Escape to Roseville Covered Bridge RV Park RV Park

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Our Story: a Look Back at over 200 Years

It is located in the second oldest town in Indiana, first established by a treaty with Tecumseh before the land north of the Ten O clock Line was thrown open for settlement. Roseville was home to notable historical figures, such as Chauncey Rose of "Rose"-Hulman University fame, Doc Wheat, Mordicai-3 Fingers Brown of the Chicago Cubs and St Louis Cardinals, and Hollywood "Bad Man" Tex Terry. 

We have to travel back in time nearly 200 years to a parcel of land where a young man at the young age of 23, after traveling five states in search of a place to conduct business. Chauncey Rose and his associates, Captain Andrew Brooks, a trader, interpreter, and Indian Agent (later appointed by then Governor and future President Henry Harrison in 1822 as the first sheriff), and one Moses Robbins had set their sights on the newly envisioned "American dream," by the spring of 1819 they had felled timbers for a grist mill (Raccoon Mills) (which was located across the street behind the windmill) and purchased this lot for a trading post and general store, they stocked it with just about everything one would need back then. They built a sawmill (Roseville Sawmill) and later supplied lumber to construct the Parke County Courthouse. A tannery and distillery was also built, and they started packing hogs, flour, and corn meal, which they would send to market down the Big Raccoon Creek. During this time, Roseville also served as the site of the first flatboat landing, and the first courts in the county were held here. We had a post office (1823), a stagecoach stop, a school, a church, and a doctor's office. The town was expanded twice during 1849 and then again in 1859. 

Then, in about 1878, coal was discovered along with the need for consistent, reliable transportation due to boats being everywhere except where they were needed in times of low rainfall. Chauncey Rose had already realized the future was not in the canals but in the new "technology" of the day, "a railroad." Chauncey prudently invested his savings from his businesses in Roseville in farmland in Terre Haute and was instrumental in many of Indiana's railroads. He bore the principal effort in building the Terre Haute and Indianapolis Railroad, Evansville, Terre Haute, and Chicago Railroad, among others. In the end, Chauncey had amassed a fortune. He was very generous with his money in Terre Haute, where his philanthropic activities were reported in an 1875 New York Times article to have exceeded $2,000,000 in the currency of that day. His numerous benefactors were the Providence Hospital, the Free Dispensary, and the Rose Orphan Asylum. He and several friends created the Terre Haute School of Industrial Science in 1874 to provide technical training after encountering difficulties finding qualified engineers while constructing his railroads. Rose Polytechnic Center is now referred to as Rose-Hulman University.

In 1890, the town's name was changed to Coxville for a short time in honor of Mr. William Cox of the Brazil Block Coal Company, who had been the area's lessor of extensive coal rights; by 1910, the coal mines were finished. 

Along the way, Roseville shared a part in early Coca-Cola history when locals discovered a superior grade of sand on the east side of Roseville used to make the first Coca-Cola bottle.

The Roseville Bridge across the street is the second bridge on the site, built in 1910 to replace one destroyed by arson (related to the first Coca-Cola bottle), which had been there since 1865. It is a J.J. Daniels-built two-span burr arch construction and the second longest bridge (263') among Parke County, Indiana's 31 covered bridges. 

Chicago Cubs World Series pitcher Mordecai Three Fingers Brown, who lost two fingers in an accident at his uncle's farm, had got his start playing 3rd base for the semi-pro Coxville Reds team in 1898, where this was the day he knew he was a pitcher after a 9-3 win against Brazil before he went on to become the first Indiana player inducted into the baseball hall of fame. 

Wallace W. "Doc" Wheat was among Roseville's unique citizens. Born in 1870, Wallace studied medicine at the Eclectic Medical Institute in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he learned a medical practice based on botanical medicine. The Eclectics, as they were called, were prominent in Indiana and Ohio at the turn of the century. They believed that the body would heal itself and that the physician's job was to aid the body in that process. Wallace graduated in 1899 and returned to Parke County. He became well-known as a healer, especially for his treatments for kidney and liver disorders and external cancers. He was rumored to have buried his money all around his property. He died in 1948. 

Fast forward to 1979 when a cowboy named Tex Terry and his wife Isabel Drasemer retired from Hollywood and returned to the place he was born and had worked the coal mines driving mules as a young man - Coxville after an extensive movie career playing the "Bad Man" alongside his friends Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and, John Wayne. 

At this time, we were known as Tex's Longhorn Tavern, where Tex would tell his stories around his old "Wheat Penny Bar," which remains. Tex was also a western recording artist, band leader, and skilled craftsman in leather goods, having made most of the belts and holsters "The Duke" wore. Tex was a World Champion master with the bullwhip (driving those mules came in handy), as witnessed by many children since Tex would travel all over America perform[]ing his bullwhip tricks for school children. His first movie using the bull whip was in the 1924 movie with Douglas Fairbanks, "Don Juan" During his long career, he starred alongside many well-known actors: Joel McCrea, Will Rogers, Buck Jones, Hoot Gibson, Sunset Carson, Allan Ladd of the "The Badlanders," and the Duke himself-John Wayne, his 10th and final movie with John Wayne was in the "War Wagons" One of his most famous roles was Brizzard in the 1958 version of The Oregon Trail alongside Fred McMurray. Tex, during his long career, performed in television series such as "Death Valley Days," "Gunsmoke," "Wells Fargo," and "Two Faces West." Tex's wife Isabel was Tex's agent along with Buddy Ebson of The Beverly Hillbillies, Hugh Obrien, and Vic Taburn of The Alice Show. She always told us that she was the one who discovered James Dean since she had hired him for a Pepsi commercial before he got his start in the movies.

Then, on a first date and a drive in 1982, Tom and Alice Hyatte purchased the place from Tex, and during the next 26 years, Tom and Alice transformed the tiny place with an expanded kitchen and menu filled with good home-cooked meals. As one can imagine, with this came the need for more space; in 1984, Tom moved what was known as the upstairs dining and theater – the 150+-year-old barn from a local farm. He reassembled the barn using the same wooden pegs and care, showcasing its hand-hewn logs' timeless craftsmanship. The barn was filled with timeless antiques showcasing the American spirit's uniqueness and ingenuity. Many of them had been in the Hyatte family for over 75 years. In 2008, Tom and Alice retired, and the name was changed to Rock Run Café to pay tribute to the significant tributary into the Big Raccoon Creek that began it all. Tom's sons continued to operate the restaurant with the same respect, dedication, and vision for all those who have traveled before them for nearly 200 years: Chauncey Rose, Captain Andrew Brooks, Moses Robbins, Tex, Isabel Terry, Tom, and Alice Hyatte. In 2016, a fire swept through the upstairs barn, resulting in a total loss. In 2023, the site was converted into an RV Park. The red building across the street was moved from the other side to preserve Tex Terry's garage, where he would craft many of his leather goods in retirement.