I wrote about the incredible work being done on the Blackford County Courthouse several moons ago. Its new copper roof was just starting to take shape, and I couldn’t have been more impressed! I made it back to Hartford City last week, and I’m happy to report that the transformation seems nearly complete. Even under a blanket of gray skies and gloom, the courthouse roof gleamed like a beacon. I can’t wait to go back on a sunny day to see it really shine.
I spent many weekends driving up and down State Road 3 between Muncie and Fort Wayne during my freshman year of college. Those trips gave me a deep appreciation for the rhythm of rural Indiana. Open fields, small towns, and familiar jogs became part of my personal map, but one landmark along the way always managed to pull my eyes from the road: the Blackford County Courthouse. Rising 165 feet above downtown Hartford City, its Richardson Romanesque tower and ornate architecture felt out of place in the tiny town.
Eventually, I did some research. Blackford County was established in 1837, but settling on a county seat proved to be anything but straightforward. What unfolded was a heated political battle between centrally located Hartford and its northern neighbor, Montpelier. The debate grew so contentious that it took the Indiana General Assembly four separate attempts to finally cement Hartford’s claim to the title! Once victory was secured, the town proudly adopted a new name: Hartford City.
Blackford County cycled through several early courthouses before the current one was built. All it took was a gas boom! In 1876, a group of hopeful coal prospectors in nearby Eaton accidentally struck natural gas while they were drilling. The eruption of foul-smelling air and an eerie screeching so terrified them that they sealed the well, convinced they’d disturbed something unholy.
When similar gas deposits were discovered just across the Ohio border a few years later, locals remembered the site they’d buried and reopened it. What followed was a frenzied rush. Thousands of gas wells were drilled nearly overnight, igniting the Indiana Gas Boom and ushering the region into a dramatic transformation. Ultimately, it paved the way for Blackford County’s phenomenal courthouse. The landmark was built in 1894.
When the gas ran out, so did the lifeblood of many towns that had risen with it. Businesses closed or moved on, and only Hartford City and Montpelier remained as lasting communities in Blackford County. Fortunately, the courthouse in Hartford City still stands as a beautiful relic of an era when even the smallest towns dared to dream big.
More than a century after it was built, the re-roofed Blackford County Courthouse is a striking symbol of the gas boom era. Still, it’s not the only remnant of that chapter that lingers. The Trenton Field holds an estimated 900 million barrels of oil still trapped underground, and it’s right underneath Hartford City! Unfortunately, the very size of the field makes recovery difficult; it’s too vast to rebuild the pressure needed for extraction.
Potential wealth remains out of reach today, but the gleaming roof of the Blackford County Courthouse is a reminder that bold visions still rise in our small towns. In this rural county, a copper roof is proof that possibility endures, just like the oil beneath its residents’ feet.
