The Salt Creek Trail

~by Julia Pearson

The Salt Creek Trail is a pedestrian pathway for everyone wishing to exercise their legs and imaginations. It is the perfect saunter for walking meditation, catching photographs of birds and small critters, or soothing a child to sleep in a stroller, with ample room for power walkers to get by. The first paved trail in Brown County, it is available to everyone from dawn till dusk and most folks say it is an easy trek “out and back” of less than an hour.

The Salt Creek Trail was first opened on November 8, 2013 and was three quarters of a mile long, with two trail heads located at the southeast corner of the Nashville CVS or south of the YMCA parking lot.

The Salt Creek Trail provides a taste of the wilderness that continues to draw visitors to Brown County. Along North Fork Salt Creek, the trail ambles through the woods with oak trees, tulip poplar, hickory, and basswood, and conveniently connects to Van Buren/State Route 135 in downtown Nashville. The internet website, Tripadvisor, has multiple reviews citing how safe and clean the Salt Creek Trail is.

A real treat for those staying at the Comfort Inn and Brown County Inn, there is also a small playground near the YMCA and picnic tables. Families will especially like the Story Walk, a partnership project of the Brown County Public Library and the Brown County Parks and Recreation that had its grand opening on April 2. Early literacy elements and movement activities are featured on 18 panels on posts. The Story Walks are selfguided, with a total of three books highlighted this year.

From the beginning, maintenance of the trail has been provided by Brown County Parks and Recreation. Mark Shields, a native son of neighboring Monroe County and who studied Outdoor Recreation, Resource Management and Park Administration at Indiana University (Bloomington), has been director of Parks and Recreation for 13 years.

Shields also notes that a second phase of the trail will be paved later this fall. It runs from the Brown County State Park to the Red Barn Jamboree property.

A detail that will interest history buffs is that an iron bridge was split into two sections for use on the next phase of the trail. The Indiana Department of Transportation retires bridges of significant age and/or design to a “bone yard” when structures need to be replaced for upgrading safety and current traffic needs. This single iron bridge from Clay County, now two pieces, services where the Salt Creek crosses the trail. It was installed by INDOT and painted a bright red. Brown County will assume responsibility for repainting the bridges every 25 years and make sure they are inspected.

A similar arrangement brought the “double barrel” bridge at the north entrance of the Brown County State Park. It was built in the late 1830s from hand-hewn timbers for around $300 at the time, carrying the old New AlbanyLafayette turnpike across Ramp Creek in Putnam County, one of Indiana’s oldest spans. It was moved from Fincastle in 1932, after the Indiana Department of Conservation had it taken down. Each timber was numbered so that it could be reconstructed across Salt Creek in its current Brown County location.

Some more interesting history notes: Salt springs located along the creek banks in the western part of Washington Township gave Salt Creek its name. Long before settlers made Brown County home, deer were known to come to the “licks” for their salt. Old-timers told how after a “well was sunk,” there would be flowing brine. It was boiled down in iron kettles until a hard cake of salt remained. The salt cakes were pulverized and sold to settlers who traveled as far as 50 miles to purchase the salt.

And looking at the timeline for paved roadways in Brown County: though the first cars appeared in 1913, county roads were gradually improved. State Road 135 from Nashville to Morgantown was built and hard-surfaced by 1935. State Road 46 between Nashville and Bloomington was considered one of the best roads in Indiana when it was paved.