Yellowwood State Forest, originally Beanblossom Land Utilization Project, is a state forest located in

Brown County, Indiana Brown County is a county in Indiana which in 2010 had a population of 15,242. The county seat (and only incorporated town) is Nashville. History The United States acquired the land from the Native Americans, part of which forms the southwest s ...

, near the more famous

Brown County State Park Brown County State Park is located in the United States in the center of the southern half of the state of Indiana. The park is by far the largest of 24 state parks in Indiana, and occupies —making it one of the larger state parks in the Unit ...

. The forest features seventeen different areas within Brown County, comprising in total. The name of the forest is derived from the yellowwood (''

Cladrastis kentukea ''Cladrastis kentukea'', the Kentucky yellowwood or American yellowwood (syn. ''C. lutea'', ''C. tinctoria''), is a species of ''Cladrastis'' native to the Southeastern United States, with a restricted range from western North Carolina west to e ...

''), a tree seldom found this far north in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

; it flowers here only every three to five years. The yellowwood groves make up only of the park, although one tree has been planted by the forest office. The forest preserve was established during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, when work crews from the

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...

and the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

built many of the structures still in use today. In 1940 the United States government leased the forest land to the state of Indiana, with Indiana being deeded the land in 1956. In 1994 and 1995 sixty-six additional acres (27 ha) of land in total were given to the forest. Recreation in the park consists of camping, hunting, fishing, and hiking. The Tecumseh Trail goes through the forest on its way to the state forest office for

Morgan–Monroe State Forest Morgan–Monroe State Forest is a state forest in Morgan County and Monroe County of Indiana, and is the second largest state forest in Indiana. The comprising this deciduous forest was abandoned farmland, as the previous residents realized ...

; the trail was originally supposed to become a national trail, reaching from Canada to

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. A hiking trail, the Ten O'Clock Line Hiking Trail, connects Yellowwood State Forest to Brown County State Park. The lake, Yellowwood Lake, is deep and was created in 1939. Hunting typically involves deer, fox, grouse, raccoon, squirrel, turkey, and woodcock. Many of the unpaved roads within the forest are dusty and narrow, and those driving cars within the forest will often have to ford creeks. One major mystery surrounds the forest. Large

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In c ...

s, estimated to weigh about , have been found in the tops of three trees: one eighty-foot (24 m) tall

chestnut oak ''Quercus montana'', the chestnut oak, is a species of oak in the white oak group, ''Quercus'' sect. ''Quercus''. It is native to the eastern United States, where it is one of the most important ridgetop trees from southern Maine southwest to ...

and two

American sycamore ''Platanus occidentalis'', also known as American sycamore, American planetree, western plane, occidental plane, buttonwood, and water beech, is a species of ''Platanus'' native to the eastern and central United States, the mountains of northeas ...

s, one of which is tall. Speculation as to how the boulders got there ranges from college pranks,

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...

es,

ancient Ancient history is a time period from the History of writing, beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian language, Sumerian c ...

hunters Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/ hide, bone/tusks, horn/antler, et ...

UFO An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...

s.Brown County, Indiana

References

External links

{{Authority control Protected areas of Brown County, Indiana Indiana state forests Civilian Conservation Corps in Indiana Works Progress Administration in Indiana Protected areas established in 1940 1940 establishments in Indiana