About the town » Jasper, Dubois County, Indiana, United States

Jasper is a city in Dubois County, Indiana, United States. The population was 15,038 at the 2010 census. The city has been the county seat of Dubois County since 1830, succeeding Portersville. In 1970, the school system of Ireland, a hamlet west of Jasper along State Route 56, was consolidated into that of Jasper . On November 4, 2007, Dubois County returned to the Eastern Time Zone, after having moved to the Central Time Zone the previous year. The land uses are mainly agriculture. Jasper is a regional center in southwestern Indiana, noted for its heavily German Catholic ancestral roots. Jasper has often been called the "Wood Capital of the World", boasting a large number of furniture companies, including Kimball International and Masterbrand Cabinets. Jasper is also home to the Southern Indiana Education Service Center (SIEC), Jasper Engines & Transmissions (largest remanufacturer in the market), and to a satellite campus of Vincennes University. The Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame, which honors players and others associated with the national pastime who were born or lived in Indiana, is located in Jasper. In 2005, Jasper was ranked in the ten best places to live in the U.S. by Relocate America, a national realty relocation firm, which consults and helps clients find desirable places across the country to live. Jasper was previously ranked in the top 25 in Norman Crampton's 1992 book 100 Best Small Towns in America. Jasper also boasts the only municipally supported Arts Council in the state of Indiana; it is part of city government and is supported by the city for its citizens in the same vein as its park board or its street department. The city of Jasper and the Jasper Community Arts Commission have won the Governor's Arts Award twice, once in 1987 and again in 2007, and it is the only group to have garnered this award twice.