Shades of Death and the Devil's Backbone
07. Aug, 2009 
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Indiana is full of two things: cornfields and soybean fields. They line the roadsides, flashing past as you drive: cornfield, soybean field. Cornfield, soybean field. Cornfields with rusty tin-roofed barns; soybean fields with power poles marching diagonally across. Soybean fields with tree-shaded farmhouses; cornfields with peak-roofed silo towers like shiny agricultural castles. And then more soybean fields, and more corn fields.
Most of Indiana looks like this: an expanse of farmland where the only variation is between those two ubiquitous crops. This is Big Ag country, where a farmer’s goal is to produce as many identical plants as possible. Soybeans and corn, after all, are the true backbone of America.
The fields are beautiful, in their way—but it’s an unnatural beauty, without mystery or variation. Like assembly lines, these cornrows produce ear after perfect ear with nary a bug or blemish in sight. But they rely on genetically-modified crops, nasty pesticides and irresponsible farming practices, and in the shade of those waxy green leaves lies distressed, unhealthy soil.
But I digress.
What I meant to say was: here in Indiana, there ain’t much but corn and soybeans. It’s flat and green as far as the eye can see… except in Montgomery County, where I met Lacy and Justin Smith.
Lacy is an ex-coworker of mine, and an Indiana native. I’d been looking forward to seeing her for months. We met in Lafayette and then headed out to the countryside where she grew up. There, we visited a few of Indiana’s most pristine, beautiful, and well-hidden spots: Shades and Turkey Run State Parks, and the Pine Hills Nature Preserve.
Pretty amazing scenery; more photos after the jump.
We set up camp at the Shades of Death State Park. Yes, that’s right. The name has been officially shortened to “Shades”, but this park is still proud of its dark history. Some say that native Americans, resisting being driven from the land, remained here for years and killed any white person who entered the gorges. In another story, a young wife killed her husband with a hatchet. There’s also a story of a crazed hermit who claimed to be visited by a witch in these woods.
Whatever the local lore, the campground is dark and gloomy, full of poison ivy and lightning bugs. The perfect place for an excellent’s night sleep, which we proceeded to have.
The next day was a scorcher. In Indiana, if the heat don’t get ya, the humidity will. It was hard to catch a breath, and we poured out sweat faster than we could put water in. I thanked my lucky stars that I wasn’t in Arkansas. If things were this uncomfortable in Indiana, I could only imagine how miserable it was back in Hot Springs.
Lacy and Justin suggested we go for a hike, which seemed like a strange idea to me. Hiking, in this weather? But soon I would come to understand that, on a hot day, the Montgomery County parks are the best place you could possibly be.
Our first stop was Pine Hills Nature Preserve, where we walked straight off the highway and into a wooded wonderland. From a wide, shady trail, the preserve drops down into a steep gorge which has been carved through the shale bedrock by Sugar Creek’s gentle flow. To reach the water, you’ve got to climb down a long stairway. Inside the gorge, hidden from the blazing sun, it’s shady, cool and quiet.
We crossed the creek and took the trail up the other side, to the Devil’s Backbone. This narrow rock bridge is only a few feet wide and drops off hundreds of feet on both sides. It’s covered with carvings: devil’s heads, passenger pigeons, names and dates. Most of the dates are from around 1900.
From the Devil’s Backbone, the trail drops back down and passes by Honeycomb Rock, a giant sandstone cliff eroded into the kind of forms that sculptors dream about.
It was a short hike, maybe an hour’s walk at our slow pace. That left us plenty of time to explore Turkey Run State Park, which turned out to be one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen in a long time.
Turkey Run is so beautiful, in fact, that it deserves its own entry. Come back tomorrow to see!
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