About Outdoor Indiana
Outdoor Indiana, the state's premier magazine, delivers the wonders of the Hoosier outdoors to subscribers' homes and offices in 48 pages of vibrant color. For the best of state parks, lakes, wildlife, forests, trails, hunting, fishing, wildflowers and outdoorsy people, plus inside information from DNR experts, subscribe for $15 per year or $28 for two years. Follow the magazine staff on Facebook.
The gristmill, the centerpiece of the Pioneer Village at Spring Mill State Park, is running again. Photo by Brent Drinkut.
Featured Stories
- From the Director
A SEASON TO CELEBRATE
DNR Director
Alan MorrisonAs warm summer days fade into the crisp air of fall, I reflect on the many reasons to be thankful to be a Hoosier.
Each year, as the weather cools, I eagerly anticipate getting out to enjoy the time-honored tradition of hunting. Some of Indiana’s most popular hunting seasons finally arrive, including squirrel, wild turkey, waterfowl, and deer.
This year, we are also opening a new chapter for wildlife management with a limited bobcat trapping season in 40 southern Indiana counties, supported by research from DNR and Purdue University on bobcats’ growing population during the last two decades.
Hunting and trapping are more than just sport and Hoosier traditions—they’re key to DNR’s conservation mission. When you purchase your license and gear, you’re helping support habitat restoration, wildlife research, and land conservation.Simply put, hunters and trappers are some of Indiana’s leading conservationists.
Make sure you’re safe when hunting this year. Falls from elevated tree stands are Indiana’s leading cause of hunting injuries, so make sure you wear your full-body safety harness. Hunter education courses are offered in-person and online.And as you’re out in the woods this fall, consider giving back by donating a deer through Indiana Hunt for Hunger, which pays the processing fees to turn your deer into healthy venison for Hoosiers in need.
Have an enjoyable and safe time in the woods—and good luck!
- APPLE OF OUR EYE
Hoosiers have a bushel of love for the sweet, tangy fruit
By Scott Roberts, OI staff
Jason McClure among a row of apple trees in Peru.
If the saying, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” were true, Jason McClure could be the healthiest man on Earth.
He owns and runs McClure’s Orchard in Miami County near Peru, and he says he devours not one but 10 to 15 a day.
He loves the flavor as well the crisp, clean feeling he gets from eating apples, but it’s the multitude of varieties that keeps him coming back.
From tart Granny Smith, to complex Jonathan, to sweet Honeycrisp and beyond, there’s usually an apple to please most palates. More than 7,500 varieties are grown worldwide, and more than 2,500 of those are grown in the United States.
“You can have that ‘apple a day’ and never get bored with them,” McClure said.
Apples are also convenient. They’re portable, and they don’t need to be peeled. Many people eat them raw, like McClure usually does, but they’re also a main ingredient in pies, cobblers, and dumplings, as well as many other culinary creations.
Those are a few reasons apples are the most eaten fruit in the country according to the USDA, which estimates each person in the country eats an average of 9 pounds of apples and drinks 1.7 gallons of apple juice per year.
Indiana’s apple enthusiasm begins with its climate. Apples grow best where temperatures dip below freezing in the winter and warm to moderately hot in the summer with medium to high humidity. Sound familiar?
To read the rest of this article subscribe to Outdoor Indiana or pick up a copy at one of our state park inns. To subscribe, click here or call (317) 233-3046.
- RESTORING HISTORY
State park’s gristmill and inn shine once more
By Scott Roberts, OI staff
Two years of work revived the iconic 1817 gristmill at Spring Mill State Park.
Ben Handel and his sons, 10-year-old Quincy and 8-year-old Jetson, were walking around Spring Mill State Park’s Pioneer Village on an early summer afternoon when they heard the sound of rushing water.
It didn’t take long for them to find the source. The park’s iconic gristmill, built in 1817, had begun to run. They rushed inside the picturesque old building, eager to watch 208 years of history at work.
“They’d never seen one operate before and they were really excited,” Handel said of his sons. “It was really nice to see it in action.”
As the gristmill’s gears creaked and turned, the trio stood transfixed as they watched the mill do what it was designed for, grind whole corn into cornmeal. When the process was finished, Ben Handel spent about 10 minutes asking questions of miller Tom Wade. The father of two asked about the millstone, the gears, and the physics of how the machine worked, then explained the miller’s answers to his sons in simpler terms.
“It’s amazing how they were able to come up with all of this back then, and it’s crazy to think this was the economic center of the (former) town,” Handel said. “This is something my sons will remember for a long time.”
The mill’s smooth operation and the cornmeal yielded is the result of a full restoration that began in April of 2023 and took two years to complete at a cost of $2.1 million.
To read the rest of this article subscribe to Outdoor Indiana or pick up a copy at one of our state park inns. To subscribe, click here or call (317) 233-3046.
- DOGGONE GOOD PARTNERS
The joy and practice of upland bird hunting
By Scott Roberts, OI Staff
Melinda Benbow reinforces Unice’s pointing instinct.
Travis Stoelting, a DNR wildlife biologist based in Greene County, fondly remembers the sense of pride he felt when his dog Pepper, now nearly 3 years old, finally put all her training together after two years of training with him.
In October of last year, he and Pepper worked through a section of woods just as the dog was bred and taught to do, hunting for woodcock. Pepper kept focused, her nose in the air, searching for scent, until she caught it.
She immediately snapped to a point, notifying Stoelting of a woodcock’s presence. Stoelting walked up behind Pepper and flushed, or made the bird fly, then harvested it as Pepper stayed perfectly still.
“From that point forward, she knew all about woodcock,” Stoelting said. “That’s the ‘click,’ and when it happens it’s more memorable to me than any other moment in dog training.”
Kenny McIntosh of Bloomfield has hunted with bird dogs for more than 40 years. He said he still loves to see that moment Stoelting described, too.
“It’s so amazing how they can just pick a bird up and lock solid on point, I never get tired of it,” he said.
To read the rest of this article subscribe to Outdoor Indiana or pick up a copy at one of our state park inns. To subscribe, click here or call (317) 233-3046.
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