I’ve been tracking the fight to save Little Salamonie Christian Church -often called the first congregation in Jay County- for a month now. On January 14, social media lit up: the church was about to be torn down. Late last Sunday, a new post warned that wrecking crews would roll in the following morning! The call went out- bring your trucks, your tractors, and your farm equipment. Circle the church. Form a barricade! It was urgent, scrappy small-town resistance, and I wanted to be there.

Old jails and sheriffs’ residences are intriguing. Unfortunately, I didn’t catch the bug until I’d already traveled to all of Indiana’s historic courthouses! Some are close enough to easily take pictures of, though, like the Old Blackford County Jail in Hartford City. It looks deceptively domestic from the street, but it’s a building that tells a complicated story about punishment, family life, and the slow march of reform in a small Indiana county.

I like massive, hulking ruins as much as the next guy. Portland, Indiana, has one that’s absolutely worth slowing down for: rising high above East Votaw Street on the way to the Jay County Fairgrounds, what’s left of the old Haynes Mill still dominates the landscape. Once I noticed it, I knew I had to learn more.