Photo provided by DNR
The Natural Resources Building is the place to be during the Indiana State Fair now through Sunday, Aug. 21, excluding Mondays and Tuesdays.
Located in the northwest area of the fairgrounds, the building offers information on all things DNR in air-conditioned comfort. While visiting inside, you can pick up the latest guidebooks on recreation, fishing, and hunting and trapping, along with manuals on boating, off-road vehicles, and much more.
To tie in with this year’s automobile-related fair theme of Fun at the Speed of Summer, many of the DNR displays will highlight some of the vehicles, machinery, and other tools and gadgets the staff uses on the job.
Outside the building is the Fishin’ Pond, where children ages 5 to 17 can fish for free on Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and 4 to 7 p.m.
Also outside, at the amphitheater, which is next to the building, you can check out the live reptiles at 10 a.m. and a live birds of prey program at 4:30 p.m. every day of the fair. More programs will be offered at amphitheater and on the building’s front porch. Updates and more can be found at dnr.IN.gov/statefair.
While shopping for outdoors-themed gifts, T-shirts and toys inside the building’s Mother Nature’s Mercantile, you can get an exclusive special deal on Outdoor Indiana magazine that is available only to fair attendees while supplies last. Simply buy a subscription at the cash register, and you will be handed the current July/August issue, highlights of which are at OutdoorIndiana.org. Your one- or two-year subscription ($15 or $28, respectively) will start with the September/October issue, so you will be getting one issue free.