Orland Parks & Preserves
Orland Town Park
Orland Town Park
Marked by an iconic stone archway, the community area located just north of town on State Road 327 features open and wood spaces, a picnic area, playground, restrooms and competitive horseshoe pits. It also has several fish ponds for the Fawn River State Fish Hatchery. In the 1930s the Orland Conservation Club built a fish rearing pond. It was later added to and became one of the largest fish hatcheries in Indiana. Both areas are open to the public dawn to dusk.
Pigeon River State Fish & Wildlife Area
Pigeon River State Fish & Wildlife Area
There’s something for everyone at Pigeon River State Fish & Wildlife Area. Canoes are available for rent, while you can catch trout, bluegill, bass (small, large and rock) as well as pike and carp either by boat or from shore. Wildlife enthusiasts will marvel at the beaver, muskrats and deer, and birders will enjoy watching waterfowl and songbirds.
Picnic or hike one of the many trails and enjoy the lush surroundings including sycamore and tamarack stands, willows, ferns, orchids and cardinal flowers. The crowning jewel of this area is the Pigeon River named for Chief White Pigeon, a historic local Native American leader. Open dawn to dusk, leashed dogs are welcome, Please pick up after them.
To reach the area just south of Orland travel south on State Road 120, west of State Road 327 and north on County Road 300 North.
Ropchan Memorial Nature Preserve
Ropchan Memorial Nature Preserve
This park is also located just south of Orland. Hikers will enjoy trekking the trail which leads through a ridge moraine to a low wetland laced with cinnamon fern, mountain holly and winterberry. A variety of turtles and frogs as well as waterfowl and songbirds can be spotted in and near the kettle-hole lake. A canopy of tamarack, yellow birch and maple as well as an oak and hickory forest with dogwood, hazelnut and sassafras trees line the trails. Various rocky outcrops further in were once a bog covered in wild cranberries and sphagnum moss. There isn’t a true parking lot to speak of, but there is a recognizable green space with various markers on the right side of the road. Pull off onto the brim and park. The area is open from dawn to dusk and at 6830 N. 750 W. Orland, IN 46776.