Versailles, IN

Versailles is the county seat of Ripley County in southeastern Indiana, at the meeting of U.S. 50 and State Road 421. The 2020 census counted 2,184 residents. The town was founded in 1818, laid out the following year, and incorporated in 1845. The Ripley County Courthouse, completed in 1864, still sits at the center of county courts and administration. The courthouse lawn and county offices make the county-seat role visible from the town's main roads.

ATTRNyttend / Public domain

Laughery Creek was dammed in 1954 to create 230-acre Versailles Lake inside Versailles State Park, Indiana's second-largest state park. The park brings the town's courthouse setting into the wooded hills and lake country of southeastern Indiana. South Ripley Community School Corporation serves local students, and the town's public landmarks include the library, Tyson Gymnasium, Tyson Temple, and projects funded by James H. Tyson, a Versailles native who helped found the Walgreens drug chain. Versailles combines county government, an old courthouse, school routines, and a state park that begins at the edge of town.