Origins -- Richard Lieber and the beginnings of Indiana state parks (1910s-1933) -- The New Deal arrives (1933-1941) -- World War II and postwar expansion (1941-1965) -- The growing web of bureaucracy (1965-1990) -- A question of balance (1990-present). McCormick's Creek State Park -- Turkey Run State Park -- Clifty Falls State Park -- Indiana Dunes State Park -- Pokagon State Park -- Spring Mill State Park -- Brown County State Park -- Shakamak State Park -- Mounds State Park -- Lincoln State Park -- Tippecanoe State Park -- Versailles State Park -- Shades State Park -- Whitewater Memorial State Park -- Chain O'Lakes State Park -- Oubache State Park -- Harmonie State Park -- Potato Creek State Park -- Summit Lake State Park -- The Falls of the Ohio State Park -- Charlestown State Park -- Fort Harrison State Park -- Prophetstown State Park -- O'Bannon Woods State Park -- Former state parks -- Appendix: State Park directors.

Many visitors view state parks as facilities for outdoor recreation, and their encounters with nature are almost incidental. The styles, types, and locations of buildings constructed in the pre-World War II years represented aesthetic choices intended to be suitable to a primitive natural landscape.