Mt Tea State Forest: Upgrade Pumpkin Ridge Rd. For the Record

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Last updated 1/31/2026

Status on the Mt. Tea . Upgrade of the Pumpkin Ridge Rd has been provided on the Commissioner Meeting Agenda and Minutes starting in May 2025. Meetings are also streamed on YouTube at Brown County  Indiana Government Meetings.

2026

Feb 4, 2026, 2:00 p.m.  Commissioner Meeting. Agenda to include an update on the upgrade to the Pumpkin Ridge Rd.  A vote on the plan and agreement may be taked at the Feb 18, 2026 Commissioner Meeting at 6:00 p.m.

Jan 24, 2026.   On-Site Meeting.  Commissioners Clark and Patrick, along with the INDOT project team and John Seifert, director of the division of forestry for the DNR, met with property owners to review the plan discussed at the Nov 12 meeting, walk the road,  discuss construction limits, review options for a temporary road to be used during construction, and consider less-invasive drainage-related solutions.  

  • John Mueller asked for assurance regarding the intent for Mt. Tea State Forest. John Seifert provided a documented response:  DNR Letter Mr. Mueller 1-28-2026
  • On the fears expressed regarding eminent domain, Commissioners and INDOT reaffirmed that the only land acquisition needed is to improve and maintain the road. Temporary easements will be needed during construction.  

Jan 20, 2026.  Letter  to the Editor: Resident starts petition to stop Pumpkin Ridge Road work By Guest Contributor *Jason Dickmeyer.

Jan 11, 2026. Petition – Change.org. “Stop the widening of Pumpkin Ridge Road in Brown County,” – Jason Dickmeyer.

  • Misleading. Image showing the road at 22 feet with 2-foot shoulders was the original concept.  The proposed change is 18 feet with 2-foot shoulders.
  • Commissioner Sander is not the Vice President of the Board of Commissioners. 

Jan 7, 2026 Commissioner Meeting. Public presses commissioners on budget changes, Mt. Tea road plans By Courtney Hughett -January 13, 2026

  • Bob Klee, a property owner on Pumpkin Ridge Road, spoke at length about how the proposed project could affect his land. Klee said he and his wife own 47 acres along the road, along with an additional 146 acres purchased from the Nature Conservancy. He said much of the proposed road corridor borders his property and asked the county to physically stake construction boundaries so landowners can clearly see potential impacts rather than relying solely on maps.
  • Commissioners reiterated that no final decision has been made on the project and that it remains tabled while information is gathered, including on-site staking and landowner meetings.

Jan 2, 2026.  Letter to the Editor: Pumpkin Ridge resident shares his letter to commissioners, by John Mueller

  • I am proposing an alternative option to improve access to Mt. Tea SF. DNR can develop improved access to Mt. Tea from their own land that connects to Salt Creek Road. 
2025

Nov 19, 2025. Pumpkin Ridge road, bridge troubles, winter prep fill commissioners’ agenda By  Courtney Hughett December 3, 2025

  • Under ongoing business, commissioners revisited the Pumpkin Ridge Road access project to Mt. Tea State Forest, which drew the road’s residents to a Nov. 12 working session. Commissioner Clark said INDOT and its engineer, CMT, have now developed a more modest road design with a smaller footprint and lower design standard than what is normally required, in response to residents’ concerns. Because it does not meet the usual standard, INDOT will have to grant a formal design exception.

Nov 12, 2025. Commissioner Meeting – Public Work Session.   Residents slam $8 million Mt. Tea access road: ‘This is unacceptable’ … Brown County Commissioners again heard strong opposition to the proposed …

Sep 17, 2025. Commissioners debate Music Center’s future, delay ordinance, give updates on projects By Courtney Hughett -September 23, 2025

  • Commissioners and residents again debated INDOT’s proposals for widening Pumpkin Ridge Road to improve access to Mount Tea State Forest. Options presented included asphalt or gravel designs up to 22 feet wide. Commissioner Tim Clark said nothing is final and promised a “drive-through” with landowners to see what would be acceptable.

  • Several property owners voiced concerns about losing land, road widths, and the possibility of eminent domain. Clark emphasized cooperation, saying, “I can’t imagine taking anybody’s land when it comes to this particular road.” Residents argued the expansion benefits DNR more than locals and urged a county-only gravel fix to keep INDOT out. Clark said the board already voted in July not to approve the contract until citizen concerns are addressed.

Sep 3, 2025. Roads, windows, and Mt. Tea: Commissioners tackle crowded agenda
By Courtney Hughett -September 9, 2025

  • The Brown County Commissioners spent much of their meeting Wednesday, Sept. 3, revisiting the proposed access road into Mt. Tea State Forest from Pumpkin Ridge Road, an idea that has drawn concern from nearby residents.

  • The idea to pave Pumpkin Ridge Road first surfaced in 2022, by former commissioners and the DNR, and state funding was requested in 2023. In 2024, the state provided money for a high-level concept study. That study listed the project at around $7 million, but Commissioner Tim Clark stressed that number was only a rough, “worst-case” placeholder and not a final cost. The commissioners voted twice, in May and July, to delay moving forward so more community input could be gathered.

  • At a public meeting on Aug. 20, about 15 speakers voiced their opposition. A

Sep 5, 2025. Some Brown County homeowners like their one-lane gravel road, oppose state’s pricey upgrade,  WFIU | By Isabella Vesperini Published September 5, 2025 at 9:44 AM EDT  5, 2025.   

Sep 3, 2025 Commissioner Meeting. Presentation – Concerns and Key Points form the Aug 20, 2025 meeting.  Comm Mtg Mt Tea Presentation 2025_09_03 0800

Aug 27, 2025. The Wide Road, By Courtney Hughett, Brown County Democrat

Aug 20, 2025. Facebook BCM Notes from Commissioner Meeting. 

Notes from Commissioner Meeting, August 20, 2025, 6:00 p.m. The major topic was the proposed plan by INDOT to improve access to the Mt. Tea State Forest by expanding the Pumpkin Ridge Road to two lanes.
 
The meeting is available for viewing on our County Government YouTube site. (Starts at the 11:45 mark.)
 
    • Background: INDOT first developed the concept and cost estimate in 2022. The Brown County Commissioners in 2023 joined with DNR to request funding from the governor. We found no reference yet in any meeting minutes on this decision. There was no county activity on the project in 2024.
    • In March 2025, the commissioners were informed of the proposed project and introduced it to the public at the May 21, 2025 commissioner meeting and again on July 16, 2025.
    • In the Mar/Apr timeframe, INDOT took action to update the draft plans from 2022. They mailed a Notice of Survey, and a postcard to residents informing them that a survey was going to be conducted and that there would be public meetings. Some residents did not receive notifications and were surprised to see the surveyors. This led to the perception that the project was underway. The INDOT assumption for the public meetings was that the commissioners would first sign an agreement that would start the project and the public meetings.
    • Commissioners received a revision of the agreement on August 18 and began identifying the necessary changes. One change is that the county will not provide INDOT with eminent domain authority. “IF” the project is to proceed, commissioners will have as many public meetings as needed to get the buy-in from the community.
    • Options could include doing nothing, supporting modest improvements to the road, keeping it gravel, narrowing the road to less than 22 feet, and not paving. It is unlikely there will be 100% agreement on every aspect of the project among all the stakeholders.
    • If and once a course of action is selected, the next step is to ensure that the county has oversight and decision authority throughout the process to ensure the plan agreed to by the county is being respected and does not deviate significantly from the plan. Some aspects of the process INDOT has to follow is not flexible due to federal and state requirements.
 
An update from the meeting will be provided at the next commissioner meeting. I also included a link to the times and supporting documentation in the comments.

Posts at Brown County Matters (BCM)

DRAFT: INDOT Local Public Agency (LPA) agreement as of 8-18-2025. LPA is the Brown County Commissioners.  (Change to itren 14 adding: “and approval”). Further changes are expected.

Brown County GIS — Graphic Overlay of Pumpkin Ridge Road to include Property Owners.

Mountain Tea State Forest
— Mountain Tea State Forest – Map
— Description

INDOT Contact with Residents: NICK BATTA PE | Crawford, Murphy & Tilly | w 317.492.9162 | m 317.409.0665  Indianapolis Group Manager

Along with the usually Notice of Survey, the attached postcard was also sent to residents beginning in March and April.  Mountain Tea Postcard rev2

July 16, 2025.  Commissioners Paving project decision tabled, INDOT proposal draws concerns

June 19, 2025. Executive Session – Commissioners, DNR, INDOT, Project Managers. No decisions are made at an Executive Session.

May 21, 2025.  Tornado response, job description dispute and paving project dominate Brown County Commissioners’ meeting By Courtney Hughett -June 2, 2025

  • A proposed $6.5 million INDOT project to upgrade Pumpkin Ridge Road, that runs between Hoover Road and Mountain Tea State Forest, into a two-lane paved road sparked criticism from a resident who said it would unnecessarily disrupt his peaceful, rural property.
  • The commissioners said they have heard from a lot of residents regarding this project and will be meeting soon with DNR and INDOT to find out why this project was chosen. They said they don’t really understand the thought process behind it either, since this plan originated at the state level. The state is paying for the upgrade, with no money required by the county, but the commissioners are concerned that once they okay it, the county loses control of the process. The commissioners assured Dickmeyer that there will be public hearings held prior to any plans being finalized.

May 7, 2025.  Commissioners approve bids, discuss railroad closure, Pumpkin Ridge Road plan By Courtney Hughett, 

A proposed $6.5 million INDOT project to upgrade Pumpkin Ridge Road, that runs between Hoover Road and Mountain Tea State Forest, into a two-lane paved road was tabled after Commissioners Sanders and Tim Clark raised concerns about the project’s impact on local homeowners, some of whom may be unaware of potential eminent domain action.

“This work may affect the peace of the residents who moved out there for a reason,” said Commissioner Sanders.

Though Commissioner Patrick voted against tabling the matter, the majority agreed to delay approval until more public input could be gathered. INDOT must hold public hearings, but it was noted that once commissioners approve the project, control shifts to the state, limiting county input. Commissioners Sanders and Clark were not comfortable with this.

Mar – May. Project Discussions, Contract Review

Mar / Apr 2025.  INDOT Contact with Residents: NICK BATTA PE | Crawford, Murphy & Tilly | w 317.492.9162 | m 317.409.0665  Indianapolis Group Manager

    • Along with the usual Notice of Survey, the attached postcard was also sent to residents beginning in March and April.  Mountain Tea Postcard rev2

Mar 5, 2025. Copy of Draft Design Letter and other documents provided to commissioners Aug 9, 2022. 

2023

April 10 “2023.” DNR Letter to Eric Holcomb requesting authorization to improve road

2022

Aug 9, 2022 Draft Design Letter for project

2020

Aug 26, 2020. ‘Primitive recreation’: New state forest open in Brown County by  Sara Clifford.

  • Brown County’s newest state forest doesn’t have campsites, or water spigots, or even marked trails right now.

    What it does have is more than 1,150 acres of space to get away from everything but butterflies, bugs, deer, and the occasional jet from Camp Atterbury running practice drills overhead.

    Mountain Tea State Forest in Brown County and Ravinia State Forest in Morgan County were officially dedicated as state forests on Aug. 14 — the first new state forests in 67 years, though Mountain Tea was already a little-traveled part of Yellowwood.

    State forests are named for their dominant geographical feature, said Indiana Department of Natural Resources spokesman JB Brindle. This was named “Mountain Tea” because that was already the name of the ridge that runs through this forest.

    [sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
    Gov. Eric Holcomb and other dignitaries celebrated a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Aug. 14 at Ravinia State Forest, near Paragon. It has 17 parking areas and more than 16 miles of trails cut through its 1,500 acres.

    Mountain Tea, off Hoover Road and Pumpkin Ridge Road east of Nashville, is still more of a work in progress.

    “It is truly primitive recreation,” said John Seifert, director of the division of forestry for the DNR.

    The acreage has been owned by the DNR for six or seven years, but it hasn’t been used much because hardly anybody knew about it, Seifert said.

    It was a part of Yellowwood State Forest, but is not connected to the popular Yellowwood tract that contains the campgrounds and Yellowwood Lake west of Nashville.

    It will still be under the management of Yellowwood until it’s developed further, Seifert said.

    In the fall or winter — provided that the DNR’s annual open house goes on as it normally does — the DNR will be looking for public input about what that development should be over the next few years.

    “It could be a year; it could be 10 years,” he said about the timeline for adding more features, like trails.

    “We’d like to actually expand that forest and create a bigger, larger footprint if we could in the future.”

    More than 700 acres of Mountain Tea were formerly managed by The Nature Conservancy before the state acquired them in 2013 with the assistance of the U.S. Forest Service through the Forest Legacy Program. The other acreage was purchased from private owners in 2009, according to a press release from the governor’s office.

    “It was obvious that most people didn’t know it was there, so that was the intent of actually creating a separate state forest so that people understood that it is an entity of its own and should develop and create its own opportunities,” Seifert said.

    “Nobody could really find Mountain Tea unless you were living next to it or you knew a little more about state ownership,” he said. “This way, we’ll be able to develop it and create a little more of its own website and promote it independently of Yellowwood State Forest.”

    It’s still not all that easy to find now, as there is no county road sign marking Pumpkin Ridge Road where you turn off Hoover Road, and there’s no sign indicating that Mountain Tea State Forest is down that way — yet.

    More signs will be posted, Seifert said. “We didn’t want to put the signs up and create trail routes yet until the governor had made his announcement, so now, that stuff will all be in the works. So, there will be signs off the main road and to the county road back to the place.”

    The forest property stretches between Pumpkin Ridge Road and Salt Creek Road over wooded ridges and valleys.

    Currently, a “welcome” sign sits at the dead end of Pumpkin Ridge Road where the state forest property begins. A parking area there is large enough to hold about four cars.

    Near that entrance, the two old roads branch off into the woods. They are not to be used by any motorized vehicles or horses, or even bicycles right now, just two-footed visitors, Seifert said.

    Trails likely will be built branching off the two main roadbeds. The roads are hikable now, but visitors are likely to run into knee- to waist-high weeds in places. That’ll change when the area gets more traffic, Seifert said.

    There are no signs on the roads telling visitors what is where, and in several places, the roads branch off onto other offshoots which aren’t marked on the DNR’s map of the property.

    “Try not to go out there right away; give us a couple months to get things sorted out and signs put up, because right now, people might say, ‘What the heck is this place?’” Seifert said.

    He added that the DNR hasn’t sought or received input yet on what the best use of the property should be, so he doesn’t want people to be disappointed if they go out to Mountain Tea expecting to see something more along the lines of an established state forest property.

    This property, like other state forests in Indiana, will be “actively managed,” Seifert said. Evidence of past timber harvests can be seen in various places along the road. Resource management surveys of parts of the land from 2013 and 2014 said that timber from Mountain Tea also was harvested prior to the state acquiring it.

    Both Mountain Tea and Ravinia are planting sites for the governor’s Million Trees program, an effort to plant one million trees by 2025, a press release from the governor’s office said. This year, more than 16,000 new trees were planted at Mountain Tea and 38,000 were planted at Ravinia.

    Activities allowed on other state forest lands, like hunting and fishing, will be allowed in season at Mountain Tea, Seifert said.

    The DNR planned to update its website with information about both new state forests within the next week or two, he said.

    [sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”What we saw at Mountain Tea” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

    Before I called John Seifert at the DNR to talk about Mountain Tea State Forest, my husband, Derek, and I spent about two hours hiking a little over 4 miles of the property, using the map that appears with this story.

    If you’re trying to get there from Hoover Road, note that there is no longer a road sign that says “Pumpkin Ridge.” If you’re not familiar with where Pumpkin Ridge intersects with Hoover, use your GPS; it should be marked. (And yes, you do have some cell service out there.)

    Pumpkin Ridge is narrow, gravel and pretty rutted at the beginning. It can look like you’re on someone’s driveway, but it is really a public road. You will see “no trespassing” signs on both sides of the road in several places, and an appliance and some car parts hanging in trees, but keep going straight; the state forest property is at the end of the road.

    Look for the “welcome” sign, where there’s a parking area big enough for about four cars.

    Once you go over the cable barrier, you’ll see an old gravel road that branches in two.

    Going straight will take you along a ridge to a wide, power line right-of-way, and eventually to the southern edge of the property, according to the map.

    We went right, which will lead you past a sturdy, newer-looking cabin and lean-to. Those belonged to the former property owner, who carried in his own water and a generator. Seifert said the DNR is not sure yet what to do with those structures, as running utilities could be complicated and expensive.

    There are no directional markings on the roads that we could find, except for a tree at the top of a ridge where the path forked and we didn’t know which way to go. Look left and you’ll see that tree, which has elevation marked on it. Turn left there, bear right when the path forks again, and at the bottom of a steep, mossy hill is a quiet, 1.2-acre lake with a covered deck where fishing — but no swimming — is allowed.

    We actually went straight past this tree the first time instead of turning left and ended up at the power line right-of-way, which is marked on the map. The map makes it look like the road ends at the lake, but that is not the case. Derek pulled up AllTrails and checked it against the DNR’s map to figure out, by elevation, which other offshoots we probably should try to find the lake, and we finally did.

    Look out for tall grass, some downed limbs, and seed ticks. I must have hit a nest of them somewhere.

    Unlike Yellowwood or Brown County State Park, what you’re really unlikely to see out here is any other people, which, as a person who craves space and quiet, I appreciate.

    — Sara Clifford

 

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