Named for one of Central Indiana’s most ardent champions of natural areas, the Nonie Werbe Krauss Preserve has a mix of wooded areas along the White River and open prairie grounds. Formerly farmland, it has been carefully curated to return it to a more natural state, with the intent of showing what Indiana used to look like.
Easy walking trails cutting through both the prairie and wooded areas (thanks in part to its frequent use as an educational area for adjacent Riverside Junior High and as a course for the school’s cross country team), Nonie Krauss offers a home to a wide variety of plants and animals, and spring brings an assortment of wildflowers to the landscape.
The Nonie Werbe Krauss Preserve is located at the southwest corner of 116th Street and Eller Road. Public parking is available in the parking lot behind Riverside Middle School (10910 Eller Road after 4 p.m. on weekdays and any time during weekends. Plenty of easy trails are available, but the preserve is not ADA-accessible.
