The barn was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps nearly a century ago.
time glued to the TV, gaming console or cell phone— make the work worthwhile, he said.
Visitors never know what animals they might encounter, but they frequently see deer, turkeys, or even coyotes. Some of the city slickers who visit the barn have trouble identifying those animals— and even horses.
“ Some city kids who come and see black and white horses call them cows,” Bair said.
He runs the facility through a contract with the state, which gives him 26 acres of the park. Rides start at 9 a. m., with the last rides leaving at 4:30 p. m. Trail rides cost $ 21 for 35 minutes on a 2.2-mile loop, and $ 31 for 3.3-mile, one-hour loop, with a $ 1 discount for those who pay cash.
Children under 17 must wear a helmet. All guests are accompanied by a guide. Smaller children can take parentassisted pony rides around an oval near the barn for $ 3.50 per lap.
The barn offers rides from the second week in March to the second week in November. Bair said as many as 250 people can show up per day. October is busiest, primarily because of the fall foliage.
Bair recommends that people come in spring, because of the more pleasant temperatures and smaller crowds.“ You can watch everything come to life,” he said. Bair’ s day typically starts at 8 a. m., when he saddles up the 60 horses and puts out hay for them. They eat about 600 bales per year.
The horses are mostly very docile quarter horses, he said. A booth near the barn displays some of their names: Betty,
Peaches, Zoey, Daisy. One of the horses for kids is named Nugget, but Bair said everyone calls it Chicken Nugget.
The barn dates back almost a century and was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. A plaque at the barn reads that the president created the corps following the 1929 stock market crash, which left about 18 million people unemployed, of whom about 2 million became homeless.
“ The CCC provided employment, income and job training to unemployed men, aged 18 to 23,” the plaque reads.“ They were paid $ 30 monthly, $ 25 of which was sent directly to their needy families.”
The plaque states that almost 64,000 Hoosiers were assigned to CCC camps in the state and that the workers were“ instrumental in furthering Indiana’ s fledgling state parks, reservoirs and forests. At the time, many properties were without basic infrastructure. Much of the land that became state property
Continued on 20
Sept./ Oct. 2022 • Our Brown County 17