Indiana County Tour: Blackford County

Remember a while back I told you we were launching a little plan to visit all the counties in Indiana?

We started. :)

This past Saturday, we went to our first county on the tour: Blackford County.

Blackford County was a bit of a challenge to plan for because...it's kind of small! It's actually the 4th smallest county in Indiana and only has two towns of any significant size. Most of the county is farmland which is great for the economy but bad for tourism! :) So we had our work cut out for us on finding little hidden treasures in this stop.

But I love a challenge.

I'm not really a history girl, so you won't find history lessons in these blog posts, but I do think it's interesting to find out where counties got their names, so I will tell you that Blackford County was named for Judge Isaac Blackford, who was a longtime Chief Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court.

Okay now on to the fun stuff. Our first stop in Blackford County was the town of Montpelier! One really cool thing there...these handpainted murals on the sides of the old downtown buildings!! I read that they were all designed and painted by volunteers.

Ryan also really loved the character of this old {apparently abandoned} drugstore.

Probably the main attraction in Montpelier is the giant Indian. My original plan was for Ryan to hold the same pose while I took the picture, but it's right at the main intersection of the town and we kind of felt like idiots and chickened out. LOL!! So here's the best we could do:

Apparently this is Chief Francois Godfroy of the Miami Indian Tribe. The sign said the land used to be the Godfroy Reserve, home to both Miami and Delaware tribes.

Twenty-three degrees outside and he stands without a shirt! {And as my friend Jenna pointed out - with a rather disturbing wire through his throat!}

We left Montpelier and drove over to Hartford City, the county seat of Blackford County.

Hartford City has a BEAUTIFUL courthouse. Check this out:

Isn't it gorgeous?

One of our goals was to find a great coffee shop in every county. I believe we found the ONLY coffee shop in Blackford County, but it was indeed a treasure!

This darling place is in one of the storefronts in downtown Hartford City - like the old, beautiful big brick buildings. The lady working inside said back in the day, it used to be a dress shop. I appreciate a dress shop, but oh how glad I am it's a COFFEE SHOP!!!

And I have to tell you, Indiana is going to be hard pressed to offer more character than this shop offered. It was darling. I was secretly glad we were the only people in there so I could take all kinds of pictures.

The entire shop was supplied with these little conversation areas...kitchen tables with tablecloths - so it looked like a dozen tiny, homey kitchens dotting the shop. And interspersed...little areas furnished with armchairs, loveseats and couches. It was like home.

Doesn't that last one look like it walked off the set of Friends? {So here are your resident Friends, Monica and Chandler:}

All the decorations were so cute - vintage everything.

We not only had coffee here - but lunch too! We just did their fresh-brew, so I can't tell you about any of the froofy drinks, but the fresh-brew was excellent. And lunch was yummy too - toasted chicken salad sandwiches with fresh veggies and dip.

I really loved Common Grounds, so if you're in the Blackford County area, I think you should try it. Cute and yummy are an irresistible combo!!

Thank you, Blackford County, for giving us a fun date!

1 County Down, 91 To Go!!!