![]() More than 180 structures were completed within ten years of the community’s founding, including dozens of dwellings, dormitories, stores, workshops, and mills, as well as a church, brewery, distillery, tannery, textile factory, and multiple other manufactories. By the time the last transport arrived in New Harmony, the community totaled 730 people. A first generation of log dwelling houses was replaced with two-story brick and frame dwellings, and a tavern, granary, mills, and churches were also constructed. The community was laid out, and swamps drained. ![]() The vacant Indiana wilderness was quickly transformed with Rapp’s religious motives at the core. By 1817, the community of New Harmony encompassed 30,000 acres. The seed for this community was planted in southwestern Indiana on the banks of the Wabash River, with 7,000 acres purchased for the second “Harmonie” or “New Harmonie” in May 1814. Lasting just under a decade, the Harmonie Society was abandoned in 1814, in favor of a location with a more moderate climate and friendlier neighbors, which would be more conducive to the development of an expansive community. The Harmonie Society was established in Butler County, Pennsylvania, in 1804, with nearly 500 members. Under watch of the German government and facing increased persecution, Rapp left for America in July 1803, arriving in Philadelphia three months later. By the end of the eighteenth century, Rapp had upwards of 20,000 followers. A religious expatriate, Rapp, part of volatile religious developments of the period, became the leader of a sectarian, Pietist group in the 1790s that identified faith outside of the established church. New Harmony is only 5 miles down the road & has lots to do.New Harmony holds a unique place in America as having been at the center of two distinct nineteenth-century utopian experiments: the religious Harmonie Society, a millennialist sect established by German-born George Rapp, and the secular utopian experiment of Welshman Robert Owen. Frankly all Indiana comfort stations in State Parks & State Recreation Areas should be rebuilt & brought into the 21st century! The first comfort station smelled bad & cleaning wasn't good. Watch the site descriptions when looking. My husband fished the small pond & says there's no fish. The Wabash River is available for boating & fishing & there's 2 ponds. There's mountain biking trails also & a short horse trail. Although there was a fence there, people have been using the bridge & knocked down the fence. Trail 2 has a sign that a bridge is out, but the bridge is still there - tipped & unsafe. No signage for that & to continue on with the trail you have to walk by a beaver dam & scramble up a muddy hill! Be aware that the Bridge on Trail 5 is out. No signage to tell where to pick up the next part of the trail. Trail 5 is not marked well & I got lost when it spit me out by the cabins. Lots of trails that are nice walks in the woods, but not well maintained. According to the lady at the gatehouse, people leave with "bags & bags" of mushrooms. For $20 you can buy a mushroom bag & go to it. We also found out that April is morel mushroom hunting time. This site ponds water very badly when it rains. We got the same site - 17, which had been made into a very large pull through. ![]() We decided it was time to go back, this time without kids.
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