One arrives at Marion County Fish & Game,* pulling off a divided state highway onto a gravel road that immediately forks; the most unlikely-looking side vanishes into the woods. That is the driveway to the range, winding down a small hill next to Eagle Creek, under what I think is a railroad bridge, through a surprising card-reader security gate and a nice drive on back to the parking lot. The two new bays are the first things you see but one's first stop is at the clubhouse, to sign in. It's tucked in between the bays (you can just see the big backstop berm at right) and the big range (the shooting line shelter is barely visible at left).
A quick peek at a tiny portion of the main range, a hundred yards deep and at least as wide, all shooting positions roofed. The far right corner is where bowling pin shoots are held.
Back to the bays, looking a little like something the Mound Builders might have left us:
With a shooter, for scale.
On the way back out, the antique truss bridge.
I don't think there are railroad tracks leading to or from it any more and it looks too narrow to have been an automobile bridge but it's pretty.
The perceptive reader will notice there are no photos of my target; while I wasn't dreadful (by my admittedly-lax standards) and kept most of 'em in an area no bigger than a sheet of typing paper shooting from 30 ___________________________________________
* You can fish there, in both Eagle Creek and their very own pond, but it is a State-listed game preserve! This makes good sense, it's not really big enough or far enough away from houses to hunt and there's plenty of woodland back of the main range for critters.
more shooting is pretty much a cure all.
ReplyDeleteAre you sure that was a railroad bridge? Until 2004 there was a bridge that looked identical to the one you picture on the dirt road leading to my house. It was one lane wide and 108 years old when it was replaced with the ugliest concrete bridge you can imagine. When they built bridges like that one there wasn't a lot of traffic and I suppose one lane was all that was needed.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a plan!
ReplyDeleteWilly, you may very well be right. The more I look at that bridge, the less it looks like a 20th-century railroad truss. It just looks too lightweight for trains. I have seen similar construction for auto bridges.
ReplyDeleteThe bridge is what remains of an old interurban railway that ran from the Traction Terminal Building on Market St. downtown to Crawfordsville. That was in the early 1900's. My mother rode on it when she lived in Lizton. There are still RR ties on the bridge. Jim from MCF&G
ReplyDeleteMystery solved! Thank you, Jim.
ReplyDeleteThat explains the apparent contradiction of it being railroad width vs. the (relatively) light construction. The crisscross overhead horizontals are a very old-timey touch.
The pics look like the Peoria and Eastern Eagle Creek bridge.
ReplyDeletehttp://bridgehunter.com/in/marion/abandoned-conrail/
Love all the green -- and running water! Us desert shooters from AZ are gonna be terribly distracted at that gorgeous site! Thanks for the pics.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first shot Bullseye, I'd come home and excitedly tell my wife "I came in sixth!" But she was too smart and would add, "Be nice when you start having seven or more competitors."
"Lead correctly fired downrange" is the answer. Note the second word. It's not enough to shoot. Ya' gotta do it right. And then do it right many, many, many times.
It comes.
Larry: Bingo!
ReplyDeleteEd: it's plenty damp; Eagle Creek is at the right in the photos of the bays and if you look closely, you can see a huge puddle on the near side of three-trunk "fence," despite a little drainage swale leading down to the creek. There are some pretty good puddles right in front of the bays as well, but (whew!) quite shallow and with a gravel base. A few days without rain and they will dry right out.
Puddles? You mean actual water just standing there doing nothing? Holy cow!
ReplyDeleteMy "City of Phoenix" municipal services bill for April included $120 for water. Just water.
And you've got it sitting on the ground? My, what a wondrous place Indiana must be!
Aw, shucks, Ed, next time you pass through, we'll find one and hold you under, free for nothing! ;)
ReplyDeleteWhile city water here sometimes has a bad taste -- the reservoirs grow some icky but harmless algae during droughts -- we are unlikely to run out very soon.
Pretty sure that's why we grow more corn, soybeans an tomatoes here than you do in the southwest -- just a guess, mind you.
So very envious.
ReplyDelete