The sole-proprietor of a small town drugstore in the late 1800s, Charles Clemon Deam spent long hours indoors, often working to exhaustion. One day, after losing his temper with a customer, a visiting salesman advised him to seek medical attention. The doctor recommended daily walks in the country. The seeds of a new career were planted.

Deam became Indiana’s first state forester in 1909. His work as a botanist led to the discovery of 25 new species. 48 plants are named after him. An avid collector, Deam's herbarium of some 78,000 specimens is currently housed at IU Bloomington. His books about the state's native flora are still in circulation more than a century after their writing.

I worked for a national park environmental education camp for years and don't remember hearing anything about this guy. In fact, it wasn't until I visited Deam Lake State Recreation Area, for the THIRD TIME, that I looked him up.

One of the most interesting things I learned is that Deam was responsible for the passage of the Forest Classification Act of 1921, a landmark piece of legislation that incentivizes landowners to maintain and conserve forest lands. More than 400,000 acres in Indiana are currently protected thanks to that bill.

As it turns out, Deam Lake SRA is one of two natural areas named for him (the other is Charles C. Deam Wilderness near Bloomington). It's an unassuming park built around a dam-made lake with maybe 6 miles of trails. Still, I keep ending up there because during shoulder season, it's entirely possible to camp on a finger of land, surrounded by water, with no neighbors to speak of.

Stay: Deam Lake State Recreation Area is perched on 194 acre, electric-motor-only Deam Lake in southern Indiana, offering 116 campsites, 68 equestrian sites and a couple dozen rustic cabins (5 of them on the tip of that peninsula I mentioned). Bring your kayaks and SUPs. When you're not admiring sweeping water views from your porch swing, you can launch from your front yard.