What's the Crane base like to live around? The area kinda looks like it's out in the middle of nowhere, is that a pretty good assessment? Is there much to do besides hunting and fishing?

If you're in Ohio, it's worth taking a drive over and looking around.
the best hotels are likely in Bloomington, which is a college town and kinda like a small San Francisco.  But it does have a nice restaurant or two.

The nice towns to live in near the base are Loogootee, Bloomfield, Odon, Bedford, Bloomington.  I name those because if I was to commute to the base, I wouldn't go much farther.
There is a national forest in the area, and state forest as well.  Indy has a decent airport and if I lived in Bloomfield, I would give myself about two hours to get there.  We also have an interstate all to ourselves between Bloomington and Evansville.  There are great colleges here.  University of Southern Indiana is close enough to send kids to that you could see them easily, but not "laundry close".

I really like it here!

ETA there is a Motel right off the 87 exit of I69 very close to the gate of the Base.  There is nothing to do in that particular area.

Kinda like a hipster town then maybe? Thanks, I'll find some time to drive over there one of these weekends. Just wish it was closer than an 8 hour round trip.

Good mountain biking and hiking opportunities, if you're into such things. Bloomington sometimes gets a bad rap as being a lib town, but I've always had fun there.

Crane is in a bordering county, but lots of people from my hometown work/worked at Crane.

Not much to do in the immediate area, but plenty of stuff within driving distance.

The largest lake/reservoir in Indiana is between Bedford & Bloomington (Monroe Lake) & 2nd largest is just south of Crane (Patoka Lake). Those are great for fishing, boating, etc. Both have beach areas. Additionally if your job "near Crane" is code for "at Crane" there is a very sizable private lake on base with really good fishing, camping (cabins & camp sites), boat rentals, and more.

There are plenty of things to do in the area. But I can't make a comprehensive list. What type of things are you interested in? Shopping? Parks (nature or for children's play?), rock climbing? Casinos? camping? Scenic views? History? The area has them all.

Yes, much of the area is rural, but if you don't like rural there is city as well. I live 20 minutes from Bedford, very rural, I have a 3/4 mile long driveway, can't see the road, can't see the neighbors, and I can do whatever I want without people watching me. If your job is at Crane you can access the base from several different gates. If it's at West Gate (near Crane village) it will be really inconvenient to live on the east side of base but there are people who do it. Housing "close" to Crane is still usually a 15-20 minute drive. Crane is so large it take 5-10 minutes to get from the gate to the "downtown area" where most people work. Factor in that a house "close" to Crane may still be 10 minutes from the nearest gate and the result is "close" isn't "fast" for a morning commute. Traffic is something you won't have to deal with though. The worst traffic is what the locals call Crane Trains. Crane employs about 6,000 active duty, civilians, and contractors; many of them work on base. So in the mornings there are a lot of cars going in the same direction (opposite in the evenings). There's always that 1 guy that does right on the limit (or below the limit) and there will be a stack up of cars behind all doing the same speed. It's frustrating to rural folks that aren't accustomed to traffic but it's nothing compared to the traffic of big cities.

That said, geographically the area is diverse. On the south, north, & east sides of Crane it's rolling hills and winding roads, lots of wooded terrain and beef cattle production. On the west it flattens out so there is a lot of row crop agriculture. There is a large concentration of Amish around the SW of Crane (Loogootee, Washington, Odon, etc) with some to the SE (Orleans & Paoli).

Bloomington is very liberal, the rest are very conservative. Bloomington is the only thing close to a big city. If you can tolerate liberal tax & spend, corruption, & fruity policies like turning a major cross-town 4-lane thoroughfare back into a 2-lane street with bike lanes it's actually a nice city.

I was a transplant here over a decade ago. Now I can't see myself living anywhere else.

Good place to live if you want to be left alone.  Bloomington is close enough for stores and restaurants. Indy in not much further with I69 being closer to being done.

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The outdoors opportunities are bountiful. The festivals, art, etc not so bountiful. This is where Bloomington stands very different from the rest. It has those things but still very different from what would be offered by a city like Pensacola. The majority of festivals outside of Bloomington are going to be small towns holding their summer festivals, usually a "heritage festival" or festival in honor of some fruit etc (Mitchell Persimmon Festival or Bloomfield Apple Festival). Bloomington has several good restaurants, some that have been on the food network etc. The surrounding area has it's share of small town restaurants with an occasional great one dotting the map.

It sounds to me like a rural area around Bloomington would be what best fits you but if you go north of Bloomington your drive will exceed 40 minutes.


I don't mountain bike so I don't know the availability of mountain biking trails but I do know there are some. There is definitely rugged, fun, terrain, especially if you stay away from the west side of base. I know there are state parks as well as other parks with mountain bike trails.

I do, however, want to clarify a statement I made. When I said rock climbing I meant a rock climbing gym. The terrain in Indiana can be rugged in places but not quite enough to offer a great deal of real rock climbing.


It is a smaller casino. Look up French Lick resort & casino. I don't actually know what they offer bc I'm not into casinos. I know Indiana doesn't have a great deal of casino activity. There are only a few and the ones I've been to didn't seem to come close to what you would expect to see in Vegas. But again, I'm not the type to really pay attention to that either.


I also build stuff with big industrial tools (I assume you're talking about machining & fabrication). Plenty of surplus tools within a days drive. The Indy airport just had a massive tool selloff about a year ago. Not much in the way of machining but plenty of other metalworking items. I've never seen so many Dake arbor presses sell in one place before.

On the scrapyard thing, I don't know for sure. The yard I take scrap to has a sign that they don't sell to the public but I'm friends with the girl running the scales and she has previously indicated that they will sell for $0.30/lb. I have a deal worked out with a local fabrication business (about 150 employees so fairly big) to pick through & buy their scrap & drops at the price the scrapyard pays.


Crane village is not inside the base. Crane village was once a sprawling little town that sprung up solely because the base was there. There's nothing else there except the west gate contractor facilities and they're only there because of the proximity to the Crane gate (the only truck entrance to Crane). The village has declined due to the draw of other towns that actually offer things to do & enjoy.

If you go southeast from Crane village you will see a large gravel parking lot right off the highway, the building to the north (w/ the paved lot) is the Crane visitor's center (where truckers & visitors get a temp access badge etc). A little east of that begins the perimeter of Crane. The ballfields are Crane property but they're outside the fence so they're open to the public (I think). The toll booth looking thing further east (almost a mile east of Crane village) is the Crane gate.

I live about an hour south of Crane. I love the area. Overall pretty conservative. To double down on the posts above, the mountain biking and hiking in the area is as good as it gets for the Midwest. Bloomington is certainly a college town. It's likely the most liberal city in Indiana, but I still like it. Lots to do there. I have a few friends that work from Crane. One is trying to get out as they cap their employees salaries fairly low (above average for the area though). Washington area has a lot of Amish. French lick area is a lot of fun. Hoosier National Forest has a lifetime worth of exploring to do. Lots of cool cliffs and caves hidden away.

If you have any specific questions, let me know!