiana Protected areas of Clark County, Indiana Nature centers in Indiana Fossil parks in the United States Paleontology in Indiana 1990 establishments in Indiana Devonian paleontological sites

Gallery

See also

References

External links