OWEN COUNTY— A sunny Thursday afternoon is making for a near perfect day at McCormick's Creek State Park.
"Very beautiful. Very, very beautiful," said visitor Anna Martin.
Martin lives nearby and comes to the state park often. She also witnessed a tornado in Owen County that caused devastating damage at McCormick's Creek a year ago.
"It was so scary. I remember thinking, 'What's going to happen in the park,'" said Martin.
Park officials worked hard to get portions of the park open a week later and the clean up continued after that.
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Carl Lindell, the Central Region Manager for Indiana State Parks, says their immediate focus was getting places like the Canyon Inn, Nature Center and swimming pools back open.
They've also been able to clear 3.7-miles of trail for people to use with about 7-miles left to open.
"It’s been very hard work, but it’s been rewarding to be able to get people back into the park," said Lindell.
Lindell says their biggest project is clearing the 280-acres of campground.
"If you can imagine, being in a heavily wooded campground and almost all the trees have been knocked down or broken. We’re using the money from that harvest to actually help rebuild," said Lindell.
Lindell says because of that overnight visitation, numbers are down.
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"We’re down almost $1 million in revenue just here at McCormick's Creek State Park, so we are seeing less people overnight," said Lindell.
On April 8, Lindell says the park will be full. For three years they've been planning for the eclipse.
McCormick's Creek is in the path of totality and will welcome hundreds of guests.
"Plan to spend the day, plan to get here early, bring plenty of food because if you choose to leave, you're probably not going to be able to get back in," said Lindell.
Lindell says they will be selling eclipse glasses the day of and have telescopes out that were given to the parks.
As for the campgrounds, they're starting to work on a new design for the area. As of right now, there's no timeline of when it will be back open.
