Riverside Gardens in Leo-Cedarville Park offers a fun variety of activities

It's bring-your-own horseshoes, but there's a beautiful park all ready and set up for it at Riverside Gardens in Leo-Cedarville, Indiana. All the rules are listed on the sign in the above photo. The pits are nicely groomed, as if they don't get a lot of use there. But other interesting features of the park, recently finished for the most part in 2014, are very popular. These include a kids' splash pad (pictured left), sand volleyball courts (very well used), kids' playground equipment (popular), and paved walking trails.

There's a lovely wildflower garden with native plants at the south end of the park along the walking trails. Another wonderful feature is a paved stone creek with running water for play. Kids climb and splash through it, and it's so popular, I've seen photographers taking pictures of graduates or seniors next to the rambunctious kids.

Once native American lands for people such as the Miami and other tribes, this part of Indiana was slowly taken over by white settlers in the 1800's. Mastodon bones were discovered nearby in 1879, hence the origin of IPFW's mascot name for the Fort Wayne college campus and teams.

Leo-Cedarville's Riverside Gardens is located on the banks of the St. Joe River in northern Allen County. Just off Schwartz Road, Leo-Grabill Road and State Highway 1, it's a short drive north out of Fort Wayne along the tree-lined river and some Amish country. At that spot in the river, the Cedarville Dam was built in 1956 to help supply water to Fort Wayne. The Cedarville Reservoir filled up and retained 500 million gallons which could be treated for the city's water supply.

The Hurshtown Reservoir was later built to further back up supply: it holds 1.7 billion gallons. By 2001, a survey of local residents revealed most didn't want commercial development at this juncture of the river and Schwartz Road, so plans for the park and other town master planning began. The town had incorporated in 1996, so the park is a result of a park board, which was formed and which draws up park rules and collects fees for pavilion rentals.

The large octogonal pavilion with its connecting parts rents for $125/for a resident and a little more if one is not. The smaller pavilions, also very nice for picnics and get-togethers, go for $75/day for non-residents and a little less if the renter is local. There have been many special events this summer, such as kayak rentals along the shore. A farmer's market offers local goods every Tuesday in the summer, and live music concerts encourage folks to come and set up their lawn chairs Friday nights in the summertime.

We got a kick out of a car drive-in show, featuring plenty of cool classic cars and also some awesome newer things: I think the Tesla stole the show with this crowd. And then there's the Fourth of July Freedom Fest every year - the fabulous fireworks display and festival over and along the river. Lots of thoughtful planning goes on, and the work has paid off. You can google the town's website to learn more, or just drive there and check it out for yourself.