Skiles Test Nature Park, sometimes called Skiles Test Nature Area, is a

nature park A nature park, or sometimes natural park, is a designation for a protected area by means of long-term land planning, sustainable resource management and limitation of agricultural and real estate developments. These valuable landscapes are pres ...

on the northeast side of

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

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 ...

, United States. It is in the northern trailhead of the Fall Creek Parkway and used by hikers, bikers and nature enthusiasts. The land, originally owned by millionaire Skiles Test, was willed to Indianapolis after his death. His home, known as the House of Blue Lights, is supposedly a

haunted house A haunted house, spook house or ghost house in ghostlore is a house or other building often perceived as being inhabited by disembodied spirits of the deceased who may have been former residents or were otherwise connected with the property ...

. Test lived on the property from 1913 to 1964. It once featured a

miniature railway A ridable miniature railway (US: riding railroad or grand scale railroad) is a large scale, usually ground-level railway that hauls passengers using locomotives that are often models of full-sized railway locomotives (powered by Diesel engine, ...

and a pool with bathhouses, elevators, and high dives. In 2010 Big Car organized series of site specific

art installations Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific art, site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior intervent ...

in the park including works by Cindy Hinant, Nathan Monk, and Lukas Schooler. Skiles Test Nature Park has a documented history as a gay cruising site, but a crackdown and several arrests in the early 2000s led to a decline in it being used for this purpose.

See also

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Further reading