Rock the Rind, Main Street Revivals, and Why You Shouldn’t Sleep on Jackson County, Indiana

Oh, I didn't realize that that was there. Get out and take a look. People don't realize how many businesses or everything that you need is is right here. At some point, the work has to [music] be done. You can't just talk about and sit around the room and strategize and fantasize and all things like you have to roll up your sleeves and do it. I think Rock the Ride is a perfect example of that.

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[music] Pence Media Group. Consider it done with PMG. Now, let's get into the episode. And today is [music] a special episode. We have two conversations in one, both rooted right here in the same place, [music] Jackson County, Indiana. In the first half of today's show, I'm joined by Luke Nolting and Darren Kaine.

Now, Luke is the president of Brownstown Euing Main Street, and Darren is the executive director of Seymour Main Street. Both of them are working to build vibrant communities in their main streets, in their downtowns. I'm so excited to talk today and learn a little bit more about all the cool things Brownstone and and Seymour are doing down here in Jackson County. Y'all, welcome to the show. Thanks for having us. Thank you.

Uh, this is exciting. We are in I don't really know what to say. Are we like in an apartment or we're somewhere here in Jackson County and it's beautiful. I'll start by saying that. Yeah. Uh and right behind us, uh you won't be able to see on this, but you'll be able to go see on the video.

A huge music festival is happening this weekend. We're down here in Jackson County for Rock the Ride, which now, correct me if I'm wrong, Brownstone is a town of less than or right around 3,000 people, probably less, but yeah. And there are headlining country acts on this 3-day music festival. It's taken over the town square. It's like a huge production. This is crazy.

Uh so I'm really excited to dive into what I want to know. Where does your guys' story Darren? We'll start with you. Where does your story with Jackson County start? Um since I was born. Like I've always have been in Jackson County.

My family I grew up here. Um, never really got away except for college. Okay. Came back, have always worked here. Um, just happy to be a part of Jackson County. Yeah.

Okay, Luke, where does your story with Jackson County start? Yeah, so kind of like Darren, uh, my family's been here for generations. Um, my great grandpa and my grandpa actually had a IG stores in the surrounding area. So nice. Ning's IGA has been around for generations. Um, and kind of was sold out when I was born about that time.

Um, and we've been either between Seymour and Brownstown. Wow. Okay. So, so a lot of heritage and what I'm hearing from the people I've talked to while I've been down here in Jackson County, it has seemed that like legacy is a big thing. Like there's a lot of generational farms or generational business owners and and that's exciting. But for what you guys are doing, it's an interesting balance between honoring the legacy that's been there before while also pushing downtown in a direction that's vibrant and alive.

So, I want to know uh we'll go Okay, we'll start with Darren again. Talk about what's going on in in Seymour. What are you guys doing to push the downtown to push Main Street forward in Seymour while also honoring the legacy that is all things Jackson County? Yeah. So, I guess kind of what I do is trying to bring in people, businesses, their investment into downtown. And a lot of what I focus on is behind the scenes um working uh with business support development, advocating for businesses.

So, is this like businesses as in like the big commercial like factory like like Cumins has a spot here in Seymour? They do. Um, but our main street is really a district. So, we have currently about 28 businesses, small businesses within our district. Um, yeah. So, this would be like bookstores and restaurants and that kind of businesses.

um bookstores, uh small spas, I guess you could say, massage places, uh boutiques, um our library. I'm trying to think of all the all the different the like small businesses that make a downtown in a in a small town feel alive. Uh, and then when we're talking about Brownstown, talk to me about what you guys are doing and what are some of the interesting things and how did a music festival end up being such a key uh, component of a small town's main street plan. When Connor and I graduated college and moved back to Brownstown um, and we kind of started taking over the main street organization, um, our main goal, our main passion was to be able to revitalize downtown. Um, which is a big undertaking, a big task. It's overwhelming.

Um it's obviously still something that we're working on today. Um but obviously with you know the county seat being here and the courthouse being right behind us. Um you know it has a lot of history. Yeah. Which is an interesting piece because again Brownstown is 3,000 people. Seymour is over 20,000 people.

Uh but yet the county seat is here in Brownack. Do what is the history behind that? Do you know? And that if you don't know that's totally fine too. So obviously right behind us uh is the courthouse which has been here for you know well over 200 years. Um, and it it's very unique.

It's a very unique courthouse. It's a very unique square. Um, and so our goal was with some older buildings in town and rundown, uh, places that have happened over the years, our goal was to try to come up with a way of how can we bring life back to them? How can we put businesses in them? Um, and with that, um, comes an expense and it comes finding those small businesses. It comes with h helping them find programs or grant dollars to be able to redo that building.

Um, and and the main thing after, you know, several years of of doing things downtown that Connor and I came to the realization of is we need to bring back a festival that's going to help us, you know, grow this community and help with, you know, bringing a profit to the main street organization. Um, like we were discussing earlier, you know, we're we're an Main Street organization with no funding. So, whatever we want to do and however we want to put it on um is going to come from whatever we're doing within. Bring back a festival. Was the watermelon festival a thing of the past in Jackson County? It was.

Um, so when I was a kid, um, so I'm 33, so you know, when early on in my childhood, they used to have a watermelon festival and it kind of fizzled off, died off, um, you know, many, many years ago. Um, and it was kind of a different, it wasn't a music festival. It was just more the typical festival that you'd have in a small town or a city. Um, and so when we thought about what should we do, what should that look like? We thought, you know, watermelons in Jackson County are huge. Um, people come to Jackson County just to buy watermelons.

Just last night, there were so many people asking if they could just buy a whole watermelon to take home with them because they aren't used to having good Jackson County watermelons. That's crazy. Are there are there a lot of watermelon growers here in Jackson County? Yes. Oh, yeah. Fields and fields of them of watermelon.

I have never I've never seen a watermelon field. I might have to go take you on a tour. Yeah, I'm going have to go tour [laughter] around here. Um, one interesting piece. So, both of you grew up in Jackson County, went to college. One thing that I feel like is happening in small towns across America is people who go out to college don't always come back.

Mhm. For you all, why was it important to come back to your hometown and then on top of that get involved with the Main Street organization that's helping uh revitalize, breathe life into your downtowns? Yeah. Um I think a biggest thing uh for me why I came back, my family, we have a family farm together, my dad and I, um um a cattle farm that we started. So that's kind of a big thing of why I came back. And then um I started in the nonprofit sector and kind of found an interest in that and then Main Street kind of fell into my lap and I thought, wow, this is something that I'm really interested in and um I myself never thought I would go away from Seymour.

Um, so when the main street job was presented to me, I thought, what else? You know, this is perfect. You know, something that I can help our community, be out talking to people, um, bring businesses into our downtown, help grow um, our community. That just sounded like a job I would love and thrive in. So, they talk about like getting a job that you do for free. That's the kind of thing where it's like obviously you need to pay the bills and everything, but like getting to help, you know, a main street, a downtown district thrive.

Like that just seems like something that is a home run hit, like so much fun. Uh what about for you? Yeah, so I would say, you know, when I first started um when I went to college, I knew that I wanted to own my own business. I didn't know what it was. somehow ended up in the funeral home space which like we were discussing earlier. I got to know where where along your journey like were you like 20 22 24 like where were you when you said yep the funeral business that's the one for me.

I was in college um and so it would have been I would have probably been 22. Yeah. When I realized that's what I wanted to come back and do. And a family friend had owned the funeral home. Um and so it was our plan to kind of take that over. Is there like extra schooling?

Do you have to do like a master's degree in that? You don't need a master's. [laughter] Dude, that's you do have to have a degree. I mean, they talk about identify supply and dem like you want to own your own business, supply and demand, like there's no shortage of need for the services you're providing. Yeah. Yeah.

So, I knew I wanted to come back and do that. Um, and so obviously, you know, the funeral home here in Brownstown, which is where we live, um, at all. Do you live at the funeral home? No. Oh, it did sound like you want We can tour that. No, in my hometown, the funeral director lived at the funeral home.

It was with his family. Like there was like three kids. Yeah, that's you know in a lot of the older bigger facilities that's what they do and still do. That's wild. So we can tour with the funeral home later and the watermelon fields. Let's go.

All right. I I'm getting So you got there you then took over. Yeah. Um it was family friends before which I feel like that is a cool piece about like the legacy of oh like small towns and familyowned businesses and things like that. It's like the succession plan. It might not be in your direct family, but usually it's like a friend of a friend or the kid of someone that you know.

Yeah. And I think, you know, even in high school, uh, when I went to Seymour High School, um, you know, I was always involved. I was always doing, you know, I played sports, but I was involved in extracurriculars and the organizations and I feel felt like that was just something that my family has always been, it's always been passionate uh, for us to do and to give back. And I think, you know, when I got here and I knew that I was going to be at the funeral home, it was just how can I, you know, make this place better? Yeah. For my family, for other families, how can we make it a great place to live, to raise a family, to go to school?

Every person has to have their part. Yeah. So, the one thing that's interesting, and some of the listeners, we've had individuals talk about the Main Street program, main street organizations before. There's like accreditation levels, you know what I'm talking about, where you kind of start out as just like you're you're acknowledged and then you're like nationally or state acknowledged and national. What levels are each of your main streets? We are an Indiana accredited main street.

Okay. Does that mean you So, you have to have a full-time employee that works on it. Yes. That which is you. Which is me. Ah, I got you.

And we do not have a full-time employee. Yes. Um, and again back to that conversation of the funding, you know, that's something as we've grown this, we've started to look at and think, you know, how can we keep a full-time person busy or if we've had a full-time person, what would that position look like? Um, because, you know, there's so much room to do more, but, you know, our board of of directors that we have for Brownstone Main Street, you know, they're all business owners or, you know, work at a business full-time or have have a kids that they're raising at home. Um, so, you know, they're busy as well. Um, and they're just giving back their time like everyone else.

So, we're just trying to kind of navigate that now. And I know Connor will talk about that with Rock the Rind. But, you know, when we first started this, you know, we kind of said, "Let's give it five years. Let's see where it's at. Is it going to be super successful? Are we going to keep growing it?

Or is it, you know, going to kind of be a flop and we're going to have to, you know, change paths and maybe do something else?" And so, I think, you know, with where it's headed and what we've done already, that's definitely something that I think is on the horizon for us. Yeah. Wow. I mean, it's it's so cool and I'm really excited to dive into like Rock the Ride specifically, but for for you guys thinking about your main streets, how for citizens, like let's say someone from Brownstone or someone from Seymour listens to this episode, like the work that's being done by the main street organization, how can an individual feel that in their community? How can they see it?

How can they say like, "Oh, I like the Main Street organization because it's doing blank and I can see that in my community." So, I would say for us down here, I mean, obviously you can look downtown, you can't get through downtown right now because of this festival, but I would say a big thing for us is just, you know, when we first started, you know, we didn't have any flower pots throughout downtown. We didn't have any street banners on our flag poles. Um, you know, so it was just a bland drive through, you know, the one stoplight, two stoplight, one and a half stoplight town. Um, and so that's something that we did immediately like how can we make, you know, the biggest impact with the smallest dollar right now as we first started. And I think, you know, and I'm sure Darren can even touch more on that and elaborate on that, but I think for us it was, you know, people who want to give back and the organizations who want to give back, like where where can their dollar go?

And when we first started and we took over Main Street, however many years ago that was, you know, it was a u membershipbased organization as it still is. Um, but there was nothing for that membership when we first started. So that's it's almost like philanthropy. Yeah. Like thanks for your donation. You pay your thing cuz you're supposed to.

Correct. And and that was great, but we were like, as small business owners, um, you know, ourselves, we were, how can we come up with, you know, a way for businesses to want to give even more to be able to help this organization and to help our community, uh, down the road? And I think Connor will touch on this, but I think people have no idea the amount of small businesses in Jackson County, not just Brownstone, Indiana, but in Jackson County that support things like this. Um, if it wasn't for our small businesses, this wouldn't happen. It it just wouldn't it would not happen. And I think there that's there's so much to say about Jackson County and the small business owners and how much they give back to this community.

Um, you know, not just Rock the Rine, not just Watermelon Festival, but our local businesses, mom and pop organizations around here truly make a difference in this community. Yeah. And I want to chime in on that for Seymour Main Street. Um, so if you're unfamiliar with Main Street, it's broken into four different categories: design, organization, economic vitality, and promotions. So the flower pots, the trash cans, making your downtown look pretty, basically is design. So that's kind of something Seymour has been focusing on as well.

We also have been updating our flower pots, our trash cans. You have good art. Yes. Our murals. Yeah. So, yeah, that's something else our design committee has been focusing on within the last year.

Um, our promotion committee is our our our party planners, our events. So, we have a lot of events. We have about 14 different events. The biggest being the German festival or October Fest. I feel like that's one of them. So that's not that's not Main Street.

We have a separate Oktoberfest committee, but but that happens in our main street. I think that's one that like I always get hit up about saying like you have to go to Seymour for October Fest. Yeah. I mean, it's a big So there's events that other organizations put on and then there's there's 14 main specific events. So like we have five free summer concert series from May to September. Where do you have those at?

Um Crossroad Community Parks. Yep. Um at our outdoor pavilion. Um we have, you know, like Ghouls and Goblets, our sibbon stroll downtown. Um our bourbon pour. We're getting ready to have a new event, Taste of Our Town, partnered with our um the chamber, and that'll be um like you'll get tasting plates and get to try um different restaurants and food trucks.

Um, so we're excited for that. But something else our economic vitality committee does is they award grants. So, our main street businesses can apply for different grants, whether that's a buildout, signage, facade, um, and our committee will review those grants, you know, meet with them, and it's it's a pretty cumbersome process. But this year we awarded $237,000 for projects like facades and signs and stuff like that. So we awarded we briefly talked about spark shop. So we awarded money to this new project coming downtown for them.

Um we awarded yeah some some signage projects. Um new roof replacement. uh facade, um anything to kind of help better that building. And is that different than most main street organizations? I feel like actually writing checks to businesses is not something that most I think that kind of really sets our main street apart from other main streets that we have such a great Yeah. Luke established grant program.

Um, and and we have the ability to be able to do that, that we are able to receive these funds and we're able to, you know, pick out different businesses downtown that are apply and we're able to award them. So, we're really proud to have this this great grant program to do that. And I would say to what Darren's talking about, I think that's one of the reasons Seymour Main Street over the last few years has really grown and expanded is because of that grant program because it just allows so many small business owners, mom and pops to redo their storefront or to put a new roof on or whatever they need. And it's it's huge, you know, cuz as a mom and pop business, sometimes you don't have those funds to be able to do those things. Yeah. Yeah.

you know, to be able to have the ability to award $50,000 to a a certain business, like that's transformational. You you run a Main Street coffee shop or whatever it is and like your your roof starts to have issues or whatever it might be. It's like that's that is devastating. That's bankruptcy for like the business. It's going under for sure. A lot of coffee cups.

Yeah. I don't like you talk about bottom line profit from a from a coffee business. Like it's tough to get that to be 50,000 extra surplus, you know? like you're trying to make your ends meet. And so being able to come in there and say, "Hey, we're going to we're going to support our businesses not just with an Instagram post or a Facebook, you know, and which is all great, like we love that part, too, but to also write a check and to say we're supporting you financially, like our our town is better because you exist. Our town is better because we have uh different like we just went to um is it Larrison's?"

Yes. For breakfast, dude. I'm like, I thought you smelled that grease. Oh, yeah. [laughter] Come on. I mean, it is uh it is uh like walking back into history.

It's amazing. But it's like like usually what happens, I feel like, is if there's like a capital project or something, it's like, okay, well, we're is it even worth the hassle to keep going? And and you lose staples of the community like that over time. It's like, what? There's I mean, there's several different restaurants. We were at um Popular Street.

That's over 90 years old. That's crazy for a restaurant to be open over over I mean 30 40 years, 50 years, but to be 90 is is insane. So, it's cool that you guys come alongside and support um financially as well. What I want to know for both of y'all from Brownstown and Seymour, where do you feel like there's opportunity? You know, like if you had the magic wand, you could just like smack it and uh you know, things could change and anything could happen. Where do you feel like there is opportunity to grow in your small towns?

I always think there's room for growth. Obviously, I think with Seymour and Brownstown, we both have vacant buildings. We have empty storefronts. There's, you know, room for new businesses to come in, different businesses. My um goal would be to get people to come in and stay downtown longer. So, what my hope would be, you know, we have we have restaurants, we have bars, uh we have great shops, but how do you get them to stay down there past 5:00?

It's an interesting conundrum in Seymour where you have a lot of the big chain type restaurants and like I saw a Penn Station. I was like, "What the?" But it's cuz the interstates out on that one side of town and then you have like the family-owned local spots in the downtown area, right? So, what that means for me, I guess you you have either people coming to work and they they leave at 5:00 to go home or they're coming down to to get their dinner, their burger, what whatnot. How can we get them to go eat dinner and then go to a place to grab a drink or do an activity or something that keeps them downtown a little bit longer. So, that's a goal that I'm trying to focus on.

get that economic development down there a little bit more. Um trying to bring in more inve. Yeah. What um like are you researching or going to other places and looking at what other small towns are doing? Absolutely. What are the kind of like activities you see that uh other towns similar size to Seymour love?

I will say something and I hear a lot from people in Seymour or other main streets. Um they have an activity something you know that brings families in but also has drinks. People People like to drink they like to eat. It's Jackson County. Yeah. Um it's it's India.

It's everywhere. It's Yeah. Whether you do or not, other people do. And um they like to bring their kids there. They like to eat. They like to drink.

And that's what's going to make people stay. Yeah. It's almost even like the the like atmosphere of a bar or a restaurant or whatever it might be where there's like not just like a connect four board, but like there's some some play stuff for kids to you know run around on and you know mom and dad can get a beer and then they could like play cornhole or do like you have like the whole vibe there where people like hang out for an extended period of time, right? Yeah. Okay. All right.

What about with Brownstown? Where do you feel like the opportunity is? I would say our main focus or main goal would be to be able to uh build our main street organization big enough that when we start applying for grant dollars that you know we can match those for us or for the businesses or whatever that looks like. And and back to like what Darren said for Seymour Main Street, the building that we're actually in now is one of the first couple of buildings downtown Brownstown that have completely been revitalized. I mean this thing is crazy. It's beautiful.

It feels like I'm in like an industrial New York City loft. Yeah. Right. Like it's wild. And and and it's gorgeous from the outside to the downstairs. I mean, they've done an amazing job at redoing it, but not every small business owner has that ability to be able to put the money in something like this.

And so, I think that would be, you know, our, like I said from the beginning when Connor and I first started this, that was our goal is how can we get to that point? And we're getting closer. Um, but it's not just going out there and asking for, you know, $50 memberships. That's not going to cut cut it. Yeah. Absolutely.

Uh, well, we're getting close on time and I do want to wrap up. I have a few more questions for you guys. What I want to know is what do people get wrong about small towns? Like you both grew up in a small town. I grew up in a small town. [laughter] Yeah.

You like that? This the Jackson County locals love that one. Uh, but you grew up in a small town. You went away. You went to college. Uh, and then you chose to come back to your small town.

And I think sometimes we get uh people who've never spent a significant part of their life. they never lived like like physically lived for an extended period in a small town. What do people get wrong about them? I I mean I would say for for me and and some of the you know my family and my my core group, I would say it's just a sense of community. I mean I would just say it's belonging and and you know having your your friends and your resources and your parents and your grandparents. Um and I just being able to have those people in your life in your corner.

Um, you know, I always joke my roommate from school lives in Florida and his parents don't live in Florida. And I'm like, I don't know how you survive without your parents there with having kids, you know what I mean? Just just that sense of having them when you need something or when the kids are sick or whatever the case is. Um, and and I just think, you know, growing up here and just seeing, you know, Brownstown, like we were saying before we even went live, like Brownstown is just such a unique area where people they just truly care. they they and you know it doesn't matter if someone's walking down the street or driving like if something happens they're going to stop and they're gonna um they're going to ask if you can help. And one thing you know in the bigger cities this goes to the funeral side of things but anytime we come down this main street in a funeral procession every single car stops which is cool and in the big cities you don't see that you know you know it's just not a thing anymore and it's just that sense of pride that I think people truly care about the city.

People don't realize how how many businesses or everything that you need is is right here. Um or they don't realize how many businesses actually are in the downtown. Or they'll say, "Oh, I didn't realize that that was there." Or, "I didn't know that we actually had that." Um get out and take a look. Go out, walk downtown.

Um and I would say, sorry to cut you off. Go ahead. I would say something too just about like other small towns in Indiana. Like we're not the only two small towns in Indiana. And I would say so many of the other main street organizations are doing the same thing. There's, you know, they're out there trying to revitalize it.

They're trying to bring businesses. They're trying to walk downtown and get people to, you know, redo the old buildings. Um it's not an easy thing to do. And I think the um downtown organizations that are doing it right, you can drive through them, you can be like, "Wow, like these buildings have been redone in the last 5 to 10 years." Yeah, absolutely. Um, okay.

So, so I I absolutely love that. You're totally right. The other piece that I think um are you guys both in your 30s? Mhm. Okay. You're both in your 30s and the work you're doing matters.

Like you are meaningfully waking up and when you work on the main street stuff, you're driving a small town forward. Like you wake up every day, you go and you work and for the main street organization in Seymour and you're making this place better. And it's like, you know, if you're in a big city, it might take longer for your opinion to matter. It might take longer for your impact to be seen in like tangible results. And I think a lot of people get that wrong about small towns where it's like this is a place where it, you know, it won't just be handed to you and gifted to you, but if you put your name in the name in the hat and you like say, "Hey, I'm really willing to work and I want to, you know, help revitalize the downtown and work." like you can make a huge impact and you don't have to be a millionaire and you don't have to be 55 years old and like the president of the you know golf board or whatever you know like like you can come in with a good idea and a lot of attitude and elbow grease and like make an impact goes a long way and I would say like last night you know some of us were talking downtown during the concert that you know this happens main street organizations rock the rind happen from every single person like it's not just the million-dollar investor.

It's not just the small coffee shop on the corner. It's every single person whether they are working for a company, whether they own their own company, every person comes together. It happens because of community. Yeah. I mean, they just all know that like if we're going to make anything better, it's it's us. There's no one else here.

Yeah. I love that. and having that sense of ownership in your community, whether it's making, you know, the landscaping and the flower pots look good or it's bringing the next small business and writing them a check to help them with whatever the repair might be or whatever the next uh phase of growth is. like all of that matters. And what I love about it, um, I actually before money, before landscaping, before any of that, I always say that it it starts, a movement starts with how your locals talk about their place. Like how you speak about Jackson County.

And what I noticed is all the best places that I've been to all even if they don't live here anymore, they like gone on and let's say you grew up in Jackson County, but you live in Indianapolis now, they still talk about Jackson County with reverence. They're still like, "Oh, it was I'm so proud to be from Jackson County or they still call it home. They still call it home, you know, and it's like you talk about it like, "Oh, it was it's the best place. Like that's home. I love that." And then you come down here and you meet people that are like, "Oh, I love like this place is special."

It's like they don't even know why. maybe like they can't like put words to it about why it's special to them. They just know it's special. And that is I think that's like the first domino that's a tick because everyone's been to a place where it's like I'd say Cleveland, Ohio. Like [clears throat] there's very few people are like, "Oh, I'm so jazzed up to be from Cleveland [laughter] except for like the die hard Clevelanders." Like granted, we don't have anyone from Cleveland really that listen to our show, but it's like those people are going to call you, right?

Exact. But it's like that. It's like, you know, the places, there's spots where people just like, "Oh, yeah, I'm from blah blah blah blah." And they're like, "Oh, you know, like they're not proud of that." And everyone I meet from Brownstone, from Seymour, from all over Jackson County are like, "No, we're we're really Yeah. And I love that.

I think that's like the first domino that leads to picking up the trash on your streets. that leads to, you know, new businesses coming in and people willing to take a chance because they know if I put my life savings into a bookstore on the main, you know, the main corner downtown, people are going to show up. And I would just say like just last night, you know, when the concert was over, obviously there's people outside of Jackson County here, but like if you would look out, you know, out through this window that's behind you right now, that was full of chairs and people standing and sitting and there was not almost any trash. It's just, you know, people care. they put their trash away and it's a little things, you know, like you said, it's a domino effect. It's a little stuff and it just keeps moving forward.

I think it also helps too where it's like if you like left your stuff, people are going to be like, "Oh yeah, that's Bernice's [ __ ] over there, right?" Like [laughter] like we're going to remember that and and we know where she's at, so we're going to get this back to her. We're actually going to drop it off at work today. Yeah, absolutely. Like that was the that was always a piece like you you you couldn't act like I'm from a town of 1500 people. Uh and it was like you couldn't act up like when you were out and about because you know it get like it was 100% get back to your parents and they'll be like, "Yeah, your son was acting like a jack wagon of town the other [laughter] day."

I'm like, "Yeah." All right. Um, so every guest we have on the show, we ask the same three questions to round it out. This is the halfway point of the episode. We're going to round it out with these three questions. Uh, first, this is your opportunity to shed some light on a part of the state that more people need to be talking about.

Uh, Luke, we're going to start with you. Oh, good. What is a hidden gem in Indiana? Honestly, I would say it's right here in Jackson County in Brownstown. our um forestry, our hiking trails. Yeah, people.

Is that musketuck is like the big muscatuck in Seymour? Muscatuck, not musketuck. I have never heard some you were close. Oh, but I like that. It sounds good, right? MCAT.

Yes. Again, same thing in Seymour. I just think there are so many, you know, the the pinnacle. There's so many places to go and just get out and explore and and there's that's all over Indiana. But I would say just right here, you know, even I would say I don't, you know, take advantage of it enough because there's so many unique opportunities right here. Like getting outside like like So where would you say to go if like someone from Jackson County or around is listening to like go get outside and explore some nature?

Where would they do that? I mean there's a forestry which is a forestry. What is that? National forestry. Oh, that's pretty cool. All right, that's a good one.

I I you said that and I was like, what does that even mean? I've never even I'm going to agree to him on this. Um, and I know that kind of sounds like cheesy that you're going to say your own county, but I'm also a photographer in my free time. And I always think like gosh, there's just so many pretty places here to take pictures. And I'm like looking on the map. Is this like the Jackson Washington State Forest and like Pinnacle Peak?

Yeah. And it's like right over here. Why don't you go hike that today? Burn some of those that beer off. Uh the beer and the biscuits and [laughter] gravy. Oh, dude.

I'm I'm fueled on Is it Larrison's? Yeah, I'm fueled. I could go hike all the way to Pinnacle Peak. Come on. Uh I love that. I've never thought about Yeah, I didn't know there was a ton of good nature.

It's beautiful. It's absolutely beautiful. I love that. Okay, next question. This is how we get new guest ideas and hear about other people in Indiana who are doing incredible things. Who's a Hooser we need to keep on our radar?

someone who's doing big things. So, Jack Benner's from Brownstown, went to Brownstown High School. He uh now is at Purdue University on the basketball team. Um, which is pretty cool cuz most of a lot of Jackson County, you know, as IU fans cuz it's 45 minutes away. We both went to Purdue. So, but we're both Boiler Makers, so we're pretty passionate about that.

Um, hometown guy. Um, yeah, he's he's a young guy and did amazing last year, which is awesome. Um, and his family is just couldn't be nicer people. Um, go Braves. No brace. And then finally, this is this is where you get to talk to me about uh what makes Indiana special and and the question is so when you close your eyes and think about it, your time from Jackson County, your time in Brownstown, in Seymour, up at in Lafayette, Purdue, back home to Jackson County.

What is your favorite Indiana memory growing up on our family farm? Like it's just that's like peace for me. Like I just want to be there. um with our cattle. It's just it's beautiful there. And everywhere, like I said, in Jackson County, you never run out of endless beautiful places, I guess, around here.

I love that. Top that. [laughter] Top that. She says, I don't know. I would say I mean, again, pretty cheesy, but like my family's grown up on a lake in Jackson County my whole life. my grandparents live there and my parents and and I would say the same thing like just being out on the water with our family and celebrating the Fourth of July and and floating with friends and and neighbors like those are the people we enjoy being around and that's what that's how we spend our free time.

I love it. Kind of boring, but that's reality. It's like I think those are the most special ones. It's like those moments where it's like uh like this morning I was at Okay, I've said it like five times but I if you didn't know I went to Larrison. A shameless plug for Larrison's. I went there though and it's like they bring out that mug that like old school diners staff have with the c like the you know folders or whatever coffee.

It's like literally nothing special but it is so special and that mug makes it so good. It's like it's it's a weird conundrum cuz it's not special because it's like a cheap mug with regular coffee in it and you're in like a very normal looking building, but like it is so special cuz it's nostalgic and it feels like when I would go out to breakfast with my grandparents and like years ago and it's just like wow this is a piece that you know as much as I love $15 I vanilla lattes which I do don't get me wrong they're delicious but there's just something special about like a nickel cup of coffee at a local diner and you're about to get like hopped up on biscuits and gravy. [laughter] I love it. Well, y'all, it was so awesome getting to hang out with you, to learn more about what makes your little sizes of Jackson County so special, to learn about, you know, the the younger individuals that are out there across the state of Indiana that are pouring into their communities.

And I think that's what's really really cool is the legacy that is behind Seymour, the legacy that is behind Brownstown and Jackson County as a whole. How much effort and how this community comes together to put on amazing events. This is literally I I don't know if I've seen a bigger festival in a smaller town. Like it's incredible. That's a good way to put it. Yeah, that's why the biggest festival in the smallest town.

Come on. Uh I love it, y'all. If uh people want to learn more about your organizations, if they want to learn more, maybe there's somebody out there wants to get involved in one of the main street organizations, how can they do that? They can check out our website, seyourmainstreet. org, or our Facebook page. That's where all of our information is.

Um anything about our events. They can subscribe to our newsletter. Um stay up to date with all of our stuff. We always have something going on. So, pretty much the same way. Brownstone mainstre.

org. Um, obviously there's Jackson County Watermelon Festival Facebook page, but there's also a Brown Suni Main Street Facebook page. Um, so either either or Darren and I are happy to get anyone involved. I love it, y'all. Well, hey, it's a pleasure to talk to you. Thanks so much for being here.

Thank you. We appreciate it. Here in Indiana, chances are you've heard [music] the name Keller and Keller, and there's a reason so many Hoosiers trust them when something goes wrong. Keller [music] and Keller is a local personal injury law firm that's been helping people across Indiana for over 90 years. They've built a reputation for showing up [music] and putting clients first when it matters most. You talk to real humans, you get real answers, and they're [music] available 24/7 by phone or live chat, so you're never stuck wondering what to do next.

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That's tokeeller. com. Keller and Keller. Get the Keller Edge. Now, let's get back to the show. [music] Aaron Banks is the executive director of the Jackson County Visitors Center and Dan Robinson is the executive director of the Jackson County Chamber, and we're going to be talking about why you shouldn't be sleeping on Jackson County.

I'm really excited to dive into everything that makes this place special. We're here in Brownstown. Uh we're hanging out before Rack the Rind, which is an awesome music festival. We have a whole episode that dives into the main streets, what's going on through there, and it's incredible. But I'm really excited to dive in a little bit deeper and broader than just this weekend here in Jackson County. So, uh, welcome to the show.

Thanks. Thanks for having us. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so we have to start it off. I have to know what's what's your guys' where does your Jackson County story start? My dad was with Standard Grocery forever and ever and ever.

when I was about 10, he got the opportunity to come to Seymour and uh manage a store for a friend of his. And so here we were at 10 years old and um I met my husband the way you're supposed to meet people in Indiana. I met him when I was 15 years old at the basketball sectional. Uh yep, that checks out. Yep. And four children later and careers and our lives and here we are in Brownstown.

I gra actually graduate from Seymour High School and then I met him. He was from Brownstown, the rival school. Oh, yep. And then here we are. So, Wow. Okay.

That brought us back. But yeah, we we went out and came back like like they do. Oh, so you guys had left Jackson County for a while? For a little while. Okay. And then what age were you when you moved back?

Um we both attended Purdue University, got married a number of years later and then he had a job with Pittsburgh National Bank actually at the bank and their um commercial lending department. And we were there for a few years and then we moved to Columbus, Indiana because he got a job opportunity with a bank there. And then um in the meantime, his family home that had been built by his grandfather came up for sale. His parents built a different house. So we took that and we decided it was a great place to raise kids. Yeah.

I love that. Yep. Yep. Dan, where did your story with uh Jackson County start? Uh when I was born in Seymour. That's where I started at Schneck Hospital.

Was born there. Um my my folks are both from the area here and I was I was born in Seymour, graduated from Seymour as well. So you have a lot of lineage. A lot of generations of your family are from Seymour. How far back does it go? Yeah, pretty far.

Um my mom's maiden name was Euing and um her her fifth greatgrandfather, I believe, um was one of the the men that actually platted Vologu on a map for the first time. and then his son became the first postmaster of Jackson County uh way back when. So, a lot of family history like we have a town Euing here with a street and Seymour named Euing as well. All going back to my mom's side of the family. But uh yeah, so we've been here for a minute. I mean, it is really interesting.

Jackson County, as I've spent some time here, there's a ton of history, some very I mean, obviously, I think what everyone knows about is John Melanchamp. Like, that's kind of like the the lowhanging fruit. You also have the second largest high school gymnasium in the country when you talk about uh at Seymour High School, correct? Also the spot of the first moving train robbery. Yeah. And and Fort Valonia.

Like there's a lot of different ways that you can go about this. There are pieces of Indian history I didn't know about. What's significant about Jackson County's history and how does that shape what you guys are doing in the county today? I think it goes back to a lot of connectivity like the the rail expansion and the fact that we have rail intersections in Jackson County is really led to a lot of our early development here. And I think that's kind of the same theme and spirit that we seek today is connection. And then we look at Interstate 65, Highway 50, Highway 31, all major like roadways and they have a lot of intersection and connectivity here.

And I think that's just the theme we just we just roll with and are are people kind of wired that way too to connect and work together. So what were the original industries of Jackson County? Like how did like what was the econ what are the economic drivers? Um farming, agriculture, and uh industry, you know, building things. We're really good at building things and growing things in Jackson County. And that's kind of the two pillars, you know, the main pillars of our economy.

And we try to find creative ways to to fill in other things into that mix. But uh we're blessed to have a and industry as our two pillars. Are there large like historic legacy employers here? Oh yeah. We have Seymour Manufacturing um Wow. Yeah.

Yeah. Uh that they have um made like tool handles basically is and they do other things but that's kind of been their staple for years. They they make that in Seymour. It's a it's an old historic u manufacturing plant there uh not not far from downtown Seymour. Uh Ice and Manufacturing has been here for years. Cumins has has had an engine plant here in Seymour for years and uh just a lot of cool things.

And we have new things that have come to town. Uh we were talking earlier about Guardian Bikes, you know, a super new company. You know, it's an entrepreneurial company uh all about innovation and they landed their operations in Seymour kind of, you know, because of the workforce that we have here because again, we're good at building things and where we're at geographically just made sense. This is interesting. Okay. So, in each of your respective careers, right, we're worried we're focused on bringing more visitors to come in and spend time in Jackson County, and we're focused on helping businesses and individuals, professionals flourish in Jackson County, which I think is super fun.

Uh, like what a cool career to get to focus on. What gets you the most excited about visitors coming to Jackson County, and what gets you the most excited about businesses growing in Jackson County? Yeah. Um, it's the unexpected. We get a lot of that at the visitor center. People will stop in just coming off the road and then they'll talk about the different places they've been in in town or where they've stopped and see unexpected.

They'll tell us like, "God, that was really great. We didn't realize you have these kinds of things here. This or they'll tell us about how kind the people are." And I always tell people um when you come and visit, you could sit down on any bench on any street in any town or any community in our county and someone will sit down next to you and tell them your story. They'll just tell the story of where they came from and what they did or they'll ask if they can help them or they'll tell them whatever the food they didn't like that day from so- and so's place and they're going to tell them about you know that kind of conversation those fun little conversations you get with our locals. Um but everybody's really supportive in every way.

What are the biggest drivers of tourism in Jackson County? Rock the ride October. We do have a really really strong festival base and we really do have a great fair. Our county fair is one of the best fairs in the state. And everybody keeps telling me about the Jackson County Fair. It just Yeah, it's it really is.

And it that's another amazing collaboration of just this collection of people from every corner and everything that goes on. It's a very very big agricultural fair. But that's our big thing. That's our big big driver. October Fest will be huge in Seymour in October. It's first weekend in October.

So I think that's a lot of it our fest and fair base. And it's also kind of our homecoming feel. We do get a lot of um youth sports also because we have a lot of sports. Okay. Opportunities. And what gets you excited about industry and business here in Jackson County?

I just I just love the infusion of innovation like like I mentioned like a and industry are kind of our our pillars, but there's so many cool innovative things that are being driven through those two pillars like uh the creative ways that we're farming now that are more efficient and you know producing higher yields. So even though they're like really historic kind of columns of our economy, they're always evolving and be and becoming more efficient and stuff and that's just cool. Um and you mentioned like I do have a great job because my job is not to pick winners and losers in the business community. Our job is just to help everybody win. Yeah, that's a great place, you know, it's a great thing to get up and and do every day. That is interesting and I want to go into this.

Uh, one piece is there will be a lot of local residents from Jackson County, surrounding counties that hear this and and might not know uh what a chamber of commerce is, you know, like and I would say even as like I talked to lots of people involved in chambers all over, it's not necessarily like the easiest to understand thing of like what a chamber is, what the value of being a member of a chamber of commerce is, and what the value for the community is of having a a vibrant and active chamber. Chamber of Commerce. Talk to me about Chamber of Commerce and why it's so important here in Jackson County. Yeah, well, Chamber is just a a weird word. Like, it's not a word you use in your everyday language and stuff. So, that just kind of makes people feel awkward about it.

But, yeah, we're a membership organization. Um, so, uh, different businesses from sole proprietorships to the largest employers in Jackson County have have joined in with the chamber. We have just over 400 members and these are people that have stepped up and said, "Hey, we want to be a part of making our community better." And uh sometimes they're seeking benefits through that like we have a a great network. I just mentioned over 400 members like we have a pretty nice megaphone in the business community. So if in your business you want to talk to other businesses, we're a great format upon which to do that.

But some a lot of our members too are just they see the good that we're doing in our community right now and they want to be a part of that. So, we're in the process now of launching a new entrepreneurship co-working center in Seymour and that's a a bold thing to do kind of in rural Indiana. Uh, but a lot of our members want to be a part of that. Like they want to get behind it and support it so they support the chamber. And so that's that's kind of what we're about. We're just out there to help support and resource the business community in Jackson County.

Yeah. That's Spark, right? Mhm. Yeah. Spark. Spark Shop.

Spark Shop. Yes. Okay. Talk to me about where the idea for that came from and why you think this is going to thrive in Jackson County. Yeah, so uh about four years ago now, we just got curious about entrepreneurship in Jackson County. And uh Aaron and I both are big supporters of a program called the Maverick Challenge in Jackson County, which uh all of our high schools at one time or another have participated in the program.

But it's an entrepreneurship program for high school kids where they work uh usually as as teams sometimes as individuals on developing a business plan like you know come up with an idea of something that doesn't exist or a way to make a business better that already exists and they they work on these projects and the teachers help them. They have curriculum they go through. We have great mentors from our business community that step up and help these kids and coach them. Um and so a lot of work and a lot of great collaboration goes into the program. But what happens at the end of each year, you know what I'm getting ready to say? We go to the schools, like we have a competition where the the kids pitch and we have judges that that that rate them.

What happens is the end of the year, we pick the winners, we go to the high schools, we bring the big check, we take a picture, put it on Facebook, and then that's it. And some of the kids have done it for the grade. We know that. But some of the kids like they could actually take that business idea and do something with it. And we felt like there's a gap behind that because who's who's going to help them? Who's going to come alongside them?

Who's going to help resource them at that point? And so we just kind of feel like there was a gap there. And then we started realizing there's other people in the community like adults even that maybe they're working a job but it's just a job and they would really love to work for themselves and do their own thing, you know, and be innovative. So we wanted to create an atmosphere where that could happen. So, we launched uh Spark Jackson County, which really was programming and uh we raised our own venture capital fund here in Jackson County, raised over raised over $300,000. Um we were the only rural community in in Indiana that was doing that at the time at that scale.

Um so, again, there's a lot of interest around that. So, as the programming has developed, we've just kind of realized this all needs to like happen in a place like we need a place to be the the hub of all of this. And that's where we came up with the idea for Spark Shop, which is a community co-working space where entrepreneurs, innovators, and remote workers can come and uh have space to work and build community together. That's incredible. Yeah. I have not heard a lot about that in rural Indiana.

Yeah, it's cuz it doesn't exist really. So, if it doesn't like how are you what's guiding like are you modeling it off of something else? How are you knowing what to do? So we uh we visited over um 20 30 different co-working spaces really um Florida, Kentucky, Indiana. Um just went in and just learned from them like what are you doing? What would you do differently?

Uh what would you not do if you had to do over again? Those types of things and just ask a lot of questions. And then through that just kind of formed our own model of like what do we want this to be? What matters? What doesn't? and then the things that maybe they're doing in Indianapolis or or Fort Wayne or Evansville, how do we scale that to Jackson County?

Because we're not any of those communities. We don't have that population base, but a lot of these things we learned like they're pretty easily scalable. So, that's what we've done and uh I think we're going to have a cool product. We'll have it open here within the next couple months and we're excited. So, it's opening in the next couple months. What can there's like a local person maybe they I'm going to say they're past the idea stage.

So, they have a business, maybe they have a food truck or whatever it might be. How can they leverage Spark Shop to help grow their business? Yeah. Well, first of all, it's a place for them to have community because if you're opening that food truck, you need to know more than just how to, you know, make whatever the food product is. Like, you need to you don't you need to understand taxes. So, you need to be tech connected to people in that tax world.

You may need an attorney to help you draw up papers and things like so. there's other people out there that you need to help you. And so, Spark Shop will be a place where you can connect with these resources that are out there and uh maybe access capital, you know, through our our venture capital fund or, you know, just the network that we've built of people that want to help people get businesses off the ground locally. That's what Sparkop will be, a place for those people to to get community and to find resources. That's awesome. I think that's super cool.

Do you have like uh are there businesses that are already like ready to be involved? Like are there startups that are pretty early stage that are ready to take the next step? Yeah, Spark Shop will have four private offices in it that will be leased uh we call it a submarket rate. You know, we want to help them get started. So, we're going to do that at a below market rate. Um and we already have two of those four already spoken for.

Oh, do you know the businesses? Yeah, I can't really share with them right yet because we're still in that contract phase with them, but they're they're committed to us. Uh the thing about that though, and people think we're crazy, we we sign a year lease with them for that office and we'll only let them renew it one time. So we're limiting ourselves. You can only be in our office for two years. But the reason we do that is it's a nest.

You don't get to live in the nest forever. So we're going to help you out for a couple years, give you a great rate on office space that's yours. It's private. You can do your own thing in there, but then we're going to kick you out. Basically, you know, at about 18 months, we're going to introduce you to the director of one of our main street organizations either in Brownstown or Seymour and say, "Hey, this business, their lease is ending in 6 months. Can you help them find a a permanent office space in downtown Seymour or Brownstown Kthersville, wherever they want to be, and help them out?"

So, it's a nest to help them get started. No, I think that's super smart. I've seen that in a lot of places where it's like you have 12 18 24 months go from maybe you had an idea and you have a little bit of traction now you have a space you grow to you know be a decent sized you [clears throat] know business there and then at the end it's like cool now you need to kind of move out of the move on to the next step graduate from this so that another young or another early business early stage startup can get their chance and we want you to still be a part of the Spark Shop community we want you to co-work there and you know use the conference room or whatever. Still stay connected to the community that you've, you know, become a part of, but we're kicking you out of the office space. We love you, but get out. That's [laughter] time to leave the nest.

Grow. I love that. That's a really innovative way and it's cool to see uh yeah, a rural county that's big on agriculture and manufacturing be thinking so innovative. A few years ago, Forbes magazine came out and said that Indiana was the number one state in the country in which to start a new business. And we kind of stole that tagline. and hope no one from Forbes is listening because that might have been the trademark.

I don't know. No, they it wasn't. But we've kind of taken that and modified that we want Jackson County to be the number one rural county in Indiana to start a new business in. Yeah. And that kind of sounds like bold and maybe cocky. It's not though.

It's just a it's an ambitious challenge for us to to go after. Uh we're running towards that now and so I I think we're getting traction. I love it. Incredible. All right. Now, I want to talk about visiting.

talk about, you know, a lot of people have driven through Jackson County. They've come down, what is it, I65, and maybe stopped off at the exit, gotten gas or whatever, but I feel like once you get through kind of the exit piece of it and get to downtown Seymour or down here to Brownstown or Kthersville or Madora, like there's a lot to discover in Jackson County. Talk to me about why people need to explore more than just the on andoff ramps of that exit off of I65 and why they need to check out Jackson County. Yeah. Now, keep in mind those on andoff ramps have a lot of a lot of things out there. So, when you come off that ramp, that's actually a pretty good one.

You have a lot of hotels and great people that help service our communities, too. But you're right. Pull on into Jackson County, pulling into Seymour, you can you get that feel as you come down through. They've been they've worked really hard. CF Seymour has really worked hard to try and pull in that gateway. Um there's continuing to work on it, but they've done a lot of work out there to bring those cars in to enjoy themselves.

So once you get into town, we have you we have your oldfashioned, you've seen in the movies, Main Street. You can get on Main Street. There's food everywhere. Any type of food you can imagine. Um everybody's really friendly. All the boutiques and all the every it just feels like it's full and buzzing.

Um and it's a really great vibe for for visitors. And Main Street does a really really good job of having weekend events and and they're they're really really great with their events to invite people in. So we always share that with our visitors and our hotels so they know that happens. So when people come in and they use those words, what is there to do that we make sure those people are equipped with everything they need to know what there is to do. Um but once you get past the greatest thing is Seymour has so so so much to offer. But if you just kind of pull the layer back just one more peel off one more layer, head out um come west on uh highway 50 and now you'll hit this part of the county and this is one of the most beautiful parts of the state I feel.

Um Jackson County has a lot to offer. We have a lot just to explore. Um we have a lot of ecoourism. We have a lot of agurism. We have great farmers markets. Right now is the time if you want to come to Jackson County.

Do not miss our farmers market. Is this prime watermelon season? It's watermelon and cantaloupe. never eaten a cantaloupe like you've eaten in Jackson County ever. Cantaloupe here is amazing. Um mush melon even.

I mean and and within the month all of them will have every single shape of any type of melon you could ever want anywhere. Pumpkins, gourds. It's unbelievable what they stock up. And then our festival season starts and that always drags a lot of people in. Yeah. And Okay.

So we talked a little bit about what the main drivers of uh of tourism in Jackson County are. What feedback do you get when someone is new, brand new, coming down here and what feedback are you getting from them about their time in Jackson County? What do you what do you constantly keep hearing? Come back to where your food's grown. Come back to where you can pet the pet. You can pet the the animals that are, you know, on the farms, you can like see where things come from.

A lot of families after, you know, that really rough year in 2020, what we found were a lot of people had that separation. So people weren't going to to the, you know, the bigger destinations. So they were coming back here. And a lot of people would tell us, "We love coming here. Our kids have never seen cows in a field or they've never touch the things that they're eating. They've never picked their own strawberries."

Um, so that's what we get a lot. We get that comfort zone stuff and that good vibe of coming here and it kind of feels like home whether it's their home or not. Um you can walk around almost on any of our um farm market farms and they'll they're willing to tell you all about it and their history. And so we do we have a really good home feel here. Yeah. And and I mean one piece of being involved with the visitors center is you're kind of like a little bit of the storytellers of the community to people that might not be from here.

Right. What aspects of the story of Jackson County do you really hope you can get out there? What are the the the narratives, the stories that are like, "Hey, this place is more than you expect." Mhm. Um, well, some of our old history, and you've touched on a little bit, of course, the Reno brothers. Yeah.

Okay. Tell for those who don't know, let's tell the story. Who were the Reno brothers? What the Reno gang? And and how does how do these train robbers tie into Jackson County? Mhm.

Um, well, they were raised in a little community on the other side of our county from where we are today and um on the rail line. And they were pretty corrupt bunch. Their dad was pretty corrupt. They he raised a bunch of sons. He has a daughter. They were all pretty corrupt.

Um and some of the things that they did, a lot of crime. And somehow somebody in their brilliant mind decide, I know, will do. Let's rob a a train in Jackson County. So they put it all together, but they weren't real brain surgeons. And so they didn't realize when they robbed this train. The idea was they were going to get on the train and steal all they knew they knew this train had a lot of gold and a lot of money on it and a lot of and back then you have to remember when people travel they took everything they owned.

So there were they knew there would be a lot of jewels, you know, that kind of thing. So, they decided they're going to hit this train, but they didn't realize the weight of all of that cuz the idea was they're going to rip it off and they're just going to pitch it off to the guy on the horses on the either sides of the train running with them and they would throw things off and they so they were throwing bags and they were catching them. When it came to the trunks, that didn't go so well. Um, so they weren't real brain surgeons in the beginning, but they kind of got a lot better about and they actually um they were all over um the United States and Canada for a long time. So they were like they hit a lot of trains. They hit a lot of trains, banks, they did a lot of stuff.

And the Reno gang, there were a few brothers, but they created a gang out of, you know, just just criminals. And so they grew up here in Jackson County. They sure did. Wow. Yes, they did. What happened was that in Seymour we have many trains as Dan mentioned and what they did is there was a the trains would pull in and trains would let people off of one car and all the cargo off another car.

So we had a lot a lot of people coming and going a lot of cargo coming and going and they figured out the value of all that. So they decided to kind of introduce you know crime to that and then we had vigilante crime because they got the citizens got tired of it so they took up arms and they decided to go after him. So that's how a lot of them were deceased. They went after him. We have vigilante. Yeah, we have a corner.

We have a corner called hangman's crossing. That's the reason cuz it would be truthther. That's where they used to take them out and hang them. So, [laughter] yeah, they just kind of took it on their own. Wild. That is a piece of history right there.

It's crazy. Uh, another piece is uh it's called Freeman Field. Yes, it is. Okay. So, and this was super big leading into what? World War II.

World War II, right? And it was kind of like the last straw that desegregated the military completely. Correct. Because I think like helicopter training started here in 1944. There's a lot of interesting history around that. Um and so it's just interesting to see all the history that Jackson County has that might not be top of mind.

Like I those are things that these were new to me and I like study the state of Indiana on the daily. M. So, when you're trying to get the message out about what Jackson County is, uh, what do you feel like more people need to know? Gosh, that's a good question. I want when people came here, I personally want them to come here and enjoy um the experience of of our history and what we've created from that because what the two pieces that we've just mentioned are are negative history if you really want to get down to brass tax, you know, train robbers and and segregation issues. Um, but our community has a tendency to be partners.

We have we're really good at being partners and getting together and and creating a really great um place to visit whether you're in Seymour or Brownstown or Carsville or any of the other towns. And when people come here, I want them to be able to come here for what they came for and enjoy it and then go back home. The ultimate goal for he and I both, we really do want people to come here, love it, love it so much that at some point they think, you know, that's a place I could raise kids or that's a place I could go to, retire, that's a place I could start my business and come back. So that's kind of at the at the end of the day, that's what he and I both do. We want to make sure people get here, love it, and stay and come back. Amen.

I love that. I do want to ask one more piece of history, and it's on Fort Bolognia. This is super interesting cuz this is the War of 1812, maybe. And there's like a a rep, not a replica, there's like a standing fort still today. I think we're going to go visit it either today or tomorrow. Talk to me about what what this is and how significant is it to Indiana history.

Yeah, I mean um back I I'm not going to try with the dates because I probably get it wrong, but like this was frontier, you know, this was frontier land as the country moved west over time. And so we were on the front edge of the frontier at times uh in our early history as a country. And so uh you would have the military out in these different outposts in the frontier and Fort Wonia was was one of those. And so it's kind of cool and um [music] the the local historians have kind of kept that alive. if we have a festival. Aaron was mentioning festivals earlier.

We have Fort Valonia Days that happens every October here. It's a great festival. They're around the fort and stuff. So, yeah, it's kind of a cool part of our history back when we were on the cutting edge of America and the frontier. And Jackson County was actually a county and organized before Indiana was. Yeah.

Um in 1816. Yeah. Yeah. And um so and with Volon when they went to convention and they decided where the capital of Indiana was going to be. Voluonia was was actually like second and third on the list and went back for a while. It kind of only missed by a few votes.

Um and so then that's when they moved it from I think when court in Indianapolis. I don't get my I'm not crazy. Can you imagine that if the capital [laughter] of Indiana [clears throat] would have been here? Yeah. It the A would be a lot different for sure. It would be different.

I'm thank I think we're thankful that didn't happen honestly. It's because they they really banked on the White River being like they're Yeah, we can definitely and then they realized it was not like a steamboat river. It was uh Okay, so I I just on the uh discover indianaistory. org which is honestly a pretty cool site. So for listeners, [music] founded during the late 18th century, Valonia was a French American settlement along the Muscatuck and White Rivers. Yeah.

By 1810, the settlement was home to approximately 90 families in need of protection from potentially hostile natives, which led William Henry Harrison, the territorial governor at the time, to authorized construction of a fort to protect them. During the War of 1812, the fort was garrisoned with two companies of Indiana Rangers. During their first encounter with Native Americans, the fort's troops rode back to the fort, avoiding any conflict. After this [music] encounter, a new commander of the fort took over and drilled the Rangers into fighting form. Although the troops at Fort Bolognia never saw any major action, they frequently skirmished with Native Americans. That is wild.

It's like uh like I mean this is like the early days of the frontier of Indiana right here in Jackson County. Mhm. Nuts. Yeah, it was really great. And there's a lot of that in southern Indiana in this region. There are a lot of great stories.

They're very similar. It's amazing. If you go, it's not the same time period, but if you go east if you're a little that's like Morgan's Rain and [clears throat] like that whole piece farmer, great history. Great. Really, really cool history. I I love Okay, so this is kind of a cheat code.

Um, so Cordon, the downtown of Cordon is really, really cool. And when I went there the first time, I was like, dang, for a small town, they've got it going on. Well, then I realized that the the like middle square of that is upkept by the Indiana State Museum, which is like a cheat code for a small town to have like the funding and everything to make a beautiful main street. Like they're only I mean I don't know how the actual I've never interviewed anyone from Cordon, so I don't know if this is how it actually works. My guess is like the state museum has the center and they just have to worry about the outside edge of that. So I was like, dang, for a small town, this place has got it going on.

But like we're here in Brownstown and there's been a ton of effort it feels like to really make this a beautiful vibrant main street. How has your guys' experience how have you seen both the downtowns of Seymour, the downtown of Brownstown and and other towns in Jackson County lean into this like beautifification effort? Well, I can tell you a little bit. I I got a phone call one night from this woman and she said, "Hey, Erin, we had a chamber meeting last night. This is Brownstown. Had a chamber meeting last night.

We decided we want you to be on the chamber." I'm okay. I don't know anything about chambers. And I didn't. And I shame on me, but I didn't. So, I came over to the chamber in Brownstown and we realized Browns is a small town.

Resources for a main street and resources for a chamber, you know, you're you're basically gleaning the same resources from these people. So, um, a few of us got together. Um, we had a really, really great I heard Connor mention at one point that um, Connor Barnett mention that um, when we started when we started Main Street, Main Street was actually started substantially many years before this younger crew has kind of taken over. Um, there were people Wilma Wessel, Joe Reynolds, Lyn McCorm, and there were these older people that got together said hey do you know anything about Main Street organizations? They got together and organized. It was great.

But the problem was again resources. So when you say resources, that's largely financial resources, right? Yeah. You know, yeah, we beat up the local pizza place for like their $300 or $400 a year membership and then turn around and say, "Oh yeah, and Main Street needs it, too." So we realized that was kind of tough on some of our smaller or smaller businesses and um we thought we could be more impactful by putting the two together, which we did. So there were three of us that carried over from the chamber to the new Brownstone Yuing Main Street and that's kind of where we started pushing really hard um for what that meant and what that looked like for our communities.

Um, but our our main streets both are really really um dedicated. They're just really a dedicated bunch of people that get that they don't just um help me out with with tourism or help him out um with small business. We do both and they're we're just very fortunate have two vibrant plus all of our other partner. We have many partnerships. United Way's a great partner. you know, all of our radio stations and the newspaper and the I think that's something unique about Jackson County is like we all work really well together.

Like we work together, Chamber of Visitors Center, we we both work with both Main Streets and you mentioned United Way, like there's just like there's no competition. We're all on the same road. We may have a different lane, okay? You know, so we stay in our lane, but there's also lanes that we share and we work together. like um you know us together along with the main streets we do the shop local campaign at the holiday season cuz we can do more together right we want that to be impactful we can make a big bigger impact if we're pulling our resources and working together so we just do that and it's not a prideful thing like we all put our pride away and humble ourselves and work together you know so it's it's fun and we we like everybody that we work with and uh everybody cheers for everybody else it is it's a lot of fun all of our staff um they call each other for different things like his staff is you they're short-handed for something, they'll call my staff and say, "Can you come over and spend a couple hours?"

Or he'll need a crew to film something because he knows that we have that at ours. Or he needs um in a United way. God love them. They always need, you know, that united. [clears throat] It's a great organization. Those girls work really hard.

So um big kudos to our staff. But and also before we quit, um thanks to Oddfellows for letting us um use the building today for this. Um Jim Gillespie and Kendall um Omen were just they're just absolutely whatever you need. So yeah, make sure to say hi to them. Absolutely. Man, this place is beautiful.

It is. I said in the in the other episode it was like it feels like I'm in like a New York renovated penthouse. Like open concept, super fun. And then is downstairs like an event venue? It is. And it's funny that you mentioned that because the gentleman that owns it is from born and raised Jackson County.

In fact, his grandmother was probably the original event planner in our county. She she organized the Cesa Centennial, our 150th. Um, so he kind of gets those great jeans and then he went to school, got his education, and he owns a home in New York. Um, so he has a home in Manhattan, but he really wanted to come home, and so he came home and bought this piece of property, renovated it, and so he has this little piece of New York and home here. There you go. Yeah.

So, big kudos to I [clears throat] love that. And that is the interesting piece that I see is a lot of individuals seem to work really well together. Mhm. A lot of uh you know whether it's if you have an idea it's like one everyone has great ideas. Every county across America there are people with great ideas but it is that collaboration and just at at some point the work has to be done you know like you you can't just talk about and sit around the room and strategize and fantasize and all things like you have to roll up your sleeves and do it. I think Rack the Rine is a perfect example of that.

all the volunteers, all the different organizations, the sponsors, the money, the this, the that, like all the things. And no one no one is getting paid for it. That is the beauty of it. We are a community of doers. And that's what makes the difference. And like you mentioned, Rock the Rind.

I mean, there's other examples. There's dozens, but this is a great example that showcases that. Just people that just show up and are willing to to do things um is incredible. Like right now, if you're listening, you might be able to hear a little bit of sound going on. And uh it's awesome. Like there's just an energy.

[music] And again, I've been to Oh my gosh. At this point, I think we're at almost 400 towns across Indiana and I can just feel it. Like I can walk into a town and it it's almost like I have like a little radar where I can feel if there's energy. I can feel if people care and if people want to be there and if people want to make it a better place. Instantly. You walk this place and I absolutely love it.

I think it's super cool. It makes my job a lot easier. Yeah. Right. But you know, we talk about these fest though in the collaboration. I mean, Dan and I see it a lot between Jack and Seymour and Brownstown, but we have smaller communities.

Kthersville, Madora, they have really strong fest committees and fest teams. They have ones um Madora goes pink is um in October and it's for it started off for breast cancer awareness and they sold light bulbs for put pink like bulbs in all of the in all the houses. So you would go to Madora one night a year and there would be all these pink light bulbs and they got bigger and bigger and better bigger and now it's a a whole festival and it's and it's a tiny tiny little town with super great people but it would just became really important to them. Um, they'll have a dessert [music] auction fundraiser and they'll get thousands for a cake, you know, like some guy, some lady will make it some greatl looking cake and they'll get thousands or they'll get hundreds for somebody's cookies. I know some I know some grandmas out there that [laughter] they could drive a serious price for throw it down.

And house in the fall fest in the fall festival is great. What is that? It's just a fall festival. Yeah. Tractor parade. Far northwest Jackson County.

I don't even know if is it a town? It's just kind of it's kind of a wide spot in the road sort of type of thing. But they have a schoolhouse there that they want to preserve as a community because it's it was more than just, you know, the school. It was a community gathering place and uh people want to, you know, protect that. And so they have a fall festival there and it's it's a great thing. I love beans and cornbread.

That's what they serve. That's my thing there and homemade desserts. Like so it's just like all these little senses of community and then more broadly throughout the county. It's it's great and it's special. We'd really like to see people in the fall. We really do.

It is kind of October is a gift [music] around here. It just is. You start off with October Fest and October Fest is amazing. Music, lots and lots [music] and lots of great food. Um, German Heritage, so it's a lot of fun to to visit that. Um, and then we have Fort Bologna Days is huge.

We just really So October [music] in Jackson County is a great place, but it kicks it off though for our fair and rock the Rine kind of gets all that started. I love it. When you think about legacy, [music] you know, when someone goes back and listens to this episode 10, 20 years from now, what do you hope Jackson County is known for in a decade? Yeah. I think that we embraced and protected our history, but built on that. You know, that like like, [music] you know, like for example, just where we're sitting right now, I'm looking out at the historic courthouse.

You know, we're very proud. We have a beautiful courthouse we think and you know we put a lot of effort into protecting that but yet we're doing this really cool cutting edge music festival right next to it. You know to me that's a great example of that that we're you know we we care about our history and that means something to us but we want to build something cool and we want to pull our kids into these things now that we're doing as community and we want to teach them what community is really about. It's about coming together working together and being doers. I I think that is one of the strongest assets that Jackson County has is you have young people that have a seat at the table and that are making an impact. Like that is so important.

Too many places [music] and I feel like everyone's heart's in the right place, right? When you have someone who has done the festival or the whatever the thing is for 35, 40 years in a row, they're really good at it and they they like being in charge of whatever the thing is. And if you don't give your young people a chance to own something, to push something forward, then they're going to get disinterested or they're not going to be as uh they're not going to have that ownership stake in their community as much as like, you know, the people that get to sit at the table in the main street orgs and like build cool things for their communities. So, I think that is like a a hidden strength of Jackson County. I've had that conversation many times with event planners about um don't get so so close to it that you take ownership of your event planning. Make sure it's still your team.

It's what it's your goal. Um give it your heart and give it your passion. But whatever you do, don't give it ownership. And that happens sometimes. I think sometimes in larger communities that person's been doing like you said for 35 years and it kind of becomes their life and then they you don't know that you're kind of isolating people who want to step in. here.

We've just been so I've had so much fun watching um because I I mean I'm 60 plus years old and I've had so much fun watching these kids come up behind us and say, you know, get out of the way, we'll do it. And I I just love that feeling and I love watching them do all the things. I love to watch them plan. I'm never going to be that person that says, we've tried that before. It didn't work. Or no, no, no, that's not right for Jackson County.

I love watching them say, "Yeah, we can do it. Let's do it. How can we do it?" And be that resource for that. That's what I think at my age after doing this for so many years is being that resource for those and it is fun and they're smart. That's the best part he has with the chamber.

Um they have a young young leadership group and I love watching how they how they spread out through our community and they have all that talent. So yeah, I'm technically outside of that age group. It's 40 and under, but I love like bashing their party, you know, just crashing their party to be a part of that group cuz there is so much energy and just uh so much community dedication and stuff. So yeah, I strength we do a good job of lifting our kids up around here. We really do. We tell our kids, you know, get out there and do it.

We'll help you. Go do it. Whatever. Just go do it. Whatever it is, go do it. And it's like that mentality, you can change the world, but like if you want to you want to change the world, what if you started in your town?

What if you started on your street? What if you started in your county? What if you like set out to make it the best possible place that you could and then the kids who grow up that maybe don't stay here take that same mentality and then they go to New York City and there is still a piece of them that's always home, but but they have that mentality that like, oh, people lift up young people and and young people can can dream up music festivals and put it together on the town courthouse square and you know, four years from now they'll be selling it out and and [clears throat] it's crazy. It's so cool. Well, like Rock the Rine, it should not be happening here. No.

Like it it defies reason. It should not be happening here, but it is for all the reasons that you mentioned. We involve our young people. We have dedicated partners that care about this and we have doers that show up to do the work. I love And this is not um Did anyone share with you what year this is of Rock the Rine? Four.

Fourth year. It's only the fourth year. You would think this is Yeah, you would think it's like a legacy festival. It's crazy. Uh, we've come towards the end of the show where we have a couple fun Indiana questions for you. So, this first question is brought to you by our friends at JC Hart.

They're a leader in creating enjoyable living experiences at apartment communities all across Indiana and beyond. Check them out at homejart. com. My question for both of you, why do you call Indiana home? [music] I mean, it is home. I was born and raised here as I mentioned earlier, but I I moved I lived in the Tampa Bay, Florida area for almost 20 years and then came back uh in 2020 just in time for uh the pandemic, which was not a cool time to move and start a new role.

But like I you know, and I enjoyed my time in Florida. I lived in I was part of a great community there as well, but like it wasn't home, you know, and so it and it for me it's more than just that I I still have family here. I mean, obviously there's those connections, but like it's this type of environment. these are the types of people I want to be around that I want to partner with. Uh it's been fantastic being back home. Yeah, I'm the same way.

That's absolutely home. It's where we raised our kids. It was where I was, you know, from the time we moved here, I just it's always been home. And I'm married into a family of legacy and I I love the fact that I can my children now are a part of that legacy. And Indiana, everywhere you go in Indiana has the same feeling. The Hooser State is act is the Hooser State.

I had an opportunity one time to interview for a job that was outside of Jackson County and a little bit further outside of the area. And it was a really great opportunity. It was a, you know, it was all the things you should have. A lot more money, a lot more perks, a lot more things. And I realized about 3/4 of the way through I thought, wait a minute, this isn't home. You know, Indiana is home and Jackson County is home.

This is where I can't I can't shift my passion. Yeah. You know, this is where we do a safe place to raise kids, safe place for everything we do here. We have a we have a really good I mean everything from our sheriff's department to our police departments, our fire departments, our you know everything. Everybody pitches in. There were so many um the other night at Rock the Ryan that were in plain clothes, but I know if something happened, they would be that they're right there to help anybody anytime.

You can't change that, you know? That's that's where you want to be. I love it. Yeah, you can't fake that. Amazing. Okay, one piece we have to talk about when it comes to Jackson County is I mean one of if not the most famous Jackson County alumni that is uh John Melanchamp.

How important is John Melanchamp's story to Seymour and Jackson County? How cool is it to have a legitimate rock star, a global phenomenon that is from Jackson County? And how important is that for us? I we get visitors. I can when when he's on tour or he's started he's he's out and you know out and about. You can tell because the visitor center every day we have people come in.

We've had we have the funniest stories from Melanchamp visitors. They'll come in and say where is he? Like I don't know. [laughter] Does he live here? Well, he's here sometimes. Well, where is he?

You know, I had one guy come in and said, "I'm not leaving until I can talk to him or see him." And I'm like, "Well, it's not really the way it works." But congrats. You now live here in Jackson. Congratulations. Yeah.

US res. He pulls his phone out with pictures. He's got a man cave covered in melanchamp stuff. And this guy's like from Michigan. Um we've had kids come in. Yeah, it was kind must be um great.

I mean just it is good for us and he's good to our community. His family still lives here. His dad's here. His dad stops in from time to time. Um we see him out and about all the time. Um but no, it's he it's it's it's a great impact.

I think it's really impacted kind of our music like along the road. Of course, you know, we have another huge artist from Jackson County Junior. He was here last week for the fair and he's a gift. He is a gift. He was here last year for Rock the Rind and I think most of the crowd just before they started cheering had to pick their jaws up because they were so shocked at how amazing he was. His voice just sounds just makes you feel something crazy and guitarist.

Super cool dude, too. He's just a good guy and loves his fan base and yeah, he loves his home. He loves you. Super proud of him, too. Yeah. That is awesome.

He's on he's on the rise getting more and more popular by the day. Mhm. Uh, and it felt like last year it was like he was booked for Rock the Ride and it was like right as he right on the cusp. Yeah. Oh my gosh, let's go. That's and it's kind of cool for you know Seymour Jackson County to be the home of of music.

It's not it's not something you would think about like you wouldn't say that but uh impactful music is being made here and from Rock the Rine to the local spots uptown that play live music. It's it's really really cool. Many many Yeah. And it was kind of cool for generations cuz Melip is more my kind of my generation. That's that's kind of our thing. And now Stephen Wilson Jr.

We walked through a crowd at the fair last week and I was near him and I the teenagers were pulling out their phones and taking pictures and I thought great full circle. We got like all these generations of great music coming through. Amen. So, it was a great feeling. I love it. All right, we have the same three questions that we ask everyone who comes on the show as we round things out.

This first one is your opportunity to shed some light on a part of the state that more people need to be talking about. What is a hidden gem in Indiana? I like something we didn't talk a lot about today is like the recreation in Jackson County. I think with the forestry, Starve Hollow, like lots of great places to get out. You got Mscatuck as well. like a lot of great places to get out and enjoy the beautiful Indiana nature here.

You know, a lot of the state of Indiana is as flat as this table. It's not their fault, okay? I'm not like casting anything of it. Like down here, you start getting into the rolling hills and knobs and stuff and it just breaks up the topography and it's just cool and pretty and so we have a lot of great opportunities here in Jackson County to get out and enjoy that in nature. We do. We do.

Um I don't know. We have some of us the food we h I don't even know what type of food we have. We just have lots of good stuff. We have a lot of good home cooking. We have a great steak place in Seymour that's just you walk in and it's the vibe is very just come in and [music] eat sit down and eat. The joint that serves like the huge tomahawks.

It does. What's it called? Reed's place. Heard about that. Great spot. Yep.

And I'm going to get in trouble for not mentioning all of them, but we do like we do downtown. It's kind of amazing. We have historic Larrison's that's part of Melanchamp's movie was in there. I had breakfast there. Yes. Liz can come right in my biscuit and gravy high.

Absolutely. And you went to Publish Street last night. Yeah. Publish. You talk about hidden gems. I think that's one for me.

Public street is my history. Yeah. That's the history. Yeah. I had my 21st birthday there. Yes, I did.

I mean, and now they have the patio relative space. They had to. They were bulging at the wall. I mean, people out there a lot. Yep. So many.

I have been impressed. I'm excited to also go I don't remember what it's called, but it just says eat on the side of the little [laughter] building. That's Maze Town House. I'm going there tomorrow and I'm really excited. Are you going for breakfast? I think so.

Yeah. Yeah. That's a knockdown breakfast, too. Yeah. And they're great. Tanya and Seth Pacy are the best.

They have another restaurant called Lola's. It is crazy. [snorts] I heard people are like flying into the airport to get their tenderloin. Absolutely. So hype. I love it.

All right. This next opportunity is is a chance to shed some light and and let us know who someone we need to keep [music] on our radar is. Who's someone that's doing big things? Someone who all the Hoosiers need to know about. So, who's a Hooser we need to keep on our radar? Someone who's doing big things.

Steven Wilson Jr. for me. Yeah, I I really do. And I know that we're back to the music, but it was really fun. His dad used [music] to work on my mom's or my dad my parents' cars and I remember his dad. His dad was great and and of course he sings a lot about his dad.

[music] Um but I just I just love watching people love him as much as we do. I think [music] that's fun. And you love it when someone is what you hope they are. Right. You know, like when you meet them and you shake their hand and they're like, "Oh, you are just a [music] good person." And I hope that you were a good person.

And like when that all comes together, it's amazing. Right. Right. I I hate to It pains me to say this, but I'm going to say Conor Barnett. I'm going to say it. He's going to remind me of this for the rest of my life.

But I mean, just his vision for this, I I think it was five or six years [music] ago, uh, Brownstone Main Street used to have the summer music series here in the park right behind this wall. And I would come and enjoy that. And I remember him sitting next to me in a lawn chair here telling me about this [music] great idea he had to bring back the watermelon festival and do this uh, music part of it called Rock. And he had all these ideas and stuff. I [music] remember thinking like, he's crazy. like this is re like what are you talking about?

Like I'm sitting here with just not very many people at this concert, [music] you know, on a Friday night or whatever it was and you have this vision for this huge thing, [music] you know, and then here we are. You're four, it's happened. Uh and it's not just his vision, it's his ability to cast that vision to people, bring them along, pull them into that vision, help them believe it, and then equip them to be successful part of making it happen. So Connor Barnett's my guy, the level of talent. Yeah. before that.

He came even a few years before that and I was up in his office in the courthouse and he said, "Hey, I've got a drawing." Literally ri he drew pictures on this big paper of what he wanted the watermelon festival to look like and we're going to bring back this and it's going to be completely agriculture. It's going to be great. We're just going to do all these things and we're going to feature like kids can build their own scarecrows and we're going to do all these things. We're watermelon and do all this stuff and then he's like and I think and we should do music. Don't you think we do music?

I'm like that's a great idea. Just let me know how I can help you. And then co came and he kind of got a little bit of on but he didn't slow down like he was like okay we'll do it but we'll do it next year. He just kind of kept rolling in the background. Dan's in the mix and he brings everybody into the mix and all of a sudden you're sucked into Connor's fear and realizing that you just gave up 15 hours in one day in a 100 degree temperature and you get home at night and you're not cussing him. He has that gift.

Yeah. I love that. You you need catalysts and people around that around you like that. It's incredible. Okay, final question for you. When uh when you think of Indiana as a whole, from your time in Jackson County to Yeah.

You know, Seymour, Brownstone, Rock the Rine, all the cool things happening, but just Indiana as a whole, I want to know when you close your eyes and think about it, what is your favorite Indiana memory? Probably my first time going to the 500. Honestly, it's just such an Indiana thing. I mean, I like racing, too, but like just to be there. Uh I think it's the singest single biggest day single day sporting. I couldn't say that.

Thank you. Uh it's that yeah that thing you just said and it's just cool. It's just amazing to be aart be a part of that and to a lot of a lot of Indiana stuff, you know, ingrained into that event as well. So it's cool. Absolutely. When I was a little girl, I went to the state fair in honor of her recent death.

Janie and Dick the Bruiser were there. Do you remember? You were too young to remember Janie. Um she died recently. She was a like Saturday morning cartoon show kids host and that probably wasn't near enough honorable um description, but she it was one of the things we watch every Saturday morning. She was the greatest.

Um she did pass away to but she was a state fair and I remember as a little kid just thinking I there's this TV star standing in front of me and now push forward all these years later and I don't know if you know fun fact our Jackson County Fair Queen is this year's Indiana State Fair Queen. No way. Yeah. Absolutely. And she is a gift to the community. I mean, no one doesn't like Presley.

Presley and her mother was I think runner up maybe. She was also in the state fair. She was our our local fair queen. So, so State Fair also has kind of a big tie for us with the agriculture and but I remember as a kid seeing Janie and Dick the Bruiser um is Sammy [music] Terry. We've all heard of Sammy. He was there too and I realized Cowboy Bob was Cowboy Bob.

Cowboy Bob was there and we always wanted Janie and Cowboy Bob to be together [laughter] as little kids. So, anyway, but that was mine was like seeing Janie at the fair. Wow. I love it, y'all. It was so much fun getting to learn more about you all, learning more about your passion for Jackson County, the amazing things that are happening here from a tourism perspective, as well as from the business side of things, the from the main street businesses that are growing here to the large commercial industry, like there's a ton to be excited about when it comes to Jackson County. If people want to learn more, they want to plan their visit, they want to get involved with the business community here, how can they do that?

For us, we can go to Jacksonountin. com. our our website. We have a really really great guy named Doug Clark that takes care of my website. Um and I also need to say hi to Michelle too. She's like our she holds us together.

But um he does a really really good job. And your office cat is named Reno. We have a cat. Of course, mischievous cat. [laughter] He's a great cat. Um he's the ghost cat.

Reno ghost. Um but yeah, no, he does a really really good job with our website. And so everything from event planning to day planning to weekend planning to sports events, [music] he gets it all on there. And um it's a great way to get to get in touch with us. Oh yeah. All right.

And then when it comes we're like we're getting I'm ready to listen that music, aren't you? We're hearing some big and rich in the background right now. That's pretty awesome. Yeah. Uh if you want to get plugged in with the chamber. Yeah.

Jacksonco Chamber. com and we're all over the social. Perfect. I love it y'all. It's been a pleasure. We appreciate you and we're excited to enjoy Rock the Ride tonight and let's rock it out and have a great time in Jackson County this weekend.

So we'll talk to you soon. Every weekend. Take care. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater. Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations at [music] Sweetwater. If you want a behind-the-scenes look at everything we're doing across the state, make sure you follow me on Instagram and [music] Tik Tok, Nate Spangle.

Thank you so much for listening and being a part of what makes the New Her State great. We'll see you next time here on Get