Sports, Sports, Sports

The City of Madison's recreational facilities include 255 acres of developed park and recreational properties and include an 18 hole golf course, public swimming pool, a fishing lake, sports complex, numerous ball parks and varied playground facilities.

Camping, picnicing, naturalist guides, hiking and walking trails, swimming and other facilities are available at Clifty Falls State Park located at the western edge of Madison. This 1,300+ acre park draws many tourists to the Madison area and is extremely popular in the fall season when the leaves begin changing color.

The Ohio River serves as a mecca for water sports, with public and private boat docks located along the waterfront, including two public boat launching facilities maintained by the City of Madison. One of the facilities also contains a large permanent bandstand for summer concerts on the river front. The Ohio River in Madison is also the location for the Indiana Governor's Cup Regatta, which features the world's fastest unlimited hydroplanes and draws over 50,000 spectators annually. The Madison Main Street Program offers spring, summer and fall Music In The Park festivals.

River boats and small pleasure craft provide amusement and recreation on the Ohio River. The Delta Queen, the last of the old passenger-carrying stern wheelers, makes Madison one of its few regularly scheduled stops. As Madison grew, the importance of river traffic increased. In spite of good transportation overland, the water route now handles a larger volume of cargos annually than clears through the Panama Canal.

The area is a growing center of diversified industries and power generation. It also offers more open space for recreation than any other area in the midwest, ranging from the Ohio River and large reservoirs to diversified State and private recreation areas offering camping, hiking, fishing, hunting and golf, plus many more opportunities too numerous to name. This unspoiled area has over ten scenic acres of land for every person, and yet there are over four and one half million persons seated on the Historic Hoosier Hills doorsteps in the metropolitan areas of Louisville, Indianapolis and Cincinnati.