An elevated 20-acre site south of Seymour stands out because it’s surrounded by flat land.

In the 7700 block of East County Road 200N, the property where the city has buried rock, blacktop and other road materials to make mounds of solid fill over the years has been transformed into a controlled off-road park.

The course consists of humps, hills, an articulation ramp, a rock crawler area and some mud pits, and there’s also a wooded trail for those who like to go off of the beaten path.

In 2020, Seymour Police Department Drug Abuse Resistance Education Officer Tim Toborg created the park so it could serve as host of the inaugural DARE Jeep Adventure Rally.

On Oct. 9 of this year, the second event was conducted at the park. It also included a 100-plus-mile road rally around Jackson County.

The fundraiser for the DARE program drew 147 Jeeps and generated nearly $4,600 last year, and Toborg was pleasantly surprised to see the numbers jump to around 250 and $7,000, respectively, this year.

“We were blown away that first year thinking that we had that many and really only had two weeks of planning once it got approved because we didn’t advertise until we got approved,” Toborg said.

Making it a place to host events to benefit nonprofit organizations is Toborg’s intention, and he has even talked to Seymour Mayor Matt Nicholson and the Seymour Parks and Recreation Department about expanding the possibilities to draw people to the city.

The site is owned by Freeman Municipal Airport and is leased by the city, Toborg said.

“This is a great place. This is a fun place,” he said. “The nearest off-road park around is Redbird (State Recreation Area) two hours to Linton, Indiana, or two hours into Kentucky. We’ve got so many people buying side-by-sides, so many people buying these Jeeps.”

Besides the annual Jeep rally, Toborg said he would like to have at least three other events so they would be spread out in each season of the year.

“I think doing the nonprofits, like DARE or Special Olympics, then it won’t go away,” he said. “If I had more events, like a spring fling, something in each season, that keeps these paths worn out, and I don’t have so much work to try to get it ready.”

Toborg came up with the idea for the off-road park last year while on patrol. When he was around the city dumpsite one day, he saw a man sitting in a bulldozer and two big trucks moving dirt there.

“I said, ‘Hey, can you cut me some paths if I get permission?’” Toborg said.

Once he received an OK from the airport and city, Toborg had paths cut, concrete moved and dirt piled up on the course and trees popped out of the wooded area to make a path, all bringing his idea to life.

Traveling around 5 mph on the bumpy, up-and-down course and going through the woods, he said it takes about 10 minutes.

“I could have about 60 in this (front) area safely and have about 80 in the back safely with enough spacing. It’s not fast,” he said of the number of Jeeps on the course during an event. “The perimeter trail is what we call the lazy river trail. There’s no river. It’s just like a lazy river at a hotel or water park where it’s just casual, you’re just going through.”

On the north side of the course, Toborg added a street sign that reads “Mt. Furlow” to pay tribute to Airport Manager Don Furlow.

The SPD DARE team, consisting of Toborg and fellow Officer Jeremy Helmsing, described the recent Jeep rally as “an awesome time with other Jeep owners for a great cause.”

Along with the $30 cost to participate, money was raised through a raffle and a silent auction.

All proceeds benefit the DARE program, which annually serves 500 to 700 students at Seymour public and private schools.

SPD’s program was initiated in 1999 by Chief J.B. Hamblin after assigning Officer Billy Smith as the first DARE instructor. The basics of the course are designed to teach drug awareness and give children the skills they need to make better decisions when faced with a choice involving drugs.

Toborg, who has been a DARE officer since 2000, said money raised from the Jeep rally goes toward DARE books and T-shirts for the fifth-graders.

“There’s a couple thousand dollars just in the shirts and the books,” he said. “Then they get pencils, stickers, gifts or things that we bring them.”

During this year’s Jeep rally, a Seymour DARE graduate shared how the program has impacted her life.

Erin Otte went through DARE as a fifth-grader at Cortland Elementary School and was a DARE Role Model during her junior and senior years at Seymour High School.

What she learned in the program carried over to college. Two weeks into her freshman year, she had to move to a different room on campus after a roommate told her she was going to go out and purchase drugs.

“She didn’t want to be involved in that, so she moved into a different room, and now, she’s got a great set of roommates,” her father, Chris Otte, said.

“She was able to make a decision the way she needed to in part because of the DARE program in Seymour,” her mother, Mandy Otte, added.

Chris said another girl in the first room also moved into the new room because she didn’t want to be around drugs, either.

“DARE has two components,” Erin said. “The main component focuses on warning students about the dangers of drugs, and (the second one) informs them about how to make good decisions.”

Knowing how DARE helped Erin, the Otte family wanted to give back by helping organize and participating in the Jeep rally last year and this year.

“That was one of our main reasons for being involved is because we knew the impact it had on Erin’s life. That was really special,” Chris said. “We have a Jeep, so we enjoy being around other people with Jeeps, and it’s a great way to raise awareness and just have fun doing it.”

Chris said the Jeep rally is a team effort. Toborg helped get the off-road course ready, Helmsing found DARE Role Models to support the day of the event, Chris Hunter helped with ideas for the off-road course, Maricia Spivey gathered sponsors, Stephanie Newcomb gathered all of the registrations and printed all of the maps and the Ottes developed the road route.

“It was a team effort, and I think it worked out really well. We had a lot of fun,” Chris said.

Information about the event reached Jeep enthusiasts all around Indiana, and that resulted in the number of preregistrations this year exceeding the total number of participants last year, Chris said.

He said the city has murals, new businesses and beautification in the downtown, Oktoberfest and improved parks to draw people here, and the off-road park could become another attraction to make an impact.

“I think there’s a bunch of pieces of the puzzle that make it more and more interesting,” he said, noting the group already is making plans for the third annual Jeep rally.