“ Around here, every weekend especially, is like our big game.”
— Scott Crossley
Future project for the Friends: firetower next to the park office. file photo
“ Really, this is very much like a national park,” Crossley said.
That is fitting for the nearly centuryold, 15,776-acre, hill-laden sprawl, considered one of the largest such natural attractions in the Midwest.
As much as Crossley steered a recent conversation to the work of such advocates as volunteers with the Friends of Brown County State Park or the park’ s burgeoning mountain bike supporters(“ We can’ t sufficiently do our job without so many volunteers and groups”), he realizes that he is the most visible representative of a local treasure with history predating the Depression.
For the upcoming centennial celebration in 2029, his staff of 18 and others will work with the Friends group to restore the park’ s iconic fire tower and to make its cabin at the top accessible again.
But he also finds joy in more immediate celebrations.
Come May 3, for instance, Crossley will be doing the wave. Oh, not the sports fan wave. He will engage in the gleeful, processional wave instead when he serves as grand marshal of the annual Spring Blossom Parade in Nashville.
More than anything, though, he mentioned that the parade represents just another outlet for him to better link with the community, which he considers part of, well, the roots of such a leadership role.
“ This is a little like being the mayor of a small town,” he said.
In that role, he occasionally just happens to be sometimes rescuing injured hikers or even quickly smoothing over neighbors’ misunderstanding in the campground.
He did the same while serving as property manager at Mounds State Park in Anderson, his previous post, and where his family often visited during his childhood marked overall by hunting, fishing, you name it.
“ I know that he’ s probably had to deal with a bit of a learning curve,” said Doug
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May / June 2025 • Our Brown County 23