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What do you consider the key accomplishment(s) of your county's Bicentennial celebration?
What Legacy Project do you most like to tell people about, and why?
Describe a highlight or most memorable moment related to your county's Bicentennial celebration.
How/where are you preserving information and artifacts related to your county's celebration?
Do you have a website and/or social media presence?
Total number of volunteers who participated.
Estimated total attendance.
Estimated dollar amount raised.
Estimated dollar amount spent.
Ripley County was formed in 1816. It was named for Gen. Eleazer Wheelock Ripley, an officer in the War of 1812, who was mainly remembered for the Battle of Lundy’s Lane and the Siege of Fort Erie, in 1814.
About the courthouse: Thomas Pattison was the architect and the building was completed in 1861.
A bit of Hoosier lore is celebrated in Ripley County — home to Milan ’54 Hoosiers Museum. It celebrates the legacy of 1954 basketball champs who inspired the movie “Hoosiers” — part of what gives Hoosier Hysteria its momentum and brings basketball fans from near and far to experience a piece of it.
Visitors from all over the world come to Ripley County’s National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association held in Friendship.
It is widely held that this county is the location of the fictional town of Orson, the fictional location of the series The Middle.
Versailles State Park in Ripley County is Indiana’s second-largest state park. The park has fabulous mountain bike trails, as well as horse trails. This park area has deep history rooted in both the Civil War and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Versailles State Park dedicated a CCC commemorative statue in 2010.
During the Civil War, Morgan’s Raiders made their way through the area that is now the park. The town of Versailles was briefly under Confederate control.
Numerous fossils tell the story of an ancient sea that covered the region.
County Seat: Versailles
Year Organized: 1816
Square Miles: 446.43