Contents Contributors
Contents Contributors
13 COLORING CONTEST 14 HISTORY MYSTERY 15 SUBSCRIBE
16 New IU Health Facility ~ by Bob Gustin
24 eXplore Brown County ~ by Chrissy Alspaugh
30 Barlow Knife – Mumblety Peg ~ by Mark Blackwell
38-39 Photos by Tom Preston *
40-42 CALENDAR 42 IN Fingerstyle Guitar Fest
46 Playhouse 75th Celebration ~ by Amy Huffman Oliver
50 ChamberFest Brown County
58 Our State Park Lakes ~ by Jeff Tryon
60 Sustayn Vying for Awards ~ by Boris Ladwig
62 Native Americans ~ by Julia Pearson
68 Sycamore Land Trust ~ by Jim Eagleman
70 National Night Out 72-74 INFO PAGES
Cover: Paddleboarders on Ogle Lake ~ by Cindy Steele
OUR BROWN COUNTY P. O. Box 157 Helmsburg, IN 47435
( 812) 988-8807
ourbrown @ bluemarble. net ourbrowncounty. com
Also online at issuu. com / ourbrowncounty Facebook OUR BROWN COUNTY
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.
Julia Pearson loves learning and writing about local history, faith communities, and the radically ordinary lives of people. She continues the work and association of her late husband, Bruce L. Pearson, with the Wyandotte and Delaware tribes, and visits museums of all types and sizes.
Jim Eagleman is a 40-year veteran naturalist with the IN DNR. In retirement, he is now a consultant. His program“ Nature Ramblings” can be heard on WFHB radio, the Brown County Hour. He serves on the Sycamore Land Trust board. He enjoys reading, hiking, music, and birding. Jim and his wife Kay have lived here for more than 40 years.
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.
* Tom Preston’ s love of photography began as a teen. He enjoys sharing the Brown County scenery and activities around Nashville through his photograpy. He captures nearly every Brown County Playhouse event, and has acted in front of audiences there, too, most recently as Oscar in The Odd Couple. And when he isn’ t taking pictures or acting, he is probably driving tourists around town in the Nashville Express train.
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.
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. She does the weaving while he gives studio tours, builds small looms, and expands his book and record collections.
Chrissy Alspaugh is a freelance writer and owner of Christina Alspaugh Photography. View her work at < ChristinaAlspaughPhotography. com >. She lives in Bartholomew County with her husband Matt and three boys.
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 local journalists. She writes now as a freelancer after working most of her career as a public interest attorney and a seventhgrade teacher in Brown County Schools.
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.
copyright 2024 Thanks, Mom, for making it happen!
July / August 2024 • Our Brown County 9