Fairland, IN

Fairland is a Shelby County town in Brandywine Township, set among the farm roads and creeks of central Indiana. The Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Lafayette Railroad began construction through the area in 1849, and Fairland was platted in 1852. Rail access gave the young town a reason to gather stores, homes, churches, and a school, while Brandywine and Big Sugar creeks kept the surrounding landscape tied to fields and drainage instead of city blocks. An early brick school and a local high school marked Fairland's first generations of town life.

The Fairland Volunteer Fire Department's annual Fish Fry is the town's signature gathering, bringing food, live music, a car and tractor show, a parade, a blood drive, and raffle drawings into one weekend. The Fairland Historical Society, established in 2024, now adds oral history and township research to that calendar. Triton Central schools sit about two miles north, linking local students with the broader Shelby County district. Fairland's present map still has the shape of a railroad town: a small center, rural roads, a volunteer firehouse, and a recurring event that brings the surrounding countryside in.