We are the Champions!
WINNER – NASHVILLE –
Nate Spangle at Moontown Brewery Co. during a summer visit. courtesy photos ~ by Boris Ladwig
Brown County this year got a marketing boost because Nashville won the Small Town Showdown against 63 other small Indiana cities.
The competition, organized by the Get Indiana Media Company, pitted the small towns against one another in brackets, modeled after and taking place at the same time as the NCAA men’ s basketball tournament.
The towns were seeded based on population, with Nashville being a 16 th seed that survived a matchup with Jasper in the first round, said Nate Spangle, a native Hoosier and the company’ s founder.
Get Indiana got between 4,000 and 5,000 votes per matchup, and Nashville beat towns including Santa Claus, Rising Sun, Madison, Monticello and, in the final, Greensburg. Some of the matchups were tight, Spangle said, with the towns being separated by fewer than 10 votes.
He said the company aligned the timing of its matchups with the basketball tournament and
announced Nashville as the winner just days before the NCAA championship game.
It wasn’ t just people from Nashville who voted for their hometown. Spangle said the town got more than quadruple the amount of votes than it has residents.
He said,“ People from all over the state voted for Nashville.”
Spangle came up with the idea because it aligned with the company’ s vision, to highlight the best of Indiana, from road trips to drive-in theaters and ice cream.“ People love small towns across Indiana.” Get Indiana presents the state’ s highlights on
16 Our Brown County • Sept./ Oct. 2025