The foreboding incline loomed ahead, challenging visitors to the new Gatling Gauntlet obstacle course to climb it.
They had already scampered up the cargo net climb, flopped over a wooden wall and hopped from wooden post to wooden post. If they made it up the hill, participants still had to cross the monkey bars, flip tires and shimmy over a muddy pit, hanging from a rope.
No one said the Gatling Gauntlet was going to be easy. And that’s all part of the fun.
Johnson County Park’s newest attraction features 20 different obstacles all laid out on a 1.6 mile course. Attendees can do under, over, through and around the varying features, utilizing strength, speed and agility in a myriad different ways.
The Gatling Gauntlet opens to the public with a special event from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday.
Though the course may sound daunting, it has been designed with modifications for different skill levels and fitness abilities, ensuring that people of all kinds can enjoy it, said Kenneth Kosky, executive director of Festival Country Indiana, the organization that designed and built the course.
“It’s challenging enough for people who compete in Spartan events, but it’s also something that most people can do, because the obstacles are two-tiered,” he said. “If there’s a climbing wall, there will be one height for the extreme athlete, then another height that most people could do.”
Festival Country Indiana, the county’s tourism organization, had been envisioning an outdoor obstacle course since 2017. Organizers had examined the different offerings already featured within Johnson County, and saw a wealth of tourism draw: wineries and breweries, agritourism, unique local businesses and miles of trails.
The county also boasted a number of parks, which were not necessarily being utilized to their full potential, Kosky said.
“One of the things we identified is that, we have great parks, but we don’t have that one signature attraction that would get people excited,” he said. “Knowing the Johnson County Park has more than 600 acres, and knowing they have a golf course site that closed, and the land was available, we identified that as a potential location.”
Kosky worked with Festival County board member Brian Alvey, a veteran and founder of The Warrior 110 nonprofit, to test out other obstacle courses in the Midwest. Using Alvey’s military experience, they worked to design a course that would be challenging and unique to Johnson County.
Obstacles such as hurdles, a stone lift, a tire course, rope swing, balance beam and a climbing wall were all included.
“We picked several of the obstacles from military training after we researched existing courses across the country, as well as extreme fitness races,” Kosky said. “Then we also kind of invented some obstacles on our own.”
With its military-style obstacles, and because the course is basically across the street from Camp Atterbury, organizers opted for a name paying homage to that tradition: the Gatling Gauntlet. The Gatling gun was the world’s first machine gun, which is an 1861 invention that was operated via hand crank and was towed around the battlefield on wheels.
Each station will have modifications that can cater to different fitness levels.
“And if you can’t do the obstacle at all, you can do 10 burpees and move on,” Kosky said. “Everybody can complete the course in one way or another.”
Work started on the course in September 2021, and was nearly complete after about two months, Kosky said. A few aspects, such as planting grass, were finished and modified this spring.
The most difficult aspect was creating the centerpiece of the course — King of the Hill.
“That area is extremely flat, and we really wanted a hill to put the course over the top. We brought a bulldozer in and were able to make that hill,” Kosky said. “We thought it would be the coolest part of the course.”
Construction of the course cost about $100,000, though material donations, cash donations and in-house construction by the Festival Country board and staff helped bring that cost down. Businesses such as Johnson County REMC, A&E Tire Recycling of Noblesville, Hirons & Company, Visit Indiana, The Warrior 110, and Hoagies and Hops have signed on to sponsor the course.
While Festival Country designed the course and is paying for construction, branding and marketing, while the county provided land for the course and will be in charge of ongoing maintenance.
“We’re really excited about this. The obstacle course is something that is unique. There is nothing else like it around here,” said Kevin Leonard, interim superintendent of Johnson County Parks and Recreation. “It’s going to draw people to the park and to the area, because it’s something that’s totally new.”
Already, the course is generating buzz throughout central Indiana and beyond. The website has received considerable traffic, and organizations and groups have inquired about team-building events.
To help introduce the community to the course, a grand opening event is planned for Friday. Live music and food from Hoagies and Hops will be featured, and guided demonstrations of each obstacle will let people try out the course for the first time.
The Gatling Gauntlet will be open year-round, during park hours. Anyone can access it at no cost. Those who complete the 1.6-mile circuit can go to the Johnson County Park office or the Festival Country office in downtown Franklin to get a sticker touting the accomplishment.
They can also buy a t-shirt commemorating their time as well.
After five years of discussions and planning — particularly after the difficulties of the past two years — has made the opening of the course a reason to celebrate, Kosky said.
“The pandemic really solidified the need for more outdoor recreation. If it was already important to us in 2017, it became only more important after 2020. It’s going to be something for people to enjoy for years to come,” he said.
