 After a large deposit of natural gas was found in 1887, Fairmount became part of the Indiana Gas Boom and a center of the glass industry for the rest of the 19th century.Shortly after the depletion of the gas in 1900 the automobile industry set up factories in the nearby large cities, and Fairmount became a bedroom community, restoring some of its lost prosperity.In the 1940s, James Dean lived with an aunt and uncle, Ortense and Marcus Winslow, on a farm north of Fairmount.