Brown County State Park in southern Indiana is the state’s largest park and one of its most visited, known for forested hills, overlooks, and brilliant autumn color. The county’s steep terrain and thin soils led to widespread land abandonment after heavy nineteenth-century clearing, opening the way for conservation and reforestation. Richard Lieber and Lee Bright were central to preserving the area, first through a game preserve in the 1920s and then through the park’s creation in 1929. Civilian Conservation Corps work in the 1930s gave the park much of its lasting character. Today it remains a major recreation area and an important conservation landscape with protected forest communities.