I pass through Redkey every now and then. For years, it was my quickest way past the landmark Oak Grove Schoolhouse. Recently, though, I learned the town has been working to restore a 117-year-old clock downtown! Once I heard the story behind it, I realized the place was far more interesting than a quick drive around its outskirts might suggest.

Sometimes a simple roadside curiosity turns into an unexpected adventure. In this case, the culprit was a 160-foot clock tower in Berne, Indiana. All I wanted to do was watch the little glockenspiel show that comes out of the doors near its base. That seemed reasonable enough. As it turns out, though, timing a Swiss-inspired clock tower in rural Indiana is much harder than it sounds.

Last month, I wrote about my friend Brett and our hunt for the old Otter Creek High School in Vigo County. After some virtual sleuthing and a little stubborn curiosity, we finally found it- or at least what was left: a lonely old gym and a few attached classrooms standing against the odds. By now, even those remnants are probably gone.

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.