Fremont, IN

At the 2020 census, Fremont was a Steuben County town of 2,034 people near the northeast corner of Indiana. The settlement began as Willow Prairie in 1834, became the village of Brockville when it was platted in 1837, and took the name Fremont in 1850 in honor of explorer John C. Frémont. The town grew along the Vistula Trail, an older route that later became State Road 120, so its history is tied to movement across the corner of the state. Fremont sits near both Michigan and Ohio, but the border geometry has a local oddity: travel due east takes you into Michigan, not Ohio.

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That crossroads history still shows up in the town's layout and school-centered routine. Fremont Community Schools operates the local elementary, middle, and high schools, while State Road 120 leads toward Clear Lake, Pokagon State Park, and the I-69 and Indiana Toll Road interchange about four miles west. The Indiana Historical Bureau marker at the old town pump remembers the first frame buildings, the early church and school, and the passenger and freight trains that once stopped here several times a day. Fremont is a border town without a border-town fuss, built around an old trail and still pointing its roads in three directions.