Long before the first settlers came to the
area of Shades State Park, Native Americans
lived among the virgin forest, steep
ravines and cliff areas along Sugar Creek.
Legends claim that a large Piankeshaw
village, a component of the diversified
Miami tribe, lived on what is now park
land. Legend also implies that a decisive
Native American battle was fought by 600
warriors, the losing tribe having only 5 of
the 12 survivors.
Although this battle is only legend, one
may be assured that these Native Americans
and French voyagers played an
important role in the rich history leading
to the settlement of Indiana.
The first settlers came to this area around
the late 1820s after the Miami tribe ceded
the land to the federal government in 1818.
The shallow soils and broken topography of
the lands that border Sugar Creek provided
little enticement to farmers, thus the majority
of the forest escaped destruction.
One story of the area attributes the illusion of deep
shadows beneath the nearly unbroken canopy of
these forests and the eerie feeling projected by the
“black forest” as the reason for the early name, “The
Shades of Death.” Other people, however, say the
name resulted due to the warlike Native Americans
who occupied this natural stronghold along Sugar
Creek and the legend of an early settler being killed.
Another story that contributed to the gloomy name
claimed that a young settler’s wife buried an axe in
her wicked husband’s head. Finally the “Shades of
Death” name, considered unsavory, was dropped to
simply “The Shades.” These examples of the legends
and folklore of the area are often topics for campfires
at naturalist activities.
The results of a government survey of 1815 noted
as landmarks a series of natural springs in a ravine
area that played an important part in the history of
Shades. In 1886, the Garland Dells Mineral Springs
Association was organized and land was purchased
and rented to develop a health resort and recreation
area named “The Shades.” In 1887 a 40-room inn was
built on the location of the shelter house near Devil’s
Punchbowl (this inn has since been razed because
of fire damage and maintenance costs).
The person who had been named the “Father of
Shades,” Joseph W. Frisz, purchased stock in the
Dells Mineral Springs Association in 1909 and gained
complete control in 1916 of this Association. Frisz
safeguarded the natural areas and dense forests,
while purchasing additional tracts of land, until the
late 1930s. Shades scenic park comprised 2,200
acres. The park boasted the scenic inn set in a grove
of mature oak trees, hiking trails, swimming, fishing
and natural spring water.
In early 1947, the park was purchased from Frisz’s
heirs by a holding company until a public subscription
campaign (“Save the Shades”) raised the purchase
money. Shades became the 15th state park and was
hence saved from the timber cutters, who would have
used the majority of the oak timber for whiskey barrels.
The above copied from the free brochure (available in the link or in person), but 1/2 of which is printed upside-down, on the web site.