Contents Contributors
Contents Contributors
12 HISTORY MYSTERY 13 SUBSCRIBE
16 C & C Equipment / Touch-A-Truck ~ by Bob Gustin
24 Sampler: Firebird Tap House
30 Musings: Food Ways ~ by Mark Blackwell
34 IHA Exhibition and Sale ~ by Paige Langenderfer
38-39 Photos by Jeff Danielson * 40-42 CALENDAR
46 Psi Iota Xi ~ by Amy Huffman Oliver
50 Bill Monroe Festivals Preview ~ by Boris Ladwig
56 Hilltop Camp for Girls ~ by Julia Pearson
64 Field Notes: A Plant Journey ~ by Jim Eagleman
68-70 INFO PAGES
Cover: Otto & The Moaners at Hippy Hill Americana Bean Jamboree ~ 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.
* Jeff Danielson spent most of his childhood in Wales, Britain, and Scotland after his family moved there from Philadelphia. He attended IU in Bloomington then owned and operated the Runcible Spoon Café for 25 years until he sold it in 2001. He has since become immersed in nature photography. He and his wife D’ Arcy live on the Brown County / Monroe County line.
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.
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.
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!
10 Our Brown County • May / June 2024