| Frances Slocum State Forest | |
|---|---|
 A view of Mississinewa River from Frances Slocum State Forest | |
  Location in Indiana  Location in United States | |
| Location | Miami County, Indiana, US |
| Nearest city | Peru, Indiana |
| Coordinates | 40°43′48″N85°57′54″W / 40.73000°N 85.96500°W |
| Area | 516 acres (2.09 km2) |
| Governing body | Nature Conservancy |
Frances Slocum State Forest is 516 acres of natural land managed by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
Located near Kokomo, Peru and Wabash, in Miami County, Indiana. Some nearby attractions include the Mississinewa Reservoir, Asherwood Nature Preserve and Salmonie River State Forest. [2]
Roughly triangular, the park runs beside the Mississinewa River. Frances Slocum has 516 acres.
In 2019 a group called Friends of Salamonie Forest asked for the Indiana Natural Resources Commission to designate the Frances Slocum State Forest as a state park along with Salamonie Forest. The petition, which received over 850 signatures, argued that turning these areas into state parks would establish old forests, increase wildlife diversity and bring more visitors to northeast Indiana. Another main point of the petition was that it would stop logging plans from being enacted. [3] In addition, the group called for better trails, to stop erosion that has started to occur through the forests. [4]
At the time Huntington Mayor Brooks Fetter stated, "We want an extension to give us here in northeast Indiana an opportunity to see what can be done to save these trees and save these parks for ourselves and for our posterity." [3]
People who opposed the petition said that it would limit recreational activities taking place at the park. They also said that the logging that is being proposed would not hurt the natural environment.
The commission unanimously voted to deny all parts of the petition, keeping Frances Slocum State Forest a place where logging, hunting and fishing can take place. [3]
Some activities that people can do while at Frances Slocum State Forest includes, equestrian trails, hiking trails, hunting, fishing, foraging, and there is access to the Mississinewa river. There is no camping available at Frances Slocum State Forest, this park is a day use only park.
The Frances Slocum Boy Scout Trail is 2.5 miles long, it has 160 foot elevation gain and is a loop trail. It is ranked as at moderate difficulty. Dogs are required to be on leash but are allowed to be on the trail. [5] There are complaints that the trail is underkept and needs to be more maintained then it currently is. [6]
While Frances Slocum state forest does not have any rare tree types, some common trees found in Indiana that can be found at this state forest include the Conifer, Deciduous Hardwood, and Evergreen. [7]
Some common wildlife that could also be spotted at Frances Slocum include, coyotes, beavers, cottontail rabbits, fox squirrels, gray squirrels, raccoons, gray foxes, and red foxes. Some amphibians and reptiles that could be spotted include the snapping turtle, and eastern hog-nosed snake.
Some native Indiana birds include cardinals, wild turkey, and bobwhite quail. In rare sightings the belted kingfisher can be spotted, it is the only kingfisher found in the state. [8]
In Miami County the average rain fall is 41 inches per year which is slightly above the average rainfall in the United States. The county receives 28 inches of snow on average, it has 179 sunny days per year. In the summer months average high temperature in July is 84 degrees while in the winter the average low in January is 17 degrees. The most fair weather conditions fall in June, September, and August. [9]
The park was established in the mid 1930s. The state forest is named after Frances Slocum. She was a Native American captive from the Delaware Tribe. She lived from 1773 to 1847. She lived with the Miami Indians in Ohio and Indiana. Given the opportunity to return to her blood family, she chose to live with her adopted Native American Family. She was married to a man named Shepoconah who would become of the Chief of the Miami People but would give up his duties as Chief when he became deaf. He started a village called Deaf Man's Village in Peru, Indiana. [10]
In 2018, Drake Smith, 22, was beaten to death inside Frances Slocum State Forest. His murderer was convicted in 2022 and sentenced to 55 years. The man, Ethan Cain, 24, killed Smith over drugs and money. Smith's body was found the same day by mushroom hunters in the park. A few days later Cain and his accomplice Joshua Kean were arrested in southern California. [11]
Kokomo is a city in Indiana and the county seat of Howard County, Indiana, United States. Its population increased from 45,468 at the 2010 census to 59,604 in the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Kokomo, Indiana Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Howard County, the Kokomo-Peru CSA, which includes Howard and Miami counties, as well as the North Central Indiana region consisting of six counties anchored by the city of Kokomo.
Peru is a city in, and the county seat of, Miami County, Indiana, United States. It is 73 miles (117 km) north of Indianapolis. The population was 11,073 at the 2020 census, making it the most populous community in Miami County. Peru is located along the Wabash River and is part of the Kokomo-Peru Combined Statistical Area.
Jean Baptiste de Richardville, also known as Pinšiwa or Peshewa in the Miami-Illinois language or John Richardville in English, was the last akima 'civil chief' of the Miami people. He began his career in the 1790s as a fur trader who controlled an important portage connecting the Maumee River to the Little River in what became the present-day state of Indiana. Richardville emerged a principal chief in 1816 and remained a leader of the Miamis until his death in 1841. He was a signatory to the Treaty of Greenville (1795), as well as several later treaties between the U.S. government and the Miami people, most notably the Treaty of Fort Wayne (1803), the Treaty of Fort Wayne (1809), the Treaty of Saint Mary's (1818), the Treaty of Mississinewas (1826), the treaty signed at the Forks of the Wabash (1838), and the Treaty of the Wabash (1840).
Frances Slocum was an adopted member of the Miami people. Slocum was born into a Quaker family that migrated from Warwick, Rhode Island, in 1777 to the Wyoming Valley in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. On November 2, 1778, when Slocum was five years old, she was captured by three Delaware warriors at the Slocum family farm in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Slocum was raised among the Delaware in what is now Ohio and Indiana. With her marriage to Shepoconah, who later became a Miami chief, Slocum joined the Miami and took the name Maconaquah. She settled with her Miami family at Deaf Man's village along the Mississinewa River near Peru, Indiana.
The Mississinewa River is a tributary of the Wabash River in eastern Indiana and a small portion of western Ohio in the United States. It is 120 miles (190 km) long and is the third largest tributary behind the White and Little Wabash Rivers, only slightly larger than the Embarras and Vermilion Rivers. Via the Wabash and Ohio rivers, it is part of the Mississippi River watershed.
Kokomo, whose name is also sometimes given as Koh-Koh-Mah, Co-come-wah, Ma-Ko-Ko-Mo, or Kokomoko, was a Native American man of the Miami tribe who lived in northern Indiana at some point probably in the early nineteenth century. The city of Kokomo, Indiana is named after him. David Foster, the founder of the city of Kokomo, is widely quoted as having said, "It was the orneriest town on earth, so I named it after the orneriest Indian on earth—called it Kokomo," but this anecdote may be apocryphal and it is unclear whether Foster was the one who proposed the name for the city at all.
The Salamonie River is a tributary of the Wabash River, in eastern Indiana in the United States. The river is 84.4 miles (135.8 km) long. It is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River, via the Wabash and Ohio rivers. The USS Salamonie was named for the river.
Frances Slocum State Park is a 1,035-acre (419 ha) Pennsylvania state park in Kingston Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Frances Slocum Lake is a 165-acre (67 ha) man-made, horseshoe-shaped lake that is a popular fishing and boating destination. The park is 5 miles (8.0 km) from Dallas and 10 miles (16 km) from Wilkes-Barre.
George Winter was an English-born landscape and portrait artist who immigrated to the United States in 1830 and became an American citizen in northern Indiana's Wabash River valley. Winter was one of Indiana's first professional artists. In addition, he is considered the state's most significant painter of the first half of the nineteenth century. Winter is especially noted for his sketches, watercolors, and oil portraits that provide a visual record of the Potawatomi and Miami people in northern Indiana from 1837 to the 1840s, as well as other figures drawn from his firsthand observations on the American frontier.
State Road 124 (SR 124) is an east–west state road in the U.S. state of Indiana. The highway runs from SR 19 in Peru east through Bluffton and Monroe to end at Ohio State Route 81 near Willshire, Ohio. SR 124 runs through mostly agricultural land and near a few state parks through Northern Indiana.
Peoria is an unincorporated community in Butler Township, Miami County, in the U.S. state of Indiana.
U.S. Route 31 (US 31) is a part of the United States Numbered Highway System that runs from Spanish Fort, Alabama, to Mackinaw City, Michigan. It enters the U.S. state of Indiana via the George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge between Louisville, Kentucky, and Clarksville, Indiana. The 266.02 miles (428.12 km) of US 31 that lie within Indiana serve as a major conduit. Some of the highway is listed on the National Highway System. Various sections are rural two-lane highway and urbanized four- or six-lane divided expressway. The northernmost community along the highway is South Bend near the Michigan state line.
Monument City is a former settlement in Huntington County, Indiana.
Francis Godfroy was a chief of the Miami people. He negotiated treaties with between his tribe and the United States.
Mississinewa Lake Dam is a dam in Miami County, Indiana, just outside the town of Peru, in the central part of the state.
Terrell Jacobs Circus Winter Quarters, also known as Pipe Creek Wild Animal Farm and Circus Winter Headquarters, was a historic circus complex and national historic district located at Pipe Creek Township, Miami County, Indiana. The district encompassed five contributing buildings, three contributing sites, three contributing structures, and seven contributing objects related to the circus headquarters. Most notable are the Terrell Jacobs Cat Barn, Terrell Jacobs Elephant Barn, and the Circus Drive-In Restaurant (1967). Other notable contributing resources are the Elephant Rock, Jacobs Bridge, six Cole Brothers Circus Wagons, creek landscape and Wallace Grotto (1944-1949), and the wild animal graveyard. The property was the site of the birth of Tony, a white tiger. In 2020 the Indiana Department of Transportation slated the structurally unsound elephant barn for demolition. Road access will be removed to provide free flowing conditions along US 31 between Indianapolis and South Bend. In 2021 the site was demolished by the Indiana Department of Transportation.
Ethan Manning is an American politician and businessman serving as a member of the Indiana House of Representatives from the 23rd district. He assumed office on November 7, 2018.
