Rum Village Adventures aerial adventure park closes in South Bend

SOUTH BEND — The company that runs Rum Village Adventures is closing the aerial obstacle course that has dangled between mature trees in a southwest-side city park and greeted climbers for eight and a half seasons.

Employees and groups seeking to book climbs are getting notices that the course at Rum Village Park, 2626 S. Gertrude St., is closing.

“It comes with a heavy heart to say that we will be having to close Rum Village Adventures effective immediately,” states a letter from co-owner Michael Johnson, dated March 31, which groups are now receiving when they try to book a climb. “We understand that this news comes as a surprise, and we do not take this decision lightly. We regret the events that have deemed this decision necessary. We thank those of you who supported our park and apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused.”

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The email further states that holders of season passes and six-punch passes for the 2024 season can redeem them through 2025 at the company’s Koteewi Aerial Adventure, located in Noblesville, Ind., which is about 120 miles south of South Bend.

Likewise, returning employees got similar notices, according to Tribune sources.

No public announcement had been made as of April 26. But the Facebook page for Rum Village Adventures has lacked any fresh posts since mid-March. Normally, it should have been buzzing to ramp up for the new season, which typically runs from early May through the end of October. This season apparently was poised to open May 11.

It has been unclear, until now, why the course is closing.

South Bend city spokeswoman Allison Zeithammer confirmed Friday that the city did receive a notice of termination from the company, but she said the company didn't explain why.

“Being that we had an agreement that the equipment, management, and running of the ropes course was their responsibility, we are working through the correct legal channels for them to take responsibility for what is currently in Rum Village," Zeithammer said. “At this time, we aren’t actively seeking to partner with another business relating to a ropes course in any South Bend Park locations. We are always open to partnering with outside organizations to provide exceptional experiences, so if another organization or business approaches us with a novel concept, we are willing to listen.”

On Friday, Johnson told The Tribune that he planned to have his first discussion about the closure with city officials on April 29. Then, he said, he'd talk more with a reporter.

In January 2023, a Georgia-based company that designs and builds adventure courses, Signature Research, took over maintenance of the Edge Adventures courses for a year, including Rum Village and Koteewi. At that point, there were two years remaining on the business’ lease with the city.

Then, Johnson said, he and Signature Research's owner purchased Edge Adventures.

Operations remained essentially the same last season.

Sally Burch, who'd served as operations manager until she left in March 2023, said that roughly $50,000 in upgrades had been made in 2022 to the wood and ropes that make up the obstacles.

She estimated that the course saw more than 2,500 visits, or tickets sold, in 2022.

The aerial park has boasted five courses that climbers could do, from intermediate to advanced, each with a series of 10 to 12 obstacles that dangle from 15 to 60 feet over the mowed hills. Each course finishes with a zip line.

The business often hosted promotional events like “Zip and Sip” where you could have a brew afterwards, autumn night climbs with lights and zombie climbs late in the season with costumed characters on the ground.

Both groups and individuals could book climbing sessions. Some used the course as a gym for regular workouts, which was especially handy during the pandemic.

The aerial courses had helped the 160-acre Rum Village Park to claim a niche as a destination for several adventure sports, all immersed in an urban wilderness. The park is laid over the hills of a glacial moraine with trees that are more than a century old.

There are woods with dirt trails where native spring wildflowers are now blooming, an 18-hole disc golf course, a dog park, picnic shelters, a playground and a nature center. Volunteers with the Northern Indiana Mountain Bike Association built the area’s first set of mountain bike trails on the west side of Gertrude Street; many other mountain bike trails would emerge across northern Indiana and southwest Michigan in the decades afterwards.

Edge Adventures opened the aerial park in August 2016.

Edge Adventures had been around just two years when it had the Rum Village course built by a Canadian company, Treetop Trekking USA. Edge Adventures was based in South Carolina, but its owner at the time, Steven Doniger, was originally from Valparaiso.

It started off with an agreement that cost the city nothing, where, in fact, the company shared a small percentage of its gross revenue with the city.

South Bend Tribune reporter Joseph Dits can be reached at 574-235-6158 or [email protected].