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THE SOUTH SIDE HILL
The south side's great park is a hill, and the record of its making is the thinnest in this section: George Wilson Park, at 2605 Clover Road, is 54.3 acres of rolling hills and tall trees — the largest neighborhood park in this record by its documented measure — and it is the city's winter park: its tubing and toboggan hill is, on the parks department's own carried account, Mishawaka's most popular winter sledding spot, with an eighteen-hole disc golf course on the same slopes and the annual Slide the Hill summer event running the hill in the warm months. The park was in winter use by the mid-1970s: the 1976 Miskodeed, quoted in the Culture record, already shows the city's students sledding at George Wilson Park, "provided sledding facilities plus the warmth of a fire." Its founding date, the George Wilson it is named for, and any earlier use of its ground — the gravel-pit origin sometimes assumed for such hills — are not established in any source, and they are named here as open rather than filled. Announced, and printed as announced only: the hill is to be rebuilt as a year-round tubing, skiing and snowboarding course — synthetic-snow lanes, four 250-foot tubing lanes and a carpet lift on the school-press account — with completion scheduled for the fall of 2026 on that account and a 2027 opening on the visitor bureau's; as of this writing in November 2026 the work stands in the announced column, and the park's next entry belongs to the update cycle.
Sources:
- City of Mishawaka parks pages and visitor record (November 2026) — the park's 54.3 acres, address, disc golf course and winter standing.
- Miskodeed (Mishawaka High School, 1976), as quoted in the Culture record — sledding at George Wilson Park by the mid-1970s.
- Penn News Network (Penn-Harris-Madison school press) — the announced renovation: synthetic snow, four 250-foot lanes, carpet lift, completion scheduled fall 2026.
- Visit South Bend Mishawaka, parks roundup (updated April 2026) — a year-round sledding, tubing and snowboarding course "coming in 2027."