Reo, IN

Reo is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Ohio Township, Spencer County, Indiana. It sits a few miles northwest of the Ohio River, where State Road 66 and State Road 161 gather the local map around a compact inland crossroads. The name has a distinctly regional origin: in 1966, Reo was coined from the names of Rockport, Evansville, and Owensboro, three larger cities nearby. That puts the place in a useful geographic conversation across southwestern Indiana and western Kentucky, even though Reo itself remains a compact Spencer County community. The surrounding land is a mix of farm country and low river-valley terrain, with Rockport serving as a nearby county reference point.

ATTRSarah Ewart / CC BY-SA 3.0

School buildings give Reo a visible local center. South Spencer High School and South Spencer Middle School are located in the community, and the South Spencer School Corporation continues to tie Ohio Township to the wider county school map. The town's name also keeps its regional memory in everyday use: three place names from opposite sides of the river were folded into one short name. Reo is easy to overlook on a state map, but its roads, schools, and unusual 1960s naming story give it a clear sense of place. It is a community built around a few miles of southwestern Indiana landscape, with the Ohio River, county roads, and neighboring cities all close enough to shape how the place is understood.