Avoca Park

Avoca Park
Avoca Park
Previously known as Avoca State Fish Hatchery
	1823 House
	Map of the U.S. state of Indiana showing the location of Avoca Park
Nearest town	Avoca,Indiana
Coordinates	38°54′25.79″N 86°32′31.19″W / 38.9071639°N 86.5419972°W
Area	43 acres (17 ha)
Established	2020
Governing body	Avoca Park and Recreation of Marshall Township

Comment: Please see the notability criteria for places along with general notability criteria. S0091 (talk) 15:58, 26 September 2021 (UTC)

Avoca Park is a recreation area in Lawrence County, Indiana that includes walking, hiking trails and picnic areas. Open year round, dawn until dusk.

The park consists of approximately 43 acres of land including forests, 13 ponds, 3 buildings and 1 cemetery dating back to the Civil War.

The property has 13 earthen ponds fed by a natural spring. Grass levees circle each of the ponds providing a winding path around all the ponds. Wooded hiking paths allow access to the Civil War Cemetery and a WPA stone overlook. A gravel path along a Works Progress Administration(WPA) built stone wall will take you to the shelter house that overlooks the ponds.

A two-story colonial-style house built in 1823 sits near the spring. Stone structures, walls and a stone overlook, built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), give hikers a view of the old hatchery grounds.

History

1819, a grist mill was constructed by a man named Fitzpatrick and was later purchased by the Hamer brothers, two of the first settlers in Avoca, Indiana. Thomas Hamer^[1]and his 4 sons were pioneer settlers in the area including, Spring Mill State Park^[2], located 30 miles south of Avoca, where they lived and operated a still working grist mill. The mill was made possible by a spring-fed turbine water-wheel fitted with three sets of buhr stones to grind wheat, corn, and chop feed. In 1823, they built a two-story house on the property. The house later became an inn, stagecoach way station, post office, grocery store and finally the DNR property manager's residence. It was last renovated in 1923.,

1919, the property was purchased by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) from Hayden Bridwell and construction of fish hatchery ponds began in 1923. A service building was built in 1924.

The National Youth Administration was stationed at Avoca Fish Hatchery from 1935 to 1942 . During that period the improvements to Avoca Fish Hatchery was one of the longest National Youth Administration projects.^[3]The National Youth Administration built the shelter house with limestone walls and a limestone fireplace.

The hatchery stocked Indiana's waters with largemouth bass, bluegill, red-eared sunfish and black crappie for years until Indiana DNR began the process of decommissioning in 2013 and it fell into disrepair^[4]. Avoca State Fish Hatchery was officially decommissioned in 2016.^[5] During operation, the Hatchery produced 500,000 to 1 million fish.^[6]

2014, Bedford, Indiana Mayor Shawna Girgis tasked Bedford Park Director, Barry Jeskewich^[7], to find a solution to save this historical property for the town of Avoca and Lawrence County, Indiana. Barry Jeskewich partnered with James Farmer, Indiana University to obtain a $125,000 grant to preserve this beloved green space for the surrounding community.^[8] The project was a collaboration between the IU students in SPH-0305: Integrated Resource Management and Avoca State Fish Hatchery as part of the 2017-2018 Indiana University Substaining Hoosier Communities initiative within the “IU Center for Rural Engagement”^[9].

The citizens of Avoca established a park board to receive the property from the State of Indiana in 2020. Thanks to the grant and volunteers, Avoca Park has become Lawrence County's first public park featuring a 1.5-mile loop trail, picnic tables, green space, rentable shelter house and event spaces.

Avoca State Fish Hatchery was renamed Avoca Park and is now in the hands of the Avoca Park and Recreation of Marshall Township^[10].