Indian Point Park

ALERT: Usage of the Grand River will be restricted due to work near the Vrooman Road bridge until mid September. Access to the river at Indian Point Park and Blair Landing is affected.
 

Limited access to Indian Point Park

The intersection of Seeley Road and Vrooman Road is closed for the duration of the Vrooman Road bridge project to accommodate the construction work zone. Indian Point Park, located on Seeley Road, is accessible only via Paine Road.

Lake Metroparks will work to maintain access to Paine Creek and the Grand River as much as possible during this construction project. Access may be closed periodically for maintenance on the road and bridge over Paine Creek. During the winter, there are times when the gravel hill down to Paine Creek will have to be closed for safety reasons.

Park history

Charles Lyman bought several acres at the point of land above the intersection of the Grand River and Paine Creek in 1901. In the years before World War I, he used the area as a military camp for high school boys. More than 150 youngsters attended Lyman's Camp Wissolohican during its seven-year period of existence. Lyman began carving the names of campers into a Totem Stone, which can be seen along the trail near the point. Later, the point became a Finnish camp, Kaleva Lodge. During this time, a stone hut was built and used as a sauna, intact until the 1970s, when the park system dismantled it. The property was purchased from John Phelps in 1964. A plaque was erected here, in honor of James and Edna Phelps, his parents. (In 1802, part of the property had been deeded to his ancestors by the Connecticut Land Company.)

The Whittlesey Culture

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the National Park Service, Indian Point has one of the earliest architectural works in this part of Ohio.

A tribe from the Whittlesey Culture lived here; a Whittlesey structure was built on the 100-foot ridge between Paine Creek and the Grand River. Two parallel mounds of their earthworks can be seen.

The Whittelsey were an early people who lived from 900 AD to 1650 AD in stockade villages on high bluffs overlooking rivers and lakes. Because they didn't have contact with Europeans, the name of their tribe is unknown. The culture is named after the archaeologist who discovered the tribe.