This blog: An explainer

Fairfield as it exists today, from the shores of Brookville Lake. Somewhere out there lives the ghost of a community that was founded in 1815 and lives on according to our imagination.

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It has been many years since I set up fairfieldindiana.com and, while it was fun building the site, adding to it, editing it and sharing all of that with the known world, it's time to stop pretending it's useful. Well, yes ... it still IS useful, but it's no longer practical. The people who go looking for Fairfield now are certain it's still at the bottom of Brookville Lake and that you can find precious gold lockets if you go diving. As we have often reiterated, we were not that stupid or slow. So, the Fairfield website will fade off into the hills in search of whatever is in the hills. Or the valley. 

It took years to build the dam and we had plenty of chances to gather up our gold lockets ahead of the rush of floodwater that started rising in 1964 and finally leveled off 9 years later.

We even moved our graveyards, despite a feW bikers' claims that "I know for a fact that wasn't true." I am going to rescue as much content from the Fairfield website and post it here and there. I have a bit of time left to accomplish this. For the moment, I will add a couple of photos, just to make it saucy.

We did saucy things back in the day.

I am not sure where all this will end up or what will be lost or saved. Much of our content is located in other places. I will provide links when possible for you to seek it out on your own. We never wanted to lose our history and we were successful in that venture. But it's time to move on. The story has been told.

This is where old Saltwell Road went down toward the river on the west side of the lake just off Causeway Road. Saltwell was one of three small township schools in the early days. If you are interested in that topic, contact the Brookville library genealogy department. A book about Fairfield schools can answer your queries. A BIT MORE ABOUT FAIRFIELD SCHOOLS FROM THIS BLOG ITEM

This was our iconic covered bridge, built in the 1870s. It survived all the floods that inevitably led to the flooding of the one town that never suffered that horror. The bridge was 300 feet long and one of two to meet its demise during reservoir construction. This one, like another at Dunlapsville (also shown), fell prey to arsonists in the early 70s as it was being dismantled by people who were trying to save it.

MORE ABOUT BRIDGES FROM THIS BLOG -- 2015