Bourbon, IN

Bourbon was laid out in 1853 in anticipation of the railroad, then incorporated in 1865 after the tracks arrived. Between 1864 and 1867, over a thousand railroad cars of lumber were shipped from town each year, and the old timber economy eventually gave way to farming. The name came through Bourbon Township, whose early settlers included people from Bourbon County, Kentucky. That history makes the town's location at Indiana 331 and the old Lincoln Highway feel deliberate: Bourbon began as a transportation town and kept that crossroads shape.

ATTRChris Light / CC BY-SA 4.0

Current Bourbon still keeps those older routines in view. Triton Elementary and Triton Junior-Senior High School are headquartered here, along with the Triton School Corporation and Bourbon Public Library. The Old Town Pump memorial sits in Sit Park at Old U.S. 30 and Main Street, and the town's fire and EMS history reaches back to the Vigilant Hook and Ladder Company formed in 1875. School, library, memorial, and emergency services cluster around the same grid that the railroad first made useful.