RIVER FOREST – You can’t call it a one-horse town because there are no horses. No stoplights, either.

No church. No bar.

But River Forest is definitely a town – a town that according to the 2010 census has the smallest population in Indiana, a state known for small towns.

River Forest is a neighborhood on the edge of Anderson, a city of more than 50,000. But the enclave of 10 houses on River Forest Street was home to 22 people on April 1, 2010, and as it was incorporated in 1953, it is an official city, complete with city taxes.

Today, it’s experiencing an unofficial population boom. When Stephanie Fruchey and her son moved in with Fruchey’s mother, the population ballooned by nearly 10 percent. But that was after the census, so legally, at least, Fruchey and her son don’t count.

It seems that with a population this small, everything about River Forest is either small or huge, depending on how you look at it. For example, there are only four streetlights, but you could also say that every square inch of the city streets is illuminated by their glow. Same with the two fire hydrants – every single home in town is close to one.

The city government could be considered massive, requiring the participation of nearly 20 percent of the population – three town council members and a clerk-treasurer.

River Forest has held the distinction of being the smallest town in Indiana most of its existence, giving up the top spot only to Spring Hill – an enclave in Indianapolis – in the censuses of 1970 and 1980 when River Forest’s population exploded to 27 and 29, respectively.

Then in the 2000 census, New Amsterdam on the Ohio River was listed as having a population of 1, but that appears to have been a mistake. With the release of the 2010 census a few weeks ago, River Forest was back on top – or the bottom.

“We’re the bottom of the totem pole,” said Frank Phelps, president of the town council.

Phelps said River Forest was developed by a doctor in 1952 who subdivided land along the White River into nine residential lots, then later carved off a piece of his own lot to create a 10th for his mother-in-law. Then in 1953, Phelps said, the doctor and his doctor friends who had moved into the neighborhood incorporated in an effort to make sure nearby Edgewood did not annex them.

Anderson in those days was much farther away. Now, Edgewood is still small, and River Forest is surrounded by Anderson.

Phelps is no stranger to extremely small towns – he moved to River Forest from Woodlawn Heights, another incorporated neighborhood within Anderson, population 79.

Woodlawn Heights is next to another incorporated neighborhood within Anderson, Country Club Heights, which also boasts a population of 79.

Resident Dave Ainsworth said River Forest’s incorporation was not so much to prevent annexation – and the resultant taxes – as it was about self-determination.

“It was so neighbors didn’t tell each other how to live,” Ainsworth said. “So there were no ordinances or anything. That’s the way it was founded, but that’s not the way it is now.”

Others like the way it is now – and the ability to ensure the neighborhood stays nice. No boats or trailers parked in driveways, for example. No commercial vehicles, either.

“We used to live in Edgewood,” resident John McLain said. “They lost all their rules and regulations. They don’t enforce them.”

And when the town’s official rules aren’t enough, well, small towns have a way of being persuasive.

“Oh, yes,” McLain said laughing. “The pressure is fantastic.”

Is it really a town?

So what makes a town a town, anyway?

“I’m sure if you interviewed people on the street about what they think a town is, they wouldn’t describe anything like what River Forest is,” said Stephen Jackson, Madison County historian. “But it is what it is.”

And what it is is 10 houses along River Forest Street. Nothing more. No businesses, no nothing. The fire and police protection are hired out to other towns. The fire hydrants get their water from Anderson. The town of River Forest owns the street, the hydrants and the street lights. Nothing else.

There is no City Hall or highway garage.

“We don’t even really have official elections,” Phelps said. “But we do vote on the town council, and we have 100 percent participation.”

So is it a town? Really?

Journalist Joel Kotkin, author of “The City: A Global History,” said a town – or any place – is whatever people say it is.

“It would seem to me a town is defined by people’s identities,” Kotkin said. “If they think it’s a town or a neighborhood, then it is one. In many places, there are multiple identities.

“For example, one could say I live in the neighborhood of Valley Village, in the San Fernando Valley, in the city and county of Los Angeles and in Southern California. These are real identities.”

And River Forest has an identity. The annual town meeting is more like a picnic. There are neighborhood get-togethers and cookouts. At Christmas, the entire city puts out luminarias.

But small towns can also magnify hurt feelings. Losing a race for elected office in a city of 250,000 strangers may not be fun, but imagine losing in a city of 21 friends and neighbors. Four times.

Can it survive?

While River Forest may go back only 60 years, it sits on the edge of history. Not far from there is the spot where the first recorded white settlers in what would become Indiana first put down roots.

They were missionaries from Pennsylvania trying to convert the Delaware tribe to Christianity, but their native religions and whiskey from traders in Fort Wayne had a stronger hold, Jackson said, and the five-year effort ended in 1806.

But can a town the size of River Forest survive history? Or will it go the way of that mission outpost?

Ainsworth, who in the past has been clerk-treasurer, is not sure it’s even worth it to continue.

“Governance is a pain in the butt,” he said. “There are many things I found out as clerk-treasurer that you have to do as a town – forms, budgets, requirements for publishing budgets. I don’t know. I don’t think my taxes are significantly lower than surrounding areas.”

They are, but residents might not notice at the bottom line because city taxes make up such a relatively small part of the total property tax bill.

But those little parts add up, and the city of Anderson’s property tax rate in 2010 was almost six times that of River Forest. The town’s entire property tax take last year, according to the Madison County Auditor’s Office, was $3,697.52.

Still, as long as the residents want River Forest to exist, Jackson said, it probably will.

“Unless there’s a political change, there’s no reason it wouldn’t continue,” he said.

And residents seem to like the idea of being their own town.

“They still have the annual town meeting and the whole nine yards,” newest citizen Fruchey said. “Anyone I’ve met so far seems really nice.”

Still, there are drawbacks. River Forest shows up in some GPS systems, Phelps said, but not in others. And no one outside the area has ever heard of River Forest.

So when Phelps – town council president, mind you – is traveling, where does he say he’s from?

“I say I’m from Anderson,” he said.

dstockman@jg.net