Best Things to Do in Columbus, Ind.

Columbus, Ind., sits just south of Indianapolis and a few miles east of Stony Lonesome. Columbus is a strange place. It contrasts with the surprising green and beautiful state parks of Brown County by having some of the most interesting architecture found not just in the Midwest, but in the country. It is referred to as an “Oz” and rightly so.

The unusual architecture culture of Columbus is hard to explain, but its numbers give you a sense of the unlikely place it is. Columbus is a town of roughly 50,000 people but has been ranked as the sixth-most architecturally innovative city behind Chicago, New York, Boston, San Franscisco and Washington, D.C., boasting work from architects such as I.M. Pei, Eero Saarinen, Robert Venturi and Deborah Berke, and public artwork by Dale Chihuly and Jean Tinguely to name only a few.

One of the best ways to see Columbus is on foot, but you can rent bikes easily. Before taking a bike tour, drop by one of its great bakeries, aka Donut n’ Coffee.

If craft beer is something you enjoy, then Columbus has many options. Just for the sake of expediency, it is good to know the ZanzigZ Brewery recently won a gold medal for their Ghost Pepper Stout at the 2017 Great American Beer Festival in Denver.

But even if you just get to drive through Columbus — do it. It will be worth the passing-through-Oz feeling you get.