We have curated a flavorful collection for your tasting pleasure with plenty to offer for foodies, the experienced cook, or the novice. It goes well beyond the high-quality olive oils and balsamics we built our reputation on. We’ve added jams, pastas, dipping oils, salsas, sauces, and much more. Come in for a tour of tastes and let us be your guide. You’ll be wild about our shop. Shop us online from anywhere, anytime at www.thewildolive.com
Brown County N
Village Green Building
In last issue’s article regarding the new IU Health facility, the provider of paintings on display there was misidentified. The art is from the Hoosier Masters Collection presented by Indiana Heritage Arts.
Jeff Tryon is a former news editor of The Brown County Democrat, and a former regional reporter for The Republic. Born and raised in Brown County, he currently lives with his wife, Sue, in a log cabin on the edge of Brown County State Park. He is a Baptist minister.
Joe Lee is an illustrator and writer. He is the author of Forgiveness: The Eva Kor Story, The History of Clowns for Beginners, and Dante for Beginners. He is an editorial cartoonist for the Bloomington Herald-Times, a graduate of Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Clown College, and a veteran circus performer.
Bob Gustin worked as a reporter, photographer, managing editor, and editor for daily newspapers in Colorado, Nebraska, and Indiana before retiring in 2011. He and his wife, Chris, operate Homestead Weaving Studio. He gives studio tours, builds small looms, and expands his book and record collections.
Chrissy Alspaugh is a freelance writer and photographer. View her work at <ChristinaAlspaughPhotography. com>.She lives in Bartholomew County with her husband Matt and three boys.
Rachel Berenson Perry is fine arts curator emerita at the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites. She lives in Brown County, where she hikes in the woods, makes ceramic creatures, and writes books about Indiana artists.
Cindy Steele is the publisher and editor of this magazine. She sells and designs ads, sometimes writes, takes photos, and creates the layout. For fun, she likes to play the guitar or banjo and sing.
Mark Blackwell no longer makes his home in Brown County where “the roadway is rough and the slopes are seamed with ravines” He now resides within sight of the sixth green of an undisclosed golf course. He was born in the middle of the last century and still spends considerable time there.
Boris Ladwig is a Columbusbased journalist who has worked in print, online and TV media in Indiana and Kentucky and has won awards for features, news, business, non-deadline news, First Amendment/community affairs and investigative reporting.
Amy Huffman Oliver has lived in and around Brown County most of her life and raised two kids here with her husband, Jim. She grew up with “newspaper in her blood” by way of her parents, Jane and Stu Huffman, who were both journalists. She writes as a freelancer after working most of her career as an attorney and a seventh-grade teacher.
Paige Langenderfer is a freelance writer and consultant. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Indiana University and her master’s degree in Public Relations Management from IUPUI. Paige lives in Columbus with her husband and daughters.
Rhonda Dunn is a volunteer archivist for the Brown County Historical Society. She writes historical accounts in Brown County Journal, shared with members and others who promote our county. She is an avid rockhound of the Brown County Rock & Mineral Club.
*Geoff Thompson is a founding member of the Brown County Inn “Foggy Geezers” bartenders. Originally from London, England, he has resided in Brown County for more than 20 years.
copyright 2024
Thanks, Mom, for making
Brown County Visitors Center. 211 South Van Buren Street. Downtown Nashville.
Brown County Visitors Center. 211 South Van Buren Street. Downtown Nashville.
History Mystery
Born in Wisconsin, just four years after the Civil War ended, this artist studied in Chicago, New York, Paris, and Munich. He started visiting Brown County in the early 1900s and moved here permanently with his family in 1917, leading a group of artists that also came to paint our hills and hollers. He taught students to paint in Indiana and Florida. He obsessively worked on a portrait of Christ for 30 years. Who is this artist?
The answer to last issue’s mystery was Onya LaTour.
Celebrating 5 Years
~by Chrissy Alspaugh
Drawing many of the nation’s best-loved recording artists to Nashville, Brown County Music Center is emerging from its first five years in operation triumphantly gaining speed, despite considerable setbacks from being closed during the worst of the pandemic.
Fans will be able to celebrate the anniversary this fall with special merchandise, a social media contest, and not-yet-announced shows through the end of the year.
The community-owned nonprofit music center has welcomed performers including Chicago, Scotty McCreery, Kenny G, The Beach Boys, Vince Gill, Clint Black, Kevin Costner, Jo Dee Messina, Wheel of Fortune, The Price is Right Live, Weird Al, Patti LaBelle, Big Daddy Weave, Blues Traveler, Rodney Carrington, Buddy Guy, Steven Curtis Chapman, and many more.
While the venue is selling out show after show, bands are falling in love with the music center, too.
The theater holds just over 2,000 seats and boasts state-of-the-art sound and lighting. Executive Director Christian Webb said performers rave about waking up after a night on their tour bus to be greeted not
courtesy photos
Brown County Music Center
by skyscrapers and street sounds but the serene Brown County hills. “Melissa Etheridge and her team did yoga overlooking the hills behind the music center. Joss Stone walked across the parking lot to go work out at the YMCA,” Web said. “This place is definitely a haven for bands.”
The tiny town has a long reputation for drawing big names.
For 35 years, the Little Nashville Opry hosted a roster of country-music stars, often selling out its own 2,000 seats. In 2009, a suspicious fire destroyed the venue.
A decade later, the music center opened its doors with a concert by country singer Vince Gill in August of 2019.
But before its first birthday, COVID slammed the doors shut. For the next 650 days, the Brown County Music Center became the community’s health clinic. The lobby intended for eager concertgoers became a testing, and eventually vaccination, center. The stage and auditorium were transformed into extra courtroom space. Federal funding for those emergency needs helped the center limp along financially, but Webb said the venue was a mere “four to six months away from having to pull the plug” when the doors finally reopened on September 11, 2021.
Re-launching with a sold-out Halestorm show, coupled with the venue’s overwhelming success prior to COVID, filled Webb with certainty that the music center not only was going to succeed, “but do amazing things.”
In 2023—still a year ahead of original revenue targets— the music center made its first profit and subsequent gift back to the Brown County community: a check for $267,000. Forward-thinking
Continued on 18
Executive Director Christian Webb back stage. photo by Chrissy Alspaugh
project management established that 75 percent of the center’s revenue goes to the Brown County Community Foundation to be invested and returned to the community via grants for things like volunteer fire department radios or projects supporting arts and culture; while the other 25 percent of profits go to the county commissioners for pressing issues such as road resurfacing or sewer improvements.
This year, an estimated 90,000 fans will visit the music center. Webb said only about five percent of show-goers are Brown County residents.
Webb, formerly stadium operations manager for the San Diego Chargers before moving into live entertainment with Live Nation, has creatively worked to increase revenue with funding streams that the music center doesn’t have to split with performers. He swapped out the concessions menu from hot dogs and pretzels to pulled pork and walking tacos, the bar now offers specialty drinks, and the center built a premiere parking lot and premiere VIP seating with in-chair bar service.
“We’re going to keep pushing the envelope and elevating ourselves so we can make the biggest community impact possible,” Webb said.
Another key to the venue’s profitability, he said, is the “army” of more than 250 volunteers who lower operating costs and make every show possible.
Coming in the next year, an outdoor beer garden will be constructed by the Brown County Woodworkers Club as a new space for concertgoers to enjoy live music and drinks after a show and that can be rented for private parties.
Also on Webb’s to-do list, is securing sponsors for the music center’s spirits, beer, possibly wine, and “possibly one more partner that helps us hit our bottom line so we can give more back to the community.”
He said he feels “lucky and blessed” by the job he gets to do and can’t wait to see the center’s impact in the—hopefully uninterrupted—years to come.
“If this is five,” Webb said, smiling, “we can’t wait to see you at 10.”
For information or upcoming shows visit <browncountymusiccenter.com>.
Brown County Music Center
Sept. 5 The Australian Pink Floyd Show
Sept. 6 Dailey & Vincent
Sept. 8 April Wine & Sweet
Sept. 15 Beth Har t
Sept. 26 Always Loretta - Tribute
Sept. 27 An Evening with Amy Grant
Sept. 28 The Rasc als
Sept. 29 Bur ton Cummings & His Band
Oc t. 3 Killer Queen - Q ueen Tribute
Oc t. 5 One Night in Memphis
Oc t. 11 The Ozark Mountain Daredevils
Oc t. 12 Masters of Illusion
Oc t. 22 Chic ago
Oc t. 23 Everclear
Oc t. 24 Stephen Pearcy and QUIET RIOT Oc t. 25 Atmosphere
Nov. 1 Rickie Lee Jones,Sweet Honey in the Rock
Nov. 8 Lorrie Morgan
Nov. 15 Trac y Lawrence
Nov. 21 Girl Named Tom
Nov. 23, 24 KANSAS: 50th Anniversar y Tour
Nov. 30 The Lovin’ Spoonful
Dec. 1 Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox
Dec. 4 Ancient Aliens Live
Dec. 18 Ricky Skaggs Christmas
Dec. 19 Home Free's "Any Kind of Christmas"
Dec. 22 A Winter Gathering - Kathy Mattea
Feb. 15 Dirty Dancing Live
For additional shows and tickets visit: www.BrownCountyMusicCenter.com
photo by Michele Wedel
Eagle Manufacturing
Meeting Expectations
As Brown County High School students head back to classes this fall, some of them are going into a program which aims to give them real-world work experience, advanced training more typical of college-level courses, and problem-solving skills they can use for the rest of their lives.
About a fifth of the high school students are part of the Eagle Manufacturing program or are preparing to enroll in it. And when they graduate, the goal is for them to be immediately employable if that’s the path they choose.
Students get training on specific job-related tasks, including engineering, programming, design, administration and operation of complex machinery. But more importantly, they learn how to thrive in a work environment.
Though one goal of the program is to get it to be selfsupporting, advisor Chris Townsend says the most important aspiration is to produce students who are workforce ready,
~story and photos by Bob Gustin
self-sufficient, and able to solve problems given the resources they have at hand.
“If they can do that, they can do anything,” he said.
Students are encouraged to overcome problems on their own, and only seek advice from advisors if they are unable to do so, Townsend said. Other advisors in the program are Dean Keefauver and Cheyenne Dinsmore. A former Eagle Manufacturing student, Dinsmore teaches at the high school as she continues her education.
Eagle Manufacturing began in 2018 in the high school building, then moved to remodeled space in the former Nashville elementary school building when schools were consolidated. A private donation funded the remodeling and equipping of the facility. Though the startup costs for a program are high, Townsend expects growth and efficiency will eventually increase revenue, making it less expensive to operate than more traditional high school sequences.
“Our goal is to teach, not make money,” he said.
The high school program is not as efficient as a private enterprise, he said, because they are working in non-ideal conditions, including 100 percent turnover every year, and 47-minute work shifts, the length of class sessions. But he said the culture of the program is important, providing a family environment where students support one another.
Students in the program function as a business, providing goods and services to private companies and individuals at contracted rates. Students communicate
Left to right: Chris Townsend (Advisor), Haley Fowler, Autumn Bryant.
with customers, learn business practices, and are responsible for end results. Any profits from the student-led business are reinvested for educational needs.
Last year Eagle Manufacturing received about 275 orders of various sizes from the private sector, each with an average price of about $225, Townsend said. While some of those orders come from large multinational corporations such as Cummins, Inc., based in Columbus, others are from small local businesses. The program has a group of 50 to 75 core clients every year, spread across Indiana and about eight other states.
Students earn educational credits through Eagle Manufacturing, and those working through summer session also get hourly wages, working six hours a day for five days a week.
“We get paid to learn,” during summer sessions, said Joshua
Woodard, student manager for manufacturing. “Our motto is student-led and quality-driven.” In addition to technical training, the program provides inspiration, he said.
Other students said the program has allowed them to learn skills and get experience while in high school, rather than waiting for college. Among the best parts of the program involve learning to problem-solve, they said.
Both Woodward and Stringer plan to continue their educations after high school.
About 50 high school students are enrolled in the program, but those studying in introductory classes brings the total to about 115. All students in the program must also complete traditional Core 40 classes to graduate.
Eagle Manufacturing is one of approximately 25 student-based enterprise programs in Indiana.
“We help teach students employment skills and put them in an environment to develop those skills,” Townsend said. “That’s unique to most of the educational process.”
“All the jobs are real jobs,” Townsend said. “That’s the best way to learn employment skills.”
The program has an advisory board composed of community, business and industry leaders, which provides feedback, direction and support. Townsend said the board has been less active since the pandemic, and he hopes it can be reinvigorated.
“I am immensely proud of Eagle Manufacturing and the unique opportunities it provides our students,” said Superintendent of Schools Emily Tracy. “This exceptional student-run enterprise is not only one of the best in Indiana, but it also embodies the spirit of innovation and hands-on
Continued on 26
Left to right: Autumn Bryant, Josh Woodard, Cheyenne Dinsmore (Advisor), John Stowers, Dean Keefauver (Advisor).
EAGLE MANUFACTURING continued from 25
learning that we strive to cultivate in our district. Through their work in manufacturing, embroidery, screen printing, laser engraving, and more, our 10th to 12th grade students are gaining real-world experience and essential employability skills that will serve them well beyond graduation.
“Eagle Manufacturing isn’t just a program,” she said. “It’s a launchpad that helps our students discover their passions and equips them with the tools they need to confidently step into their futures. The experiences they gain here will guide them as they decide what they want to do the Monday morning after graduation, whether that’s continuing their education, entering the workforce, or pursuing entrepreneurship. Eagle Manufacturing is a testament to the limitless potential of our students, and its success is a source of pride for our entire community.”
Tim Kelley of southern Brown County has been a member of the advisory board since its inception. He said when he attended Frankfort High School, he struggled until he joined the building trades program at the school, but that started his 40year career path as a general contractor, landlord, builder, union carpenter, and as a specialist in making homes more accessible to the disabled.
“Eagle Manufacturing is very important for Brown County to arm these kids to go out into the working world and have a skill set they can use to make a career,” he said. Among those skills are business management, basic communication skills, work ethic, and a knowledge of risk and reward, he said.
To start a project, become a partner, or get more information, contact Eagle Manufacturing at <info@bceaglemfg.com> or call 812-988-6606, extension1251. The facility is located at Brown County High School campus in Nashville.
Trac
Touch of Silver, Gold & Old
87 E. Main St. • Nashville, IN 47448 (812) 988-6990 • (800) 988-6994
Hours: 10am – 5pm • 7 days a week touchofsilver@gmail.com
Hoosier Buddy Liquors
Cold Beer, Fine Wines & Select Spirits
Cold Beer:
Hoosier Buddy o ers more than 150 di erent beers, including more than 80 craft, micro, and impor ts. We proudly o er a wide variety of beers from Indiana’s nest brewers.
Fine Wines:
Hoosier Buddy is a wine -lovers type of store With more than 200 wines to choose from, we’ve got something for ever yone. Check out our “A ordable Impor ts” and “90+ Point” selections
Select Spirits:
Hoosier Buddy o ers an ever expanding array of top -notch spirits. Our whiskey categor y alone includes more than 75 di erent choices. Whether you’re look ing for a Single Barrel Bourbon or a Single Malt from Islay— we stock them. 284 S. Van Buren • Nashville, IN (next to Subway) 812-988-2267
Musings
~by Mark Blackwell
Brown County Seasons
Like most places in the Midwest, Brown County has four regular seasons. It also has about eight to twelve sub-seasons, depending on the year. We just finished up one of those sub-seasons which turned out to be about the hottest “Dog Days” I can remember. It was so hot this year, according to a friend of mine, his hens were layin’ hardboiled eggs. He said he lost some of his chickens when they up and headed off to KFC in the belief that conditions there couldn’t be any worse. But things are getting better now as we head into another one of those sub-seasons, “Late Summer Brown County Appreciation season.”
While the LSBCA season is not as famous as our fall, there are those who enjoy the calm quiet days between the beginning of squirrel season and the first turning of the foliage. Days that start with cool mornings and stretch into warm afternoons punctuated with the whirring of grasshoppers and katydids, and the lonesome calls of mourning doves. It is a time of anticipation. A time of nature beginning its metamorphosis into autumnal glory.
The misty mornings, warm days, and cool evenings are perfect for hiking, camping, canoeing, and a whole lot of other outdoors stuff. If you are enjoying a visit to Brown County at this time, then you are a participant and a contributor to the LSBCA season, and I thank you. For the local folks it’s time to gather in the last of the garden harvest and time to check the water level in the cistern. Also, it’s time to start thinking about getting in enough firewood to get through one of Brown County’s later seasons.
After the last grasshopper sings its song there is a noticeable shift in the daylight. When the cool mornings turn to downright chilly, and the woodstove has been fired up a time or two, there comes a day when the green hues of the trees of summer give way to the brown, gold, yellow, and red of fall. A quiet call goes out from the hills and hollers beckoning to every person with an artistic soul. It really was artists, at the turn of the 20th Century, who discovered the rustic charm of the hills and touted
that charm to the wider world. There were a considerable number of folks already established here who felt no need to go out of their way to extol the many virtues of county to outsiders.
The old-timers were content to live their lives as they saw fit. They had been getting along without recourse to modernity and didn’t see a lot of advantages in the complexities of trying to keep up with a world that didn’t know how to be content. But the future cannot be held at bay for long, and many of those caught up in the heedless rush for the next new thing felt that maybe something had been lost in a past that was so quickly being discarded.
When stories about the beauty of the hills and the hand-built log cabins that nestled in the hollers by little spring-fed creeks got published in big city newspapers, people took notice. To those people living their modern lives in those big cities, Brown County sounded like a way to go back and visit simpler times. And so, the tourist industry was born.
It wasn’t until the 1920s that tourism in Brown County really caught on. Before that, the unimproved dirt roads were barely drivable and the same could be said for most of the early automobiles. In the times before that, horses, wagons, and carriages were the only modes of transportation making day trips impossible. You could get to Helmsburg or Fruitdale by way of the railroad that came through in 1906. But then you had to hire a carriage to get to Nashville. It took most of a day to get there—that is if it didn’t rain and the roads weren’t muddy, because then it took a lot longer.
When tourism became popular, it brought quite a few changes to the county. Tourists needed to be fed—so the restaurant business took off.
Automobiles needed gasoline, oil, tires, and repairs—so blacksmiths and livery stables gave way to mechanics and garages. Folks needed places to stay—so hotels were provided. And tourists wanted souvenirs to take back home as mementos of their visit.
The desire for souvenirs led to county folks turning their talents towards crafts like basket making, wood carving, quilting, and more, to create those souvenirs. And then shops were needed to sell the local crafts. Pretty soon the little village of Nashville, that consisted of fewer than four hundred people in 1900, began to resemble the tourist destination it is today.
Like the artists who came to Brown County and made important contributions, tourists have also made major changes to the way of life here. The qualities that make the county what it is, the surviving attitude of self-reliance, the crafts people and artists, and the people who come to visit, are all part of a symbiotic web that we call “Our Brown County.”
BROOKS RUN CABIN
photos by Geoff Thompson
Brown County Playhouse
Sept. 6 Simply the BestTina Turner Tribute
Sept. 7 Rich Hardesty
Sept. 12 Satisfaction - 60 Years of the Rolling Stones
Sept. 13 The Side Cards BandTribute to The Cars
Sept. 14 American MadeOak Ridge Boys Tribute
Sept. 19 & 26 Songwriter Showdown
Round 2
Sept. 20 Johnny Folsom 4Tribute to Johnny Cash
Sept. 21 Cody Ikerd & The Sidewinders
Sept. 27 MeetLoaf - Tribute to Meatloaf
Oct. 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, & 13 Live Theatre
Oct. 17 Jump America’s - Van Halen
Experience
Oct. 18 & 19 The Slightly Haunted Puppet Show
Oct. 18 Uncaged Zac Brown Tribute
Oct. 19 Gutty’s Comedy Night
Oct. 25 Otis Gibbs
Most shows at 7:30
70 S. Van Buren Street 812-988-6555
www.browncountyplayhouse.org
Brown County Music Center
Sept. 5 The Australian Pink Floyd Show
Sept. 6 Dailey & Vincent
Sept. 8 April Wine & Sweet
Sept. 15 Beth Hart
Sept. 26 Always Loretta - Tribute
Sept. 28 The Rascals
Sept. 29 Burton Cummings & His Band
Oct. 3 Killer Queen - Queen Tribute
Oct. 5 One Night in Memphis
Oct. 11 The Ozark Mountain Daredevils
Oct. 12 Masters of Illusion
Oct. 22 Chicago
Oct. 23 Everclear
Oct. 24 Stephen Pearcy & Quiet Riot
Oct. 25 Atmosphere
812-988-5323
www.browncountymusiccenter.com
Brown County Inn
Open Mic Nights Wed. 6:00-9:00
Hill Folk Music Series Thurs. 7:00-9:00
Fri. & Sat. Live Music 8:00-11:00
Dates not yet booked at time of printing:
Sept. 5, 6, 20, 27, 28; Oct. 3, 12, 18, 24, 31
Sept. 4 Open Mic
Sept. 7 JC Clements Band
Sept. 11 Open Mic
Sept. 12 Billy Blanchard
Sept. 13 Black Cat & The Bones
Sept. 14 Acre Brothers
Sept. 18 Open Mic
Sept. 19 Kurt Stemhagen
Sept. 21 Homemade Jam
Sept. 25 Open Mic
Sept. 26 Scrapper & Skelton
Oct. 2 Open Mic
Oct. 4 Gary Applegate & Joe Rock
Oct. 5 The Blankenship Band
Oct. 9 Open Mic
Oct. 10 Feathered Mason
Oct. 11 Barley Priest
Oct. 16 Open Mic
Oct. 17 Sharla June & Christy Crandall
Oct. 19 The 1-4-5s
Oct. 23 Open Mic
Oct. 25 Andra Faye & Scott Ballantine
Oct. 16 Davey and The Midnights
Oct. 30 Open Mic
51 State Road 46 East 812-988-2291 www.browncountyinn.com
Country Heritage Winery
Music Fri. & Sat. 6:00-9:00
Sept. 6 Homemade Jam
Sept. 7 Coner Berry Band
Sept. 13 Two for the Show
Sept. 14 Gary Applegate & Joe Rock
Sept. 20 Frank Jones Duo
Sept. 21 Paul Bertsch Trio
Sept. 27 Benjamin Fuson
Sept. 28 Jerod Bolt
Oct. 4 Ruben Guthrie
Oct. 5 The McGuires
Oct. 11 TBA
Oct. 12 Coner Berry Band
Oct. 18 Gene Fugate
Oct. 19 Amanda & Brian Webb
Oct. 25 Steve Fulton Trio
Oct. 26 Bakersfield Bound
225 S. Van Buren Street 812-988-8500 www.countryheritagewinery.com
19th Hole Sports Bar
Music Fri. 7:00-10:00 | Sat. 8:00-11:00
Karaoke 8:00-11:00
Sept. 6 John Ryan
Sept. 7 Three Beards Strummin’
Sept. 13 Gene Fugate
Sept. 14 Past Tense
Sept. 20 Clearwater Band
Sept. 21 Karaoke
Sept. 27 Foxxy
Sept. 28 Two For the Show
Oct. 4 John Ryan Band
Oct. 5 Karaoke
Oct. 11 TBA
Oct. 18 Clearwater Band
Oct. 19 Robin Embty
Oct. 25 Jenna Maxwell
Oct. 26 Past Tense
2359 East State Road 46 812-988-4323 www.saltcreekgolf.com
Firebird Tap House
All music 7:00-9:00 and some afternoon music days noted
Sept. 6 Dave Sisson
Sept. 7 Will Scott
Sept. 13 Travers Marks
Sept. 14 Rural Soul
Sept. 20 The Hammer & The Hatchet
Sept. 21 Super Chief
Sept. 27 Steve Plessinger
Sept. 28 JC & Jason
Oct. 4 The Regulators
Oct. 5 Angie White Duo
Oct. 11 Gary D Brown
Oct. 12 Ruben Guthrie 2:00-4:00
Doug Dillman 7:00-9:00
Oct. 18 Shelby Ryan
Oct. 19 Kyle Mercer
Oct. 25 Whiskey Brothers
Oct. 26 The Vanguards
4040 State Rd 46 E 812-988-2336 www.firebirdtaphouse.com
Nashville House
Music Sat. 5:00-8:00
Sept. 7 Zach Benge
Sept. 14 Travers Marks
Happy Accident Angela
Sept. 21 Sullivan
Sept. 28 Jaylen Martinez
Oct. 5 Austin James
Oct. 12 Novelle
Oct. 19 Steve Hickman
Oct. 26 Jack Farnsley 15 S. Van Buren Street 812-988-4554 www.nashvillehousebc.com
Ferguson House Beer Garden
Open Mic Thurs. 5:00-8:00
Music Fri. 5:00-8:00 | Sat. 1:00-4:00 AND 5:00-8:00 | Sun. 1:00-4:00
Sept. 21 Joel Weir 6:00-7:00 Bengebreakers 7:00-9:00
Sept. 27 Kenan Rainwater 6:00-9:00
Sept. 28 Harvest Festival - Whiskey releases, cigar lounge, live music, hayrides, pumpkin painting, and more
Oct. Tour experiences all month Check website for additional info. 418 Old State Road 46 812-720-4840 www.hardtruth.com
Story Inn
Wed. Bingo Night 6:00-8:00
Fri. Love Shack Karaoke 9:30-12:30
Sat. & Sun. Music at patio & grill 2:00-5:00
Sat. pianist Ted Seaman 6:00-9:00
Check out social media for entertainment occurring once a month:
Sept. 14 Community concert 5:30-9:30 6404 State Road 135 812-988-2273
www.storyinn.com
Village Art Walk
Fourth Fridays, 4:00-7:00 April-October
Free self-guided walking tour of downtown Nashville art galleries. Demonstrations. Make & take activities. Wine tasting.
FB ArtsVillageBrownCounty 812-320-0872
Nashville Farmer’s Market
Sundays 11:00-2:00, Brown Co. Inn parking lot at State Road 135 & 46 intersection
Local produce, meats, eggs, food, arts, plants, music.
Brown County
Art Colony Weekend
Sept. 13-15, Presented by The Brown County Art Guild and other community partners at various locations in Brown Co. to celebrate the county’s rich art history and continued art presence. Includes the 36th Great Outdoor Art Contest at the T.C. State Historic Site, oldest plein air painting competition in Indiana.
9.11 Memorial Run/Walk
Sept. 14 | 7:00 am-8:30 registration
Starts 9:11am. | Jackson Twp Fire Dept. 4831 Helmsburg Rd. in Helmsburg jacksontownshipfd@gmail.com 812-327-9290
Uncle Pen Bluegrass Festival
Sept. 19-21 | Bill Monroe’s Music Park Bluegrass legends and favorites plus local bands. Music, food, vendors. 5163 N. SR 135 812-988-6422
https://billmonroemusicpark.com/
Continued on 42
CALENDAR continued from 41
Brown County
Rock and Mineral Show
Sept. 21, 22, | Sat. 10:00-6:00 | Sun. 10:00-4:00
Brown Co. 4-H Fairgrounds
Rock crafts, jewelry, fossils, geodes, crystals, minerals, turquoise, agates. 802 Memorial Dr. Nashville www.browncorockandmineral.com bcrmc2010@gmail.com
War in the Woods
Sept. 13, 14 | Brown County Dragway
Baddest, wildest no-prep race
Small Tire, Big Tire, Hard Tire, Gangster 26s, and True Street options 480 Gatesville Rd. in Bean Blossom 317-340-1789 war-in-the-woods-no-prep.com
Living Art Colony
Sept. 27 | Brown Co. History Center’s Pioneer Village in Nashville | 9:00-4:00 Traditional art, music, folklore, and more
Brown Co. Antique
Machinery Show
Sept. 27, 28 | Brown Co. 4-H Fairgrounds Free admission. Auction Sat. at 2:00 802 Memorial Dr. Nashville
Brown County Studio Tour
Month of October | Free self-guided tour. Works for sale and demonstrations www.BCStudioTour.com
52nd Fall Fare-Nashville
United Methodist Church
Oct. 5, 8:00 am-3:00 | Village Green Main and Jefferson streets in Nashville Features booths and cafe. Every FallFare dollar goes to someone in need.
Slightly Haunted Puppet Show
Oct. 18, 19 | 1:00 and 3:00 shows Brown County Playhouse
Melchior Marionettes classic Halloween show. 70 S. Van Buren Street 812-988-6555 www.browncountyplayhouse.org
Friendly Forest Trick or Treat
Oct. 18, 19, 25 | 7:00-9:00
Jackson Twp Fire Dept.
Forest full of lights/characters. Costumes encouraged. Free hot dogs, popcorn, and hot chocolate. FREE Admission. Donations welcome. 4831 Helmsburg Rd. 812-988-6201
Living Art Colony
Oct. 25 | Brown Co. History Center’s Pioneer Village in Nashville | 4:00-7:00
A part of the Fourth Friday Art Walk Traditional art, music, folklore, and more
Sept 6 • Simply the Best: A Tribute to Tina Turner
Sept 7 • Rich Hardesty and His All-Star Band
Sept 12 • Satisfaction: Celebrating 60 Years of the Rolling Stones
Sept 13 • The Side Cars Band: A Tribute to The Cars
Sept 14 • American Made: Oak Ridge Boys Tribute
Sept 19 & 26 • Songwriter Showdown 2024: Round 2
Sept 20 • Johnny Folsom 4: Tribute to Johnny Cash
Sept 21 • Cody Ikerd & The Sidewinders: Live Album Recording!
Sept 27 • MeetLoaf: A Tribute to Meatloaf
Oct 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, & 13 • Live Theatre: The Farndale Avenue
Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society’s Production of Macbeth: A Comedy
Oct 17 • Jump: America’s Van Halen Experience
Oct 18 & 19 • The Slightly Haunted Puppet Show
Oct 18 • Uncaged: Zac Brown Tribute
Oct 19 • Gutty’s Comedy Night
Oct 25 • Otis Gibbs
UNCLE PEN FEST
SEPTEMBER 19-21
Uncle Pen Fest is a 3-day celebration of various bluegrass performers, workshops, and jams plus the Bluegrass Hall of Fame
Induction of The Lewis Family & James King. Founded in 1974, Uncle Pen Days began as a tribute to Bill Monroe’s maternal uncle, James Pendleton Vandiver. “Uncle Pen,” who played the fiddle at local square dances and social events, taught bill how to play. For tickets and info 812-988-6422, <BillMonroeMusicPark.com>.
OCTOBER 5
Nashville United Methodist Church will host its 52nd FallFare on the Village Green at the corner of Main and Jefferson Street in downtown Nashville, Indiana, from 8:00am to 3:00 pm, rain or shine.
This year’s event features new booths and old favorites, each selling items that were baked, knitted, painted, sanded, picked, collected, and donated by church members Scout Troop 190, Cub Scout Pack 190, Girl Scouts, and Sunshine Friends sell breakfast, lunch, popcorn, and homemade treats to raise funds to support youth activities at the church.
In 1972, church members sold crafts to replace dilapidated pews and called it FallFare. The church gives donations to 25-30 nonprofit organizations with the pledge, “Every FallFare dollar goes to someone in need.”
Past recipients of FallFare dollars include Mother’s Cupboard, Habitat for Humanity, Access Brown County, Scouts, God’s Grace, the Weekend Backpack Program, and Turning Point Domestic Violence Services.
BROWN COUNTY ART COLONY WEEKEND
SEPTEMBER 13-15
The Brown County Art Guild, along with other community partners, will present three days worth of activities celebrating Brown County’s art history and continued presence.
• Guild Tours and Live Music: Celebrate 70 Years of Artistic Excellence Music, art, refreshments, and guided tours of the Brown County Art Guild. Friday,11am-5pm
• The New England Years:
A Founder’s Exhibition
The work of several Guild founding members as they ventured beyond the landscapes of Indiana.
Friday, Saturday 11am-5pm | Sunday 12-4pm
Brown County Art Guild
• Indiana Artists Club Annual Member Exhibition
Friday, Saturday 10am-5pm | Sunday 12-5pm
Brown County Art Gallery
• 36th Great Outdoor Art Contest
T.C. Steele State Historic Site
Saturday. Gates open at 7am.
Judging at 2pm. Awards at 3:30pm.
• Community Paint Together
Hosted by Artist Associates of Brown Co.
Saturday 11am-3pm
Paints and tool supplies provided Main and Jefferson Streets, Nashville
• Auction Tips & Painting Care by Bryan P. Jackson CAI/CES
Saturday 1-2:30pm
Brown County History Center
• Founder’s Cocktail Party:
A Platinum Celebration Drinks and heavy hors d’oeuvres by Bonafide Bites, with music.
Saturday 6-9pm | $40 per person Brown County Art Guild
• Art Colony Auction
Preview Saturday 12- 4pm and Sunday 11am-1pm
Auction Sunday 1pm Brown County History Center and online <jacksons-auction.com> For more 812-988-6185, <browncountyartguild.org>.
COMING DECEMBER 7,
8
The 4th Annual Christkindl Market is back in Nashville for a two-day experience of festive cheer and holiday magic, December 7 and 8, 2024.
20 vendors will showcase unique art, food, curated gifts, and local treasures.
Coachlight Square’s stage and the Village Green Pavilion will present musical performances as a soundtrack for your shopping and celebration experience.
Mr. and Mrs. Claus will be making appearances throughout the event.
A skilled sculptor, Josh Niven, will transform blocks of ice into works of art. Food and libations will warm you up.
This year, activities such as games and crafts, will be offered to kids of all ages in a designated family area.
Some of Brown County’s community organizations will have booths with information on how you can support their missions.
Hours are Saturday, 10am–6pm and Sunday, 10am–4pm.
Market and music at Coachlight Square, and more music at the Village Green Pavilion, in Nashville.
For more visit <browncountychristkindlmarket.com> or contact Lisa Hall at <lhall@glorygirlproduction.com>.
Carolyn Dutton
~by Boris Ladwig
When Carolyn Dutton grew up in Martinsville during the 1950s, she dreamed of a career as a journalist or actress.
“Something exciting and wild and wonderful,” she said.
Her plans represented a bit of a rebellion against her mother, Nina, who worked as a concert pianist, church organist, and piano teacher.
Her mother taught her how to play piano at age four or five, and the daughter began playing violin at age ten.
A life playing in an orchestra or teaching music did not appeal to her.
Dutton planned to study English at Western College for Women, in Oxford, Ohio. However, when college officials heard her play violin in a music course, they persuaded her—though it took a long time—to major in music.
After college, she worked for a bit as a journalist in Indianapolis and New York City. But majoring in music turned out to be the right decision, because it steered Dutton toward a decades-long “exciting and wild and wonderful” career that ranged from immersing herself in the arts and theater communities in New York City to working on a show with Meryl Streep and playing violin in Berlin, Vienna, and Paris.
For years as she worked as a journalist in New York, she didn’t touch her violin,
until one evening, sometime in the late 1960s, when she attended a party in Greenwich Village where people were playing fiddle, and people were dancing and having a great time.
She thought to herself, “I could do that. That would be fun. Why don’t I do that?”
“So, after like eight years, I dragged my fiddle out,” she said.
She had turned up her nose at that kind of “hillbilly music,” but in the mid-1960s, folk music blossomed all over New York City, in part because Bob Dylan had performed at the famous Folklore Center there and was starting to get national attention.
“In New York, that kind of music was vast, it was fascinating,” Dutton said. “The kids, they loved it. They gathered around New York University and they all played, sat around all weekend, strumming in the streets.”
Dutton made connections through the Folklore Center and played with a string band, “The Delaware Water Gap,” through which she met other musicians and played with the country rock band “Olduvai Gorge.”
photo by Tom Preston
Meanwhile, Dutton also had taken some acting classes, but was too scared to do auditions. She and some friends launched a production company, The Drama Tree Players, which produced off-off Broadway shows.
That steeled her nerves to do auditions, to some of which, when appropriate, she took her fiddle, which landed her, among others, a role as a fiddleplaying evangelist. With Dutton’s reputation building, she landed roles in other shows, including a comedy musical about Jesse James, with which she toured to play at the Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C., the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami, and the Charles Playhouse in Boston.
When she first arrived in New York, Dutton moved in with three other women in an apartment, but a couple of years later, she found a rent-controlled apartment on East 84th Street, the Upper East Side, paying $65 a month. She stayed there for about a decade.
She lived in Greenwich Village for a while with a boyfriend and later moved to Soho in the late 1970s, when the area “was still kind of empty and weird and dark and strange,” she said.
The area consisted primarily of cast iron buildings and warehouses that weren’t zoned for residential living, but in which people started squatting, and which attracted artists because of the big spaces.
“You would not believe the rats, the size of cats….It was amazing,” Dutton said. “That’s what it was like there in the ’70s. It was just like this dark, grimy place with a few little bars around.”
Eventually, the tenants got together, bought the building for $500,000, and got everything up to code. Dutton lived in the loft for about 20 years.
Today, each of those floors is worth millions of dollars, she said.
In 2000, she decided to leave the East Coast, in part because at her age, almost 60, she was struggling to get as many parts as she did when she was younger.
“I wasn’t the young, cute, little thing,” Dutton said. “And I was tired.
“I said, ‘I’ve had it with New York,’” she said with a laugh. “I had done as much as I wanted to do.”
She sold her loft—for a nice return on her initial investment—and came back to Indiana, because of her father, Judson.
After her return she decided she was not done with music, and in 2003, obtained from Indiana University a master’s degree in jazz studies.
Dutton said that when she lived in New York, she thought she would only ever leave the city to move to the south of France, a Caribbean island—or Brown County, where she and her family had traveled often when she was younger.
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Bleu Django performing at Amplify Nashville December of 2023. photo by Cindy Steele
“I always thought it was so beautiful, you know,” she said. “I just thought it was a great place.”
Plus, Dutton said, the area has an active music scene, and she thought her ability to play varied styles would allow her to fit in.
She bought property in Nashville, built a house, including a “huge, great room” to remind her of her Soho loft—though she has since sold it.
Within a month of living here, she got a call from Slats Klug, a musician famous for albums and performances that explored Brown County’s history.
“He was looking for a fiddle player,” Dutton said.
She played with Klug and immediately was immersed in the local music scene. Dutton also met jazz piano player Monica Herzig, with whom she played shows and on whose albums she appeared.
For about the last two decades, she has played with a Gypsy jazz band, Bleu Django, which plays tunes of the 1930s style’s creators, Jean “Django” Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli.
Daryl Jones, a retired engineer and guitarist with Bleu Django, said he and another guitarist, Bob Foster, had enjoyed jamming Gypsy jazz for years and thought about getting a band together when they ran into Dutton and realized she, too, had a fascination with Reinhardt and Grappelli.
They formed Bleu Django soon thereafter and have been touring all over Indiana since, playing festivals, weddings, and other private events.
Jones said the musicians on stage often talk about the songs, as their origin usually has an interesting story. “Artillerie Lourde,” for example, represents heavy artillery from World War II. And many of the tunes, including “Nuages,” French for clouds, have a darker tone to them.
Dutton said she still enjoys performing, especially with Bleu Django, because she likes introducing people to that style of music, in the hopes of making them as enthusiastic about it as she is.
“I just want people to know about [it] because it’s such an exciting music to me,” she said.
You can find out where Bleu Django plays next by visiting the band’s website, <bleudjango.com>, or through Facebook.
HIDDEN
CAROLYN
FOURTH FRIDAY ART WALK
Imagine yourself on a crisp evening stroll down the streets of Nashville admiring the beautiful artwork that fills the shops in the village as the fall leaves skitter around your feet.
Make this image real by taking the Fourth Friday Art Walk, a self-paced tour of ten locations featuring local artist shops and studios in downtown Nashville.
During the months of April to October, participating artisan shops remain open from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m., allowing visitors to meet the artists as well as view and purchase their favorite pieces. Some artists provide special treats like wine, refreshments, and there is even a scavenger hunt.
Everyone can find an art form they like with participating shops that specialize in pottery, painting, leathercraft, music, candle making, jewelry, photography, needle felt art and even music. Weed Patch Music Company offers a special Chord Melody Ukulele Workshop for beginners during Fourth Friday events. Contact the store to sign up.
New this fall are “Living Art Colony” demonstrations at the Brown County History Center Pioneer Village which will enhance the Fourth Friday events on October 25 from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. Additional demonstrations are scheduled for September 27 and November 29 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
At the Living Art Colony, costumed artisans will demonstrate traditional arts from the period of 1890–1920 including soap making, weaving, blacksmithing, and music courtesy of a grant from the Indiana Arts Commission.
On a warm Fourth Friday evening in August, I started our walk with a little wine, cheese, and conversation at the Hoosier Artist Gallery, a collective of artists on Jefferson Street where Anabel Hopkins and 23 other artists sell their work. Hopkins, a landscape and abstract painter, participated in the first Brown County Candlelight Art Walk in 2009 and she remains an active participant today.
~story & photos by Amy Huffman Oliver
July featured artist at Hoosier Artist Gallery, Marci Wease.
Mary Burkhart at Our Little World.
At the Hoosier Artist Gallery, I learned that one artist, Marci Wease, started her career as a forensic scientist before pivoting to art three years ago. Now she transforms salvaged and rusted metal pieces into functional and quirky art and sells it under the name “Junk in this Truck.” As I left, I checked out the intricate designs she created on the panels of a rusty VW Beetle that Marci drives. It is a masterpiece.
Next, I ambled down Van Buren Street to visit Mary Burkhart, owner of Our Little World Shop/Studio. Mary sells local art by her mother, notable local painter MK Watkins, and others. What makes Our Little Studio different is that visitors can not only see and purchase art, but they can create it too. The shop features a makerspace with “Make and Take” projects, some available just by walking in. Mary also accommodates appointments and groups. Visitors choose from an impressive menu of creative arts such as making wooden flowers, fusing glass for jewelry, pressing flowers, pouring candles, making goat’s milk lotion, and spinning/painting pottery.
After a visit to appreciate the hand-crafted pottery created by Holly Salo at Holly Pots Stoneware, I ended my walk on Old School Way at a shop that opened in 2023, Lakehouse Candle Company. The shop’s owner, Mandy Hall, is also in her second career as an artist. Formerly a professor of psychology at Butler University in Indianapolis, she now demonstrates for patrons of her shop the creation of over 100 scents of handpoured, soy wax candles with essential oils and no chemicals.
Enjoy a crisp fall evening on a Fourth Friday night in Nashville where you’ll find living history demonstrations and meet local artisans sharing their crafts. What an appropriate introduction to our historic art colony.
THOM ROBINSON
~by Rachel Berenson Perry
Though Thom Robinson is best known for his artwork, he’s a fellow whose skills are wideranging. A renaissance man of sorts, he’s a carpenter, builder, former tool and die shop owner, designer, cook, gardener, father, grandpa, and mushroom hunter, in addition to being an artist. He’s also anything but provincial. He’s lived and/or worked throughout the USA before settling in Brown County.
Raised in Flint, Michigan, Robinson joined the U.S. Navy in the early 1970s (toward the end of the Vietnam war) because he wanted to see the world. Instead, he was stationed in San Diego. Never one to complain, he served his time and planned to return to the upper Midwest.
But the small community of Bedford, Indiana, caught his fancy when he went there with his wife to visit her relatives. Robinson raised a son and daughter in Bedford, and now has a grandson and granddaughter. His wife, Pat, also has a son and daughter.
Renaissance Man
A skilled machinist, Robinson set up a tool and die company; a vocation that requires innovation. His capacity for inventing extremely precise designs combined with his skill at operating machine tools made for a thriving business. He became a respected prototype designer who was in demand by Westinghouse, Otis Elevator, and Cook Medical, to name a few clients.
Robinson’s skill at imagining things in 3-D easily translates into creating oil paintings. He had been making art intermittently ever since taking classes at the Flint Institute of the Arts as a child and teenager. When Thom and Pat left Lawrence County to be closer to her job in Indianapolis, he took a studio at the Stutz Building to concentrate full-time on his artwork. But Brown County, where Robinson had been painting on and off since the 1990s, called to him.
Finding wooded acreage on Wychwood Drive across from an entrance to the Brown County State Park, he and Pat took the plunge and bought it. The conundrum for a man who can do almost anything,
courtesy photos
however, is time. Building a cabin for eventual full-time occupation takes a lot of it, not to mention energy, skill, and expense.
Originally constructing a 640-square-foot cabin in 2014, Robinson added a bedroom suite with full bathroom as well as a front porch and back deck in the following years. Currently, he is putting the finishing touches on a separate studio/garage next to the house. “The Amish framed it up and the concrete was done by local guys,” he said. “But all the rest of it has been done by me.” The 12’ X 28’ building accommodates two vehicles and work tools in the garage. A studio space with large north windows, 11-foot ceiling, and room for storage racks is in the lower level. Though not yet completed on the inside, the studio already houses stacks of finished and unfinished paintings.
With an artist’s typical indifference for past works, he flips through the colorful canvases like a deck of cards. “What I really like to do is paint outside in the snow,” he admits. Anymore, it seems as though he must go out west to find blankets of white under blue skies. He and Pat often travel to Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming to camp and snowshoe.
With good friend Ed West (now deceased), Robinson often talked about his passion for painting scenes out west at their weekly Artist Breakfasts, a tradition begun decades ago by the late Ron Elkins. “Why don’t you go out and paint at my place in Wyoming?” Ed asked. “Bring lots of paint—there’s 15,000 acres.” Robinson followed directions to a 40-mile off-road track into the alpine woods. Finally arriving at a rustic cabin, he wasn’t sure he was at the correct place until he saw Ed driving away. The peace and beauty of the remote setting inspired many paintings.
Last early spring, Thom and Pat snow-shoed in Bryce Canyon, Utah, where the white-frosted orange rock formations contrast dramatically with deep blue skies.
“He gets in the zone when painting outside,” Pat said. “If I’m not with him, I send him texts. ‘Drink water!’ or he forgets.”
As the years have melted away, Robinson continues to meet a group for the Sunday “Artist Breakfast” but laments the loss of many artist friends: Dick Ferrer, Wayne Waldron, Von Williamson, and others.
And so, the artist colony of Nashville, Indiana, changes with the times as older artists disappear and new artists take their place. Thom Robinson is now one of the old timers, continuing to paint outside whenever possible and planning gatherings in his handbuilt cabin and studio.
His work can be found at the Brown County Art Guild <browncountyartguild.org> or on his website <tcrobinson.com>.
“Fall in Story.”
“Natural Bridge.”
Back Roads of Brown County Studio Tour
~by Paige Langenderfer
Working artists will welcome visitors throughout the month of October as part of the 26th annual Back Roads of Brown County Studio Tour.
The tour is a free, self-guided event designed to showcase the arts and crafts created in and around Brown County. Juried artists will open their personal studios to the public from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday for the entire month of October.
Guests will be able to watch artists creating their work, talk with artists and explore the spaces that inspire them. Some studios will also offer prepared activities so that guests can take part in art creation.
This event is a unique opportunity for art collectors to purchase artwork directly from those who made it. Many artists create items especially for this event.
This year’s tour includes 14 studios and 15 artists who specialize in jewelry, repurposed metal art, stained glass, acrylic, water and oil paintings, pottery, needlework, pastel, blacksmithing pieces, woodworking, artisan foods and soaps, and much more.
The Brown County Studio Tour began in 1999 when a group of local artists wanted to create an event to showcase the artwork and natural beauty of the place they called home. They thought the Nashville gallery visitors would be interested in seeing the working spaces of artists and learning about how the artwork is made.
“The tour was envisioned to promote working artists and their studios,” says original tour artist Amanda Mathis. “The artwork was, and continues to be, a wide range of mediums that represents the best of what Brown County has to offer.”
This will be artist Connie Skyrme’s third year as a featured artist on the tour. Skyrme, who lives in Helmsburg, creates upcycled furniture, mosaics, home decor pinstriping and custom paintings.
“I enjoy the camaraderie of artists and meeting new people. I also enjoy meeting first timers on the tour as well as visitors that have been on the tour for many years. It’s nice to see them return each year,” Skyrme said. “I love being an artist in Brown County and this tour is a longstanding tradition of artist participation. It is also a great venue for showcasing your art work.”
What: Free self-guided tour showcasing Brown County artists and their personal studios.
When: Studios are open Wednesday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in October.
Number of studios: 14 Number of artists: 15
Information:To see the list of participating artists and download a map of the studio destinations, visit <bcstudiotour.com>.
Artist Connie Skyrme. courtesy photo
ROCK & MINERAL SHOW Brown County
September 21& 22, 2024
~by Rhonda Dunn
As you navigate the back roads of Brown County you may see driveways and flowerbeds in people’s yards lined with unusual looking rocks. Folks find them along creek beds, by plowed fields, and in rock ledges. These unusual rocks are called geodes. They have a bumpy surface and if broken open many have beautiful crystals inside. If you have ever taken one home, then you were made into a rock collector. Children like to pick rocks up, and the interest can start at a very young age. This can develop into a passion for accumulating attractive rocks for the yard or knickknack shelves. Brown County is a great place for this type of hobby.
That was why a rock and mineral club was started here. Members aren’t just from Brown County, though, and they have a variety of interests. Some are fossil collectors, some polish rocks and make jewelry, and some collect geodes. The club holds field trips throughout the summer visiting other places. In June the club partners with the Brown County State Park to put on a Rockfest for children.
Once a year the Brown County Rock and Mineral Club has a show at the end of summer. People come from all around to sell, swap, admire, and buy the next specimen that they need for their collection. You can also find items that have something to do with rocks, like jewelry, and watch as some pieces are being made. Geodes are cracked open to display the beautiful crystals inside. Experts on site can help identify mystery rocks or fossils. Children can play in the sand to see what mystery fossil they can pull out.
You can even learn to pan for gold with experienced gold-panners. Clarence Snyder and Jestin Kimmet love to teach children and have been doing it for years. They put on demonstrations for boys and girls clubs, Scouts, and schools. They both belong to the Southern Indiana Gold Prospecting group. They meet monthly at the Gatesville Country Store and pan in the creek in back of the store. Robin Stephens, the store owner, has been their host for many years.
Back around 2008, a few of the gold-panners got together and decided they wanted to have a rock club in addition to the gold club. Don Crum and Clarence Snyder set up the first meeting at the Gatesville store. Many of the gold-panners didn’t know whether they would be interested in another club just for rock collecting, and then discovered they like to do both. And the club grew. After a few years they decided the store wasn’t big enough for their meetings, and they moved them to Nashville for a bigger more centralized location.
They now meet at the Brown County History Center, near the courthouse downtown, on the third Saturday of every month. The membership now numbers about 68.
The Brown County Rock and Mineral Show occurs in September (usually the third or fourth weekend) at the Brown County 4-H Fairgrounds, east of downtown Nashville. This year it will be held Saturday, September 21, and Sunday, September 22. Saturday’s hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday’s hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information visit the website: <www.browncorockandmineral.com> or email: < bcrmc2010@gmail.com>.
Old McDurbin Old McDurbin
The Sampler
The Olde Bartley House Coffee & Donuts
Iknow just how you feel.
You hit the town early, determined to experience every shop, eyeball all the merchandise, take in every breath of color and culture that Indiana’s coolest little village has to offer.
About mid-morning, after exploring a few dozen stores and blocks of scenic small-town wonder, you start to feel ready for a little break, a little pick-me-up before soldiering on to the shopping conquests that lie ahead.
Have I got a place for you!
It’s old Nashville, but it’s been made new. It is cool, clean, well-appointed and has a bunch of interesting stuff to look at as you refresh yourself. It’s a little place where people can come in and sit down, get something cold to drink, maybe a small bite, get off their feet and relax a bit before going back out into the wilderness of the public marketplace.
And, best of all, especially if you are a restaurant enthusiast like myself, you will have the opportunity to snack on something new, something special,
something you or I have never eaten or even heard of before—the Volant.
A Volant is a “French Americana layered donut” unique to the recently opened Olde Bartley House Coffee and Donuts. Offered in many different permutations and incarnations, it is the mainstay food offering along with about two dozen coffee variations and non-coffee caffeinated drinks.
Filled with curiosity and practically overcome with donut desire, I made my way down to the Olde Bartley House which prominently occupies the corner of Van Buren and Franklin streets.
This wonderfully preserved building was built in 1886 by a local grocery store owner and landowner, Charley Gibson. Ambrose Bartley owned the home from 1903 until 1929, leaving it with his name.
Over the past couple of years, the building has been beautifully and meticulously restored, making it worth the visit just to take in the new improvements to this lovely old structure.
Plus, you’ll get donuts. And not just any donuts, but Volants.
These unusual, delicious treats are served in 17 different creative varieties, ranging from strawberry blonde and blueberry crumble, through pistachio dream and chocolate hazelnut, to locally-themed favorites like the Abe Martin Apple and the Brown County Breakfast (maple glaze and cinnamon sugar).
And if you think their donuts are innovative, get a gander at their Volant sandwiches: a plain or “everything” Volant with ham, egg, and cheese; avocado, egg, and cheese; or the “wild turkey” with bacon, avocado, and pepperjack cheese. Or a “Monte Cristo” with ham, Swiss cheese, aioli, mustard and mixed berry jam on a caramelized maple volant.
Visitors make their way through a little cafeteria line where they view the tasty delights inside a glass case, choose their favorite(s), and order any of a plethora of available drinks.
Coffee? There’s drip, espresso, Americano, cappuccino, cortado, latte, dark or white mocha and hot chocolate. Tea lattes include matcha, Chai and London fog; steeped teas include jasmine, lavender mint, chamomile and the dreaded Earl Grey.
You can get a “nitro cold brew” with any of a dozen syrups, including sugar-free choices, and add cold foam for a dollar-fifty. All drinks are double shots. Not to mention the house specials: hot or iced “campfire macchiato,” Salt Creek
caramel macchiato, white peach iced matcha, and “vanilla Bean Blossom,” cold foam or nitro.
Olde Bartley House offers “Moonshiners,” sparkling energy drinks with caffeine from green coffee beans, guarana, and botanicals, including “Fools Gold,” gold hibiscus with cardamom, ginger, and bitters, “Huckleberry Heaven” with lavender, huckleberry and lemon, and “Tangerine Dream” with lemon, tangerine, vanilla bean, and sweet cream.
Cold drinks include strawberry limeade freeze, elderberry hibiscus iced tea, mango calamansi refresher, and strawberry or chocolate milk.
The donuts were good, but I have to admit that my favorite thing about this new coffee shop is its Frank Hohenberger theme. The historic house has been transformed into a virtual shrine to the iconic photographer who put Brown County on the radar of potential tourists.
Hohenberger, as much as anyone, created the modern tourist industry in Nashville, especially through his weekly column “Down in the Hills O’
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Brown,” which appeared in the Sunday edition of The Indianapolis Star between 1923 and 1954.
Hohenberger’s columns roused the curiosity of readers all over Indiana and around the country about the quaintness of Brown County folkways and the work of the famous art colony.
Hohenberger lived at the Bartley House for 20 years, until he died in 1963, leaving his huge cache of Brown County photographs to the Indiana University Lilly Library so that we may all continue to enjoy them.
Hohenberger’s photos are displayed all around the Bartley House’s first-floor dining area, including a huge mural of his famous “Liars Bench” photo. The coffee and donut shop also features his original camera and other memorabilia.
I munched contentedly on my blueberry crumble Volant, sipped my just-a-regular coffee, and thought about Frank Hohenberger. And, by and by, I was renewed in spirit and quite ready to plunge ahead into my busy day.
For a profoundly satisfying rest stop, The Olde Bartley House Coffee and Donuts doesn’t just serve coffee, they offer an experience.
The Olde Bartley House Coffee and Donuts is located at 96 South Van Buren Street in Nashville. You can view the menu at <oldebartleyhouse.com>, call 812-200-1311, and look them up on Facebook.
FIREPLACE CENTER
(discounts for multiple issues)
Contac t Cindy at ourbrown@bluemarble.net or c all 812-988-8807
