My wife’s and my retirement plans have always included retiring to Brown County. We bought property in the late 1990s and bought and renovated a home in 2013.
I was a frequent visitor to the county starting as a child in the mid-1960s – before Interstate 65. My family continued the tradition of camping and hiking in the county. We have probably hiked every public trail in the county. We have had friends and relatives who lived at Cordry/Sweetwater and enjoyed the boating, fishing, and skiing opportunities.
Now, my grandkids enjoy visiting the county, and my older son enjoys road and mountain biking here. The grandkids enjoy hiking, the library, the playground at Deer Run, and rollerblading on the Salt Creek Trail.
I appreciate that we only have three (now 4) stoplights and are the most heavily forested county in the state. We appreciate the parks and trails, outdoor recreation opportunities, artist colony tradition, and the easy commute to larger cities (Columbus, Indianapolis, Bloomington). You can drive about anywhere in the county and experience great views.
The peak periods of traffic are predictable; we have a surge in visitors who appreciate the fall foliage and the families that support the regional and state cross-country meets. Popular events at Indiana University (IU) can generate a surge in traffic. Online shopping and one- to three-day deliveries have been an unexpected amenity.
- Trails and Parks – Brown County, Indiana
- That “One” Thing – Quality of Life and Culture in Brown County
I have lived on the east side of Indianapolis in Irvington and in Westfield in Hamilton County. I have seen and experienced unprecedented urban growth where farm fields are converted into shopping malls, high-density housing, and apartment complexes. This creates more traffic density and longer commute times.
I have attended both parochial and public schools. I have experienced the consolidation of neighborhood schools and township high schools, some of which were converted to charter schools. I have also experienced the online options for completing courses to include the more hybrid models that combined online courses with in-person requirements.
Conversations in the county have occasionally reinforced the perspectives of the “born heres” versus the “came heres” (or flatlanders). I am among the newer residents of the county who do not want Brown County to transform into the places I moved here to avoid. Larger communities have their positives – such as more choices in schools, more affordable housing, employment, shopping, medical facilities, entertainment, and lower cost of living – but they also can have more sprawl, gentrification, traffic congestion, higher taxes, more crime, and fewer scenic views.
I always followed the local stories in the Brown County Democrat and the advocacy of individuals and groups that just want to leave things alone. The last significant grassroots effort to question development interests was over the state’s Stellar grants in 2014. Projects that would require public funding were identified without any community engagement. Protests by citizens during the visit by the Stellar selection committee contributed to the county not obtaining the grants.
I understand the interest in tourism-related development and also appreciate the vision of Andy Rogers on the critical importance of maintaining balance:
“We do not need to be slick and highly commercial. We need to be more country. Country is what we sell…. We need to maintain that. Once you destroy that, it will not come back.”
Visitors have always been attracted to Brown County because of the terrain, parks, art, and to visit the quaint town of Nashville. We also have distilleries, wineries, a music venue, and nationally recognized mountain biking trails. Except for maybe a few, no one wants to see Brown County turn into Gatlinburg-Lite. We are constrained by our two-lane roads, and over-tourism and commercialization would add to the congestion and longer travel times.
Brown County has been identified by an economist at Ball State University as a “Bedroom Community,” which means people choose to live here but can generate their income from outside the county. Brown County can also be considered a Naturally Recurring Retirement Community (NORC). These segments of the economic base support our tax base and local businesses and provide a source of volunteers.
Tourism contributes to the economic base ($12.2 million in wages and proprietor income), especially in Nashville. However, the adjusted gross state taxable income from all county residents (the silent majority) is over $425 million. Taxable income reported to the IRS was 550 million in 2021. The county is funded primarily by income and property taxes.