Road trip to Martin County

The Jug Rock just north of Shoals, Ind.

In this pocket of Indiana I know that at some point you need to go to Shoals and visit the Jug Rock. My wife Emily had never been so a Sunday drive was set.

The Jug Rock itself is surrounded by trees so the best time to see it is on a mild winter day. There is not much signage for it either as you can’t really tell if the Jug Rock is indeed a tourist destination or not.

My take away is that the jug rock is more of a gateway to learning more about Martin County. We went into Shoals and were surprised how close the homes were to the banks of the East Fork of the White River. We interacted with two groups of people during our trip and they both confirmed that Shoals is prone to flooding. One even said she stayed to protect her home when flood waters began to rock her house at a previous flood. It was a level of toughness I never wanted to acquire.

Martin County has a few of outdoor spots worth checking out for the road trip enthusiast. One we tried to see was Hindostan Falls. I pronounced it “Hen-doh-stan” but the locals call it “Hen-dost-an,” which made me laugh.

After doing some research it turns out Hindostan Falls has some history to it. Over 200 years ago, it was one of the largest communities at time when Indiana became a state with over 1,000 people. Back in 1820, that is decent percentile of the state’s population.

A cholera or yellow fever outbreak decimated the population. Those who survived left as the community was no more by 1830.

The waterfall on the White River is small enough that it was not visible during the high water levels when we visited. It was mother nature’s way of erasing the history of Hindostan Falls.

I came away fascinated by the history of the area. It led me to understand that for every Jasper or Bloomington there are countless other communities in Southern Indiana that didn’t quite make it. Countless more that are struggling to stay afloat. It is not logical why one town can became a regional hub while others fade away. Those towns that vanished still make up the tapestry of Southern Indiana history and if everything in history made perfect sense that tapestry would not be so interesting.

Nathan Pace is the Sports Editor for the Greene County Daily World and can be reached at npacegcdw@gmail.com. His “Low Budget Sports Show” airs weekly on Facebook Live.