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Popular Indiana toboggan track gets added push

People enjoy the toboggan track at Pokagon State Park near Angola, Indiana. (Photo Provided/Indiana State Parks via Facebook)

ANGOLA, Ind. (WISH) — One of Indiana’s popular winter destinations, the toboggan run at Pokagon State Park will no longer need someone to launch riders on the track.

Indiana State Parks says on Facebook that Trine University engineering students, a local industry making material handling equipment, and the park staff developed a hydraulic system that now gives tobogganers that push they need to make the 90-foot drop over the quarter-mile track.

The Stueben County Tourism Bureau provided funding support, the post says.

The quicker process could increase the total of tobogganers, which hits about 90,000 each winter.

The toboggan run will be open on weekends from Dec. 18-Feb. 27, although it’ll be closed Dec. 25, according to a Stueben County tourism webpage. It’ll also be open Jan. 17 for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Feb. 21 for Presidents Day, days when schools are generally closed for those holidays. Cost is $20 per hour, and the fun is first-come, first-served. Local COVID-19 regulations will be followed, and riders must wear gloves. Also, the track closes down when the temperatures drops to zero or lower.