Margaret Mary Community Hospitals is located in downtown Batesville, providing care for the residents of Ripley County. Construction of the past year has added diagnostic equipment and a new oncology wing for cancer treatment, expected to be completed by 2005. Dearborn County Hospital in Lawrenceburg is nearby.

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Southeastern Indiana

Margaret Mary Community Hospitals is located in downtown Batesville, providing care for the residents of Ripley County. The hospital has added diagnostic equipment and a new oncology wing for cancer treatment, expected to be completed by 2005. Dearborn County Hospital in Lawrenceburg is nearby.

Batesville, nicknamed "The Best Little City in America", is conveniently located in the triangle between Indianapolis IN, Cincinnati OH and Louisville KY, providing "small town living" within an hour's drive of the three major metropolitan areas.

Outdoor enthusiasts enjoy the many opportunities in and around Batesville. Fishing is permitted in city reservoirs; the Indiana Department of Natural Resources stocks them just for this purpose. Bischoff Lake, a Batesville city reservoir, also offers a public landing ramp for small craft like small fishing and pontoon boats. Nearby Brookville Lake offers recreational boating and beaches for swimming. Community activities form the fiber of Batesville's social structure. Citizen groups such as Central House Players, Ripley County Harmonettes and Tree City Players partner with the Rural Alliance for the Arts to perform many unique and widely remembered performances.

Shoppers can find unusual gifts in Batesville's specialty shops, which feature everything from sewing, crafts to books, photography to furniture. The only shopping options not found in Batesville are department store chains.

Batesville

Batesville has its own exit off Interstate 74; busiest connector roads through town are St. Rts. 46, 129 and 229.

Dearborn County Hospital in Lawrenceburg and Margaret Mary Community Hospital in Batesville serves the area's medical needs. The nearest Community Mental Health Facility is in downtown Lawrenceburg.

Outdoor pursuits like hunting and fishing provide opportunities for recreation. Urban farmers have discovered the pleasures of living off the land, with spectacular gardens and small working farms dotting the landscape. Brookville Lake is the center of water sports, offering water recreation options including fishing, skiing, boating, swimming, canoeing, and more.

Small shops dot St. Leon, with most necessities available in nearby communities.

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.

St. Leon

Located along St. Rt. 1 off Interstate 74, 30 miles from Cincinnati.

McCullough Hyde Regional Medical Center on St. Rt. 101 provides diagnostic and treatment services. Rush Memorial Hospital in nearby Rushville, Fayette Memorial Hospital in Connersville, Dearborn County Hospital in Lawrenceburg and Margaret Mary Community Hospital in Batesville are the closest community hospitals. Hospitals in Cincinnati are an hour drive away.

Various fairs, festivals, music and events keep life in Metamora hopping. Ranging from the Morel (Mushroom) Madness Festival in April through Canal Days in October, and the historic Old Fashioned Christmas Walk held late November and December weekends, Indiana's most popular festivals have kept this small town nominated as one of the top 100 Attractions in North America. The rushing White Water River provides water sport recreation, with Brookville Lake nearby providing boaters, hikers and fisherman plenty of activities year round.  Train enthusiasts hop aboard the picturesque Whitewater Valley Railroad.

With over 100 shops operating whenever the flags are flying out front, Metamora has a lot of choices! For the more basic shopping needs, nearby Brookville meets most necessities.

Tourists beat a path to this charming hamlet that features the historic Whitewater Canal with its working locks. Experience history by riding the horse drawn canal boat, or by watching grain being stone ground at the working gristmill, powered by the water power of the nearby canal. Visitors can feed the ducks, take a horse drawn buggy ride, shop in the unique specialty stores and eat in the snack shops, sandwich, and restaurants that abound in historic Metamora.  Many of the shops are housed in buildings built at the turn of the century that follow the tradition of combining shop and residence under one roof. Housing styles outside the historic town include country farm homes and traditional older homes.

Metamora

30 miles northeast of Cincinnati, Metamora is just 15 minutes off of Interstate 74. US 52 is the primary route through the downtown. St. Rt. 101, and St. Rt. 1 offer access to all the town's charms.

Most recreation surrounds the churches and high school, or is found in nearby Batesville.

Basic needs are met in town, with most a few minutes drive away in nearby Batesville.

At not quite one mile wide, Oldenburg is one of Indiana's smallest towns, with a population of about 700. Its rich history began when Father Franz Joseph Rudolph, a newly ordained priest from Germany, arrived in Oldenburg in 1844, and together with Sister Teresa Hackelmeier, a Franciscan Sister from Vienna, Austria, began a religious and building program which continues today at the Sisters of St. Francis Convent and the Parish and Church of the Holy Family. Oldenburg offers an example of the Old World German heritage still alive in many small towns in America. The city is home to Oldenburg Academy, a 150- year-old Catholic college preparatory high school. More than 80 of the roughly 115 homes in the historic district were constructed before 1900 with the oldest structures made of stone or wood. The extensive use of cast and wrought iron provides great visual richness.  Many of the buildings in the community follow the Old World tradition of combining shop and residence under one roof.

Oldenburg

Just two minutes off Interstate 74 at the Batesville exit, and 45 minutes west of Cincinnati, the town of Oldenburg is compact and easy to explore.