Jefferson Proving Ground

Jefferson Proving Ground, Madison, Indiana is quiet now, though its history has been particularly violent in time past. The 55,265 acre parcel of land located in Southern Indiana has been smashed flat by a glacier, served as a hunting ground for the Shawnee, provided homes and sustenance for European Immigrants, served as a bombing range for the U. S. Army, and provided jobs for thousands of Madisonians, Northern Kentuckians, and Southeastern Hoosiers for fifty years.

For now and hopefully forever, the guns have fallen silent except for the ocasional weekend invasion by the Air National Guard pilots that sharpen their bombing skills by dropping practice bombs and blasting away with high speed cannons. Now mostly peaceful, the Fish and Wildlife service maintains Big Oaks National Wildlife Refuge on the land laced with unexploded ordnance (UXO).

Local business man, Dean Ford, who grew up on a farm in Dupont, just one mile from the proving ground, now is the owner of the almost 4,000 acres south of the firing line. This portion of land deemed salvageable enough for the government to sell.