In the small Madison County community of Delphi Falls, its greatest asset is right in the name.

Scott Ingmire is the Director of the Madison County Department of Planning and Workforce Development. He and his team have spent years working on plans for what the renovated Delphi Falls could look like. When Delphi Falls County Park first opened in 2018, the county put up a parking lot and some picnic tables to get it operational. But now they're really digging into some big renovations. Construction started back in July on Phase 1.

“So a portion of this trail that you see now is was an old logging road, and they've continued to use that foundation and then extended a trail up to view the overlooks of the falls, but it's definitely an uphill climb,” said Ingmire. “So it'll be a good workout. I think for folks.”

The total trail will be three quarters of a mile, and includes several falls overlooks.

“There'll be quite a view right out here. We'll clear some of the vegetation back so you can see and it'll be some great opportunity for photography there. So we're excited about that,” said Ingmire.

This project will reveal one of the hidden secrets of Delphi Falls.

“But what a lot of people don't know and haven't seen yet is that there's an additional second set of falls about 54 feet high that are above this that have been pretty much obscured from view,” said Ingmire.

He says this park was private property for the last 60 years but the history of this land actually goes back further than that.

“Back in the 30s we understand that it was a privately owned park they would have public dances and square dances and that sort of thing. I think people would pay to come out here and sit by the falls. But to our knowledge, it's never been a public park,” said Ingmire.

Not until the County opened it to the public in 2018. Ingmire says that was thanks to Harold and Barbara Jones, who paid full price for this property at approximately $900,000, and sold it to the county for a fraction of what he bought it for, at $150,000.

”The last couple of years we've been designing what we're walking on now and with the hope that you know by the end of this year, this section will be open and will really change the way that people are able to use the park and interact with the falls,” said Ingmire.

Scott says this project is made possible by a million dollars in grant funding and some county money.

“It's been a bit of a dream to kind of come up with a plan for this and see it through,” said Ingmire.

Right now they’re working on Phase One of the project, and hope to move onto working on a second set of trails on October. The project also includes an ADA overlook of the lower falls.