Versailles State Park

Versailles State Park (pronounced locally as ver-SAYLES) is an Indiana state park, near the town of Versailles, Indiana in Ripley County. The land was given by the National Park Service for use as a state park to Indiana's Department of Conservation in 1943. The park draws about 225,000 visitors annually. In the early 20th century, the area was farmland. In the 1930s, the National Park Service acquired the land and hired the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to improve the land into a Recreational Demonstration Area. The 230-acre (0.93 km2) Versailles Lake was formed in 1954 when a dam was built across Laughery Creek. Near the park's entrance is a statue commemorating the work done by the CCC to improve the land. Efforts to build the statue were led by two local women, Ruth Swinney and her daughter Lisa Ebinger, as well as the Ripley County Historical Society. Two grants--one from the Rising Sun Regional Foundation and another from the Ripley County Community Foundation--provided the funds necessary to construct the statue. The statue was dedicated on May 21, 2010. Similar statues exist across the United States, but the only other such statue in Indiana is located in Ouabache State Park in Wells County. It is a recreation area, with fishing and boating on Versailles Lake and Laughery Creek. A covered bridge, the Busching Bridge, crosses the creek.