Swayzee, IN

Swayzee is a Grant County town on State Road 13, about eight miles west of Marion, with Washington Street carrying the north-south route through its center. James Swayzee owned the original town site, but the place has collected a few memorable stories of its own. A 1964 high-school basketball game went nine overtimes, still a state record, and the town’s welcome sign turns that improbable finish into local shorthand. Swayzee also hosts Farm Days and Rummage Days, giving the calendar a pair of recurring reasons for neighbors and visitors to gather.

Pipe Creek Sinkhole, uncovered at a nearby limestone quarry in 1996, opened a different window on the area through Pliocene-era fossils. The town’s churches, Swayzee Elementary School, and Oak Hill United School Corporation keep the daily pattern rooted in local institutions. Even the mailing story has a little personality: Swayzee calls itself the Only Swayzee in the World, a line that turns a geographic fact into a bit of town pride. It is an Indiana place with a limestone edge, a basketball legend, and a road straight through the middle.