Madison history: Clifty Falls, a park bought as a war memorial

With Veterans Day coming up on Nov. 11, here's a bit of local history that ties right into it: Clifty Falls State Park was created as a memorial to the people of Jefferson County who served in World War I. The idea started in 1916. That year Indiana opened its first two state parks, McCormick's Creek and Turkey Run, and Col. Richard Lieber, who led the push for a state park system, turned his eyes toward Clifty Falls. A group of area businessmen began asking whether Jefferson County could have a park of its own, and they looked at three spots: Cedar Cliff, Clifty Falls and Cragmont. By 1920 the Clifty site on Madison's west side was the pick. The land was owned by several different people, so the community stepped up. Jefferson County citizens raised half the price of the original 570 acres, which took in the falls and the canyon, and the state paid the rest. The park was established in October 1920, right on the heels of the war, and was dedicated as a war memorial and a gift to the community. Visitors needed somewhere to stay, and the first "inn" was an old stone farmhouse built by Stephen K. Todd at the top of Todd's Hill, with six rooms, a dining room and a lobby. A barn was remodeled in 1923 for 16 more rooms. Then local people raised money again, this time to be paid back from hotel receipts, and the brick Clifty Inn, with 32 rooms and a big porch looking down on the Ohio River, was dedicated on Aug. 25, 1924. The park kept growing. In 1965 the state added land from the Madison State Hospital, nearly doubling its size, and that level upland is where the pool and campground sit today. Want to get out to the park this week? Make a Bird Ornament is Saturday, Nov. 7, at 10 a.m. at Clifty Falls State Park: https://aroundmadison.com/events/make-a-bird-ornament-clifty-falls-state-park Sources: Indiana DNR, Clifty Falls State Park Interpretive Master Plan https://www.in.gov/dnr/state-parks/files/sp-clifty_falls_interpretive_plan.pdf ; Friends of Clifty Falls State Park, "History" https://www.friendsofclifty.org/history ; Friends of Clifty Falls State Park, "Inn and South End History" https://www.friendsofclifty.org/history/inn-and-south-end-history Photo: View of the Ohio River from Clifty Inn, by Runner1928, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.