Spring Mill State Park on track for another record year

Young and his staff feared the more balanced school calendar would cut into the park’s revenue and visitor count when they noticed the park was quieter than usual during the second week of August.

“That second week of August really hurt us,” Young said, “but those two fall break weeks in October were amazing in terms of the amount of people we had at the park, so it appears our visitors just shuffled over from August to October. It was as big as a good summer weekday.”

For example, where the park normally fills about 20 campsites during weekdays in October, it was filling 60 campsites.

“It was great,” Young said. “It seemed as if many folks, especially our local folks, opted to spend fall break with us, instead of going out of town. I think there is a limited amount of money to spend, and they could get a great deal by spending that time with us.”

Fall is one of the busiest times at Spring Mill. Packed full of weekend activities, visitors flock to the state park to enjoy the colors of fall and the events geared toward packing them in.

“We had about 7,500 cars come in for the (Tri Kappa) Candlelight Tour, and another 2,800 for the haunted village,” Young said. “The numbers are continuing upward for us.”

But now it’s time to wind down for the winter.

“We have already started winterizing the campground to get it shut down for the winter,” Young said. “We have several ash trees that died over the summer that need to be cut down for safety reasons, and we’ll continue the remodel of the (Pioneer Village) rest rooms. Those projects will keep us busy through the winter months.”

Still, the park doesn’t close for the winter months. Visitors will continue to utilize the park throughout the winter, coming out to Spring Mill Inn for craft workshops and taking advantage of the unseasonably warm days to stretch their legs.

“It was a great year that we hope only continues to get better,” Young said.