Hennepin Canal Parkway State Park

The Hennepin Canal Parkway State Park offers visitors many activities including camping, fishing, boating, horseback riding and more.
We made a visit and took advantage of the crushed rock trails to do some biking.

Along the trail you can see truss and lift bridges, including this lift bridge at lock 21.
Opened in 1907, the Hennepin Canal, formerly the Illinois and Mississippi Canal, was closed to barge traffic in 1951. The canal was used as a training ground for engineers that later worked on the Panama Canal.
The state park covers five counties.

We noticed an old white building just past lock 21 which may have been a house or warehouse provided by the Corps of Engineers to lockmen. The houses provided to them weren't wired with electricity and did not have indoor plumbing.
From Wikipedia: "Traffic on the canal was never heavy, and critics complained that it was obsolete when it was constructed and that it was too small and only fit for the early days of canaling. Many have said if the canal had been constructed in the 1830s, 1840s, 1850s or even the 1860s, as it was originally suggested, the canal would have had greater economic potential. On April 7, 1948, the Corps of Engineers issued a 'navigation notice' that put the canal on a limited service basis."
Beginning in the 1970s, plans were made to convert the canal to the recreational use it enjoys today.

France Park

We don't have a lot of chances to see waterfalls when traveling, so when I heard there was one near Logansport, Indiana, I made plans to visit.

France Park is a lovely site to visit in the fall.

Driving in to the wooded park, we were greeted by the Fouts Cabin, a Beech log cabin built in 1839.

We paid our $2 each admission and got directions to the falls. After a short drive, we reached the parking area and got out to see the falls.

The waterfall itself is not very tall, however the site is scenic and beautiful.

I walked up the wooden staircase to the top of the falls, then joined my husband back at the bottom to go search out a Geocache hidden in the woods nearby.

Getting back in the car, we drove around the park a bit more checking out the scuba diving area where a couple of divers were in the water on this cool October day.

We also saw a brick box structure that my husband said looked like a brick oven. Later I found out that's exactly what it was.

Referred to as the Italian Oven, the recently restored oven was used by Italian immigrants who built the Wabash and Erie Canal which runs from east to west through the center of France Park, or by those who worked in the quarry. The canal operated from 1840-1875 and was used was to transport the stone mined at the quarry.

The oven, located near the entrance of the park, was used weekly as a community resource for those needing to bake their bread.

France Park is also home to camp sites and hiking trails, plus much more.

France Park

4505 W US Highway 24

Logansport, IN 46947

Ha Ha Tonka State Park castle ruins

On our recent visit to the Lake of the Ozarks area in Missouri, we took the time to stop at Ha Ha Tonka State Park in Camdenton, Missouri to view the castle ruins.

Around 1900, Robert McClure Snyder, a prominent Kansas City businessman was so impressed with the beauty of the area that he began purchasing much of the surrounding land and eventually acquired over 5,000 acres.

Snyder dreamed of building a private retreat that would rival castles of Europe. He brought in stone masons from Scotland and a hired a European supervisor to ensure proper construction techniques.
Kansas City architect Adrian Van Brunt designed the three-and-a-half story masterpiece. The stone and timber used were taken from the vicinity of the construction site and were hauled by mule team. Construction began in 1905.

Also on the property were nine greenhouses, a stable and an 80 foot water tower, all built of the same stone and timber.
The water tower fell victim to vandals in the 70s, but still stands today.

Tragically, in 1906, Snyder was killed in an automobile accident. The interior of the castle remained unfinished until 1922 when Snyder's sons completed the upper floors of the building.

The Snyder family then faced years of adversity in trying to keep the property in the family. Eventually they leased the mansion to a Mrs. Ellis who operated it as a hotel.

In 1942, one of Ha Ha Tonka's fireplaces sparked a fire in the mansion. All that remains today are the walls on the edge of the cliff. The State of Missouri purchased the estate in 1978 and opened it to the public as a State Park.

Visiting the site and enjoying some of the 12 hiking trails, we were impressed by the beauty of the property. The views rival those that we saw when visiting the Rhine/Mosel valley in Koblenz, Germany.

Ha Ha Tonka State Park
1491 State Road D
Camdenton, MO 65020