Live It
The great American lifestyle is alive and well in Benton County, Indiana. Move here and live it! We have thriving, classic small towns strung out like pearls across the prairie. City parks, festivals, and golf courses provide a wealth of recreation opportunities. Our education system is bolstered with strong schools and libraries. Access to health care is readily available. We enjoy a four-season climate with moderate winters and summers.
Small Towns: Benton County's incorporated towns remain vibrant community centers bustling with restaurants, shops, industry, and schools. Each achieves its own unique and charming mixture of past and present. Fowler's impressively restored courthouse is the massive hub around which this busy town spins. Oxford's brick streets and town square are a nicely preserved reminder of a more peaceful era. Otterbein is growing to serve Lafayette commuters. Boswell is a prairie village that modestly considers itself the "Hub of the Universe." Little Earl Park makes up for its size with can-do attitude and a huge fall festival. Ambia residents are proud of their town park.
Unlike many small towns that have been drained of their businesses, local leaders have made reinvestment in their hometowns a priority. Fellure Foods recently built a new grocery store in Otterbein. Boswell's Farmers & Merchants Bank continues to expand its reach. Fowler's 100 Mile House is a famous stop on the road from Indianapolis to Chicago.
| town population & zip codes | ||
| 2,305 | Fowler | 47944 |
| 1,223 | Oxford | 47971 |
| 921 | Otterbein | 47970 |
| 794 | Boswell | 47921 |
| 462 | Earl Park | 47942 |
| 189 | Ambia | 47917 |
Recreation: Ambia, Fowler, Oxford, Otterbein, Boswell, and Earl Park all have clean, shady, pleasant town parks with large and safe play areas for children. Earl Park's Adventure Park is a marvelous playscape featuring castles, ships, barns, swings, slides, speaking tubes, climbing challenges, and more.
Adults looking for play space of their own will enjoy the Benton County Country Club in Fowler and Oxford's Oak Grove Country Club. The historic Fowler Theater hosts movies in an atmospheric setting. Kamp Motor Speedway near Boswell hosts exciting racing action weekends April through September on a semi-banked clay oval.
Two towns host festivals. Earl Park's Fall Festival is a whopper that annually attracts 45,000 people to this town of 462. Camping, a variety of free entertainment, flea markets, and food options galore bring people from hundreds of miles away. Oxford hosts annual Dan Patch Days celebrating the famous race horse born here. A rodeo and extensive show of Dan Patch memorabilia highlight this event.
Lafayette-West Lafayette is less than 30 minutes from most parts of Benton County and provides a large shopping mall, eclectic downtown stores, and myriad dining and entertainment options. Purdue University hosts many major arts and sporting events.
Education: The Benton Community Schools serve over 2,000 students. Benton Central High School and the new Prairie Crossing Elementary School are located just north of Oxford along US 52. Two other elementary schools are located in Otterbein and Boswell. A private elementary school, Sacred Heart in Fowler, is home to another 140 students.
Benton County is blessed with with a bounty of libraries, all of which provide books, magazines, and computing resources to their towns. The Benton County Public Library in Fowler, along with the Oxford, Otterbein, Boswell, and Earl Park libraries are great resources for our local communities and host a variety of programs.
Although there are no universities in Benton County, Purdue University and Ivy Tech College are both nearby in the greater Lafayette area. St. Joseph's College in Rensselaer is a fine small private college just a short drive northeast.
Health: Local healthcare options include the Fowler Medical Clinic and Arnett Clinics in Otterbein and Oxford. Two large hospitals in Lafayette, Indiana provide a full spectrum of emergency, inpatient, and specialist care options. Green Hill Manor in Fowler provides long-term nursing care.
Climate: Winter, spring, summer, and fall, Benton County has it all. Our climate is moderate: January is the coldest winter month with an average temperature of 20.1 degrees Fahrenheit. Typical light snow is quickly dealt with by local road crews. July is the warmest summer month, averaging 72.9 degrees Fahrenheit. The extended spring is fragranced with a sweet smell of freshly-turned earth and new grass. Fall usually brings an impressionist's palette of colors spattered across local trees.
(photo credits from top: Pete Ruesch / M. Park Hunter / Town of Fowler / Pete Ruesch / Pete Ruesch / Pete Ruesch / Pete Ruesch / Pete Ruesch)