St. Leon

Southeast Indiana Area

Wide open spaces mark the town of St. Leon, with only 600 residents spread over the 7 square miles of the town's boundaries. While there's plenty of room for rural pursuits, don't let the slow pace fool you-there's a lot to do here. St. Leon is a well-known repository for trilobites; fossil hunters are frequently found scouring the shale deposits along the area's county roads. Politics is a great source of debate in this town; St. Leon is well known for its election pole raising, an event that dates back to the 1870's. Each presidential election year Democrats go in the nearby woods with a crosscut saw to cut a tall straight hickory tree, which they trim except for a few branches at the top. Brackets are attached to fasten an American flag and the Democrat emblem, a rooster. A parade and speeches accompany the ceremony and the pole remains up until after the election. Housing in the area includes older ranch homes, country farm homes to some new construction.

Southeastern Indiana