Wabash River Recreation Plan

WABASH RIVER RECREATION PLAN

Lafayette, Indiana

Because of its outstanding beauty, the Wabash and its environs have for years drawn the attention of Indiana’s planners, politicians, artist community and citizenry. This general area of the state is meagerly served by State Parks and recreation areas, although it contains much of Indiana’s population. Recognizing this need and the potential provided by the Wabash, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources funded this study to determine its recreational potentials. The study area included five contiguous Indiana Counties through which the Wabash meandered and at the center of which lay the twin cities Lafayette and West Lafayette.

Rundell Ernstberger Associates' charge was to recommend whether the river should be dammed and whether that damming would encourage more recreational uses for its corridor. The communities along the Wabash were strongly divided over use of the river. Public meetings were held to develop consensus and balance development vs. conservation. The concept which evolved from these meetings was a statewide conservation corridor that would provide recreational opportunities at various levels for everyone. Lafayette and West Lafayette would become the hub of the corridor.

Specifically this project is significant because:

The Wabash is one of the few remaining river corridors capable of impacting an entire state’s economy and natural resource base.
It outlines a preservation program for a 500-mile corridor rich with Indiana’s natural historical and cultural heritage.
It preserves one of the United State’s last free-flowing large rivers from obstruction.
It resulted in a bill in the Indiana Legislature expanding the original five-county Wabash Park Commission into the Wabash River Heritage Corridor Commission, an agency that includes representatives from each county along the corridor statewide.
It has provided a framework through which several counties have received funding for purchase of land and its development within a year of the study’s completion.
It has resulted in the passage of a referendum in Tippecanoe County approving a new state park as a part of the corridor development.
Its program evolved and expanded at the recommendation of the Landscape Architect to include a much broader scope resulting in a greater diversity of benefits to citizens and more extensive and meaningful environmental stewardship.
This study punctuated the need to look at the Main Street Bridge between Lafayette and West Lafayette as a vital cultural link and special gathering place for the citizens of both communities.
Finally, this study helped prevent the damming of one of this country’s last unobstructed major rivers and redirected regional attitudes about the value of the river corridor as a recreational amenity for future generations as well as present-day users.

1992 Merit Award, American Society of Landscape Architects, Indiana Chapter

Return to Parks and Recreation