eXplore Brown County

~story and photos by Chrissy Alspaugh

The memories thousands of Americans have made zip-lining, playing paintball, camping, offroading, mountain-biking, enjoying music festivals, and more at eXplore Brown County all began with one man and one family meeting.

When Gary Bartels inherited 500 acres of woods in 1994, he was working as a patent engineer for Columbus’ Arvin Automotive. He remembers the day he sat down with his wife and two sons, then ages 8 and 12, and made a proposition.

“I told them, we can sub-divide [the land], sell it, and retire. Or…we can sacrifice summers and weekends to build something together. My boys, Chris and Lance, came back two weeks later with a list of demands: two-hour lunches, ice cream, swimming, and that I hire their friends. We made our deal,” said the now 73-year-old, laughing.

Bartels said as an engineer, he knew that lacking a plan—and a backup plan—would result in failure.

Bartels and his wife, art teacher and painter Patricia Rhoden Bartels, laid out a seven-year plan to build what they thought would be a small campground and banquet hall for weddings or corporate retreats.

As for the back-up plan, “We knew that even if this place failed, our boys would’ve built a work ethic and lots of really practical skills like determination and troubleshooting,” Bartels said.

And so, a trajectory of fun for his family and countless others began.

As time and cash allowed, Bartels and his boys used trees harvested from the property and their own sawmill to build about one group camping cabin each year and the property’s featured Harvest Hall.

Many of the activities the family added to the park stemmed from their own interests. An avid mountain biker, Bartels added mountain bike trails. And he vividly remembers the day he came home to find his son and some friends in the woods wearing ski goggles and armed with BB guns. He soon swapped their arsenal for paintball weapons and opened a paintball course to the public.

The family added a lake, tree-top zip line canopy tours, arrow tag, Airsoft games, off-road rockclimbing tours, buggy rides, and an array of other adventure activities over the 25 years that followed.

“Nashville draws all kinds of people from around the country who are looking for all kinds of things to do,” Bartels said. “Some visitors want to shop, but not all. We became the adventure part of Brown County.”

Before they knew it, eXplore Brown County found itself hosting annual music festivals, mountain bike races, triathlons, motorcycle/dirt bike trials, medieval feasts complete with jousting, workshops on topics including how to ride and tune a bike, birthday parties, family reunions, and mild-to-adventurous team building events for church groups, businesses, sports teams, schools, fraternities, and sororities.

Bartels can laugh now about the time eXplore Brown County even unknowingly hosted the FBI.

On the heels of the 1993 Waco, Texas, religious compound making headlines for allegedly stockpiling illegal weapons, Bartels said one of his then-teenage sons was working at the camp when two individuals arrived and began asking “really interesting questions” about whether the camp hosted antigovernment groups, built illegal firearm silencers, and such over the course of about two hours. The next day, the undercover agents played paintball at the camp. Bartels remembers being on a phone call when the pair readied to leave—having found nothing suspicious happening at the park—and one of the agents handed him a business card listing his title: within the FBI.

“I hung up the phone and asked him, ‘Were you checking us out?’ He said, ‘Yep.’ I asked, ‘Did we pass?’ He said, ‘Yep,” Bartels said.

Today, he believes his outdoor adventure park plays an important role at a time when families spend less time than ever bonding outdoors.

“Families come out here and play paintball together, and every time they go home smiling, talking about the battles they had,” he said. “I really believe in what we’re doing, and I can see the immediate results of it. Now, that’s really fun.”

Bartels’ fun was paused in 2022, when a backand-leg injury sidelined him from work. He said his sons and their families stepped in, investing in remodeling the paintball course and camping cabins and transforming Harvest Hall into an elegant, gallery-style event space brimming with Patricia’s paintings. His family also added to the campground a new Vintage Village featuring five furnished vintage campers.

Throughout his months of recovery, Bartels said he wondered whether it was time to begin thinking about retirement. “But I still truly enjoy what I do,” he said. “I like projects, and I love the sweet smell of success.”

Today, the man with the title of Chief Adventurist is back to “doing pretty much whatever I want!”

“When I look back and see what I’ve accomplished, I just laugh. How did we do this?” he said, smiling and shaking his head. “Little by little. I hope eXplore Brown County continues to evolve, helping even more families make memories.”

eXplore Brown County is located at Valley Branch Retreat, 2620 Valley Branch Rd, Nashville, IN, 47448. For more visit or call 812-988-7750.

Pickin’ in the Backwoods

August 16–17, 2024

Presented by Coyote Radio Show and Podcast, alongside Duke’s Indy, this intimate event will be held at eXplore Brown County in August. There will be 30+ bands, free camping, free parking, BYOB, food trucks, and campfire jams. All ages.

The lineup includes: Arlo Mckinley, Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, Hellbound Glory, Jeremy Pinnell, The Local Honeys, Jake Kohn, Tim Goodin, William Elliott Whitmore, The Tillers, The Resonant Rogues, Vaden Landers, Low Water Bridge Band, Joshua Quimby, Rachel Brooke, Bill Taylor and the Appalachian Heatherns, Dylan Walshe, Ramblin’ Ricky Tate, Zach Willdee, Tori Miller, Ginger Wixx, Jason Dea West, Hammer and the Hatchet, Pine & Fire, Eliza Thorn, Sophie Coyote, Indy Annies, The Circle City Bandit, Booze Hounds Bluegrass, Doug Dillman, Hannah Unsalted, Johnny Logan and the Roughnecks, and Arianna Barton.

Located at 2620 Valley Branch Rd, Nashville, IN, 47448.