The Historic Spring Mill Inn and Interpretive Naturalist Services

The Spring Mill Inn is an historic building that offers modern accommodations in the 74 guest rooms. The inn was built from hand-quarried limestone from nearby quarries. Most of the comfortable rooms include Amish made rocking chairs as part of the country furnishings, and cozy patchwork quilts are on most of the beds. Guests at the inn can enjoy the unique "indoor/outdoor" swimming pool, pictured in the Spring Mill slideshow. The pool is exactly as you might picture it: part of the pool is indoors, and part is beyond a large window-wall and outdoors. The unusual concept makes it possible for guests to enjoy swimming in any weather. The lobby of the inn is graced with a beautiful fireplace which creates an inviting ambience when it is lit on cold days, as the inn is open all year. A full service dining room provides home-cooked meals, featuring cornbread and other recipes that use the stone ground cornmeal from the grist mill in the Pioneer Village. The dining room welcomes all park visitors.

Visitors will find many interesting things to do at the nearby Nature Center. You can find the activities schedule posted throughout the park. There are interpretive naturalist activities planned, with everything from early morning bird-watching to family and child oriented activities. Evening programs may include storytelling or star gazing. If you visit as part of a private group or youth camp, you can arrange for private naturalist programs prior to your visit, and the staff will help your group's experience be educational and memorable.

The inn and nature center are both located near the lake, where fishing is a popular pastime. Adults will need a regular Indiana State Fishing License. If you have a small fishing boat, you can launch it on the lake. Only small electric trolling motors are allowed, and of course, oars. An Indiana Lake Permit is required for boats. The lake has bass, trout, blue gill, and other game fish. Blue herons, kingfishers, and wood ducks live near the lake, and it is not unusual to spot them while fishing or hiking on the trail around the lake.

Be sure to visit the Virgil I. Grissom Memorial, dedicated to "Gus" Grissom, who is from the town of Mitchell, Indiana. He was one of NASA's first Mercury project astronauts and was America's second man in space. The memorial building houses his space suit and the space capsule in which he orbited the earth and splashed down during his Gemini III manned mission. Grissom was killed at the Kennedy Space Center in test exercises for the Apollo I mission in 1967 along with other Apollo astronauts Ed White and Roger Chaffee. Most visitors are amazed and humbled by the displays of space gear which seem very primitive compared to the space shuttle standards of today.

Watch a slideshow about Spring Mill State Park.

Information about the natural wonders of Spring Mill.

Read about the grist mill and the pioneer village.