Exploring Brown County State Park

Exploring Brown County State Park in the rolling hills of Nashville, Indiana is a sure way to escape naturally! The park was opened to the public in 1929 and “encompasses nearly 16,000 acres of rugged hills, ridges and fog-shrouded ravines. Glaciers from the most recent ice ages stopped short of the “hills o’ Brown,” but their meltwaters helped create the narrow ridges, steep slopes and deep gullies of Brown County State Park. Indiana’s largest park is a traditional fall color hot spot, with nearly 20 miles of tree-lined roads and many scenic vistas overlooking miles of uninterrupted forestland.”¹

• • • 18 miles of easy to rugged hiking trails.
    • 30 miles of easy to expert mountain biking trails.
    • 70 miles of bridle trails where you can bring your own horse.
    • Saddle Barn provides guided trail rides and pony rides.
    • Warm-weather fishing or ice fishing for bass, bluegill and more on 7 acre Strahl Lake and 17 acre Ogle Lake where canoes, kayaks, rowboats and boats with electric trolling motors are allowed. NOTE: A state license is required to fish at the park and a DNR is Lake Permit is required when boating.
    • Olympic-size swimming pool. NOTE: Swimming in Ogle Lake or Strahl Lake is prohibited.

“Known for many decades as the “Little Smokies” because of the area’s resemblance to the Great Smoky Mountains, the park draws more people to it than any other in the state park system. Attracting many to the park are the vivid fall colors, viewable from several lookouts and nearly twenty miles of roads winding through the park. These spectacular landscapes drew Hoosier Group artists like T. C. Steele, William Forsyth, Otto Stark, John Ottis Adams, and Richard Gruelle to Brown County in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century to paint the area …

In June of 1934, the Veterans Civilian Conservation Corps Company 1557 began extensive work to improve the park. Besides planting black locust, black walnut, and various pines and spruces (to help repair badly eroded slopes due to years of farming), the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) workers also erected many of the existing buildings and trails within the park used today. The west lookout tower, many of the scenic vistas, and the CCC hiking trail are all part of the legacy of the corp’s time in the park, as are many other projects by various CCC groups in the state park system.”²

SOURCES:

1. Indiana Department of Natural Resources 
2. Indiana Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology

Photograph by Indiana Ivy Kardokus – Nature Photographer

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