Cute small towns outside of Fort Wayne

[Midwest Gent]

Originally Posted by ischyros

So it seems you don't want to actually be in Fort Wayne. The closest bigger towns to the GM plant are Huntington and Bluffton. Both have pretty classic midwestern downtown areas, though I tend to prefer Bluffton's just due to the fact that it actually has trees. I don't know that either of them have that much going on downtown. Huntington has its own small university and it still has a working drive-in theater that has recently expanded to include a second screen. There are some nice city parks in Huntington as well. It's a pretty quick drive up US 24 to Fort Wayne which is a 4-lane divided highway. The Huntington Dam southeast of town has created a nice lake that has a public beach with swimming. Bluffton is smaller and even though the Wabash River flows right through downtown, they haven't done much with it other than a paved trail. It is right next to Oubache State Park which has several miles of hiking trails and a public pool as well as a lake for canoeing and paddle boats.

If you want to go even smaller, you can look into Ossian or Roanoke. Roanoke is as close as you can get to the GM plant without being completely country living. It's closer to the plant than almost all of Fort Wayne is. It has a cute downtown but there isn't much to it. It's right on US 24 and if you needed some city shopping, you could be to Jefferson Pointe mall in Fort Wayne in less than 20 minutes. Ossian is kind of the same way in that it has a small downtown but not a whole lot else. It sits about halfway between Fort Wayne and Bluffton.

I don't have much experience in Roanoke or Ossian other than driving through. My experience with both Bluffton and Huntington, I'd choose Huntington just because it has more to do. And it has charming areas like the drive-in and the Sunken Gardens. It's also very well connected by highways (US 24, US 224, SR 9, SR 5, SR 16) so it's very easy to get to other cities and towns in the area.

I attended Huntington University for one year. Huntington is nice on one side of the railroad tracks, but there is a lot of drugs and poverty once you reach a certain point.

[ischyros]

Originally Posted by Midwest Gent

I attended Huntington University for one year. Huntington is nice on one side of the railroad tracks, but there is a lot of drugs and poverty once you reach a certain point.

Pretty easy to avoid those areas then, isn't it?

[Midwest Gent]

Originally Posted by ischyros

Pretty easy to avoid those areas then, isn't it?

Yes. Please don't take my post the wrong way, Huntington is quite nice. But there is a very clear distinction once you go over the tracks.