Could anywhere be as “Middle America” as the middle region of the middle state in the Midwest? But scratch just beneath the surface of central Indiana’s otherwise practical, middle-class skin, and you’ll find these Hoosiers have cantankerous interiors, if for no other reason than to give the middle finger to their middle-of-the-road image.
Judge for yourself. Terre Haute is the only place in the universe where you can buy square donuts. When a tree began growing on the roof of the 10-story courthouse in Greensburg, citizens didn’t chop it down—they pruned it. And then there’s Nancy Barnett. Dead for almost two centuries, she is literally in the middle of the road—her grave can be found in the center of Camp Hill Road near Amity, and she ain’t moving, dagnabbit!
Don’t misunderstand—it’s not like central Indiana folk are weirdoes … at least not all of them. Heck, when the US Air Force needed civilian volunteers to sit in an isolated watchtower to watch for incoming Soviet aircraft, almost a hundred Lafayette-area residents said, “Sign me up!” They know when it’s time to get serious. Still, you never know when you’ll bump into a giant sneaker, a green-eyed concrete dog, or the World’s Largest Ball of Paint.
George Fruits’s death in 1876 marked the end of a generation of soldiers. Fruits—some say his name was spelled Fruts—was the last surviving veteran of the American Revolutionary War. He served with the Pennsylvania militia and passed on at the ripe old age of 114.
You do the math—he was only 14 when the war broke out. Still a teenager when the conflict ended, he had a lot of life left in him. He eventually married Catherine Stonebraker, who was many years younger than George. The couple moved west in 1820 and were two of the region’s first settlers. When Fruits died, Catherine finally, finally, was able to start drawing a widow’s pension.
Stonebraker Cemetery, County Road 400 S, Alamo, IN 47916
No phone
Hours: Daylight hours
Cost: Free
Directions: Half a mile west of County Road 600 W, east of town.
Let’s hear it for dedication, a quality all too lacking in today’s world of instant gratification. Few people have the fortitude to stick with a project beyond a weekend, but not Michael Carmichael. In 1976 he got the brilliant idea to create a paint ball, and not just any paint ball but the World’s Largest Paint Ball! The project was launched on New Year’s Day 1977. He had his three-year-old son Michael paint one thin layer of latex on the outside of an old baseball, the first coat. From that day on, virtually every day, the ball gets another layer of paint, though often two or more.
In the early years it was mostly Michael and his wife, Glenda, who did the work. But as the ball grew, so did its reputation. People started showing up from other Indiana towns, then other states and countries, hoping to put their own coat on the ball. Carmichael eventually built a separate building for his growing creation and got Sherwin-Williams to sponsor it. The bumpy, egg-shaped blob currently measures more than 14 feet around and weighs 2½ tons. It is suspended from a ceiling beam to make it easy for you to add a new layer with a roller Carmichael provides. And you’ll want to, because when you’re finished he’ll give you an official certificate honoring your contribution. How cool is that?
Ready to tackle Layer Number 25,120.
10696 N. 200 W, Alexandria, IN 46001
Phone: (765) 724-4088
Hours: Call ahead for appointment
Cost: Free
Website: http://ballofpaint.freehosting.net
Directions: Head west out of town on Washington St. (W. 1100 N), then south on N. 200 W.
In 1831, long before the first automobile was invented in Kokomo (see page 92), Nancy Kerlin Barnett was buried in a small cemetery along the banks of Sugar Creek. She rested in peace for about 70 years before the modern world began knocking on her door. County officials were planning a road and determined that the best route followed a trail that cut through the center of Barnett’s cemetery.
This obstacle didn’t bother the engineers; they just moved the bodies to another location. But it did bother Barnett’s grandson, Daniel Doty. Though he was born 15 years after Barnett died, he felt an obligation to protect her grave—by force, if necessary. So while the exhumations continued, he sat atop her mound with a gun across his lap. Doty was still there when the road crew laid a gravel bed on both sides of her plot. And when the road was finished, he had one more job left to do: in 1912 he saw to it that a concrete slab was placed atop her grave to protect her bones from those who might not notice the rather significant speed bump in the center median. You’ll still find Barnett there today.
Nobody messes with Nancy Barnett!
Hill’s Camp Road, Amity, IN 46131
No phone
Hours: Always visible
Cost: Free
Directions: Head south from Amity on Rte. 31, turn east on County Rd. 400S (Hill’s Camp Rd.) and follow it just past Sugar Creek.
Nancy Barnett’s grave is certainly weird, but it didn’t start out that way. Blame it on the county commissioners. There are, however, a number of Hoosiers who chose to be buried in strange style.
Cadillac to Heaven
Riverview Cemetery, 3635 E. Laughery Creek Rd., Aurora, (812) 926-1496, http://aurora.in.us/river-view-cemetery.html
Aurora Schuck loved her 1976 Cadillac Eldorado convertible, but her husband Ray loved Aurora even more. When Aurora’s fight with cancer was coming to an end, she made one final request: she wanted to be buried in the Eldorado. Ray said OK, bought 14 plots in the local cemetery, and had a 27-by-12-foot concrete vault constructed. Aurora died November 7, 1989, and true to his word, Ray gave the car a nice wax, had it lowered into the vault by crane, and laid Aurora’s casket across the trunk and rear seats. When Ray died in 2002, he was cremated and a hole was drilled into the vault, where his ashes were interred beside the wife he would do anything for. (There’s not much to see at the cemetery today, just a headstone and a very large plot.)
Dead on His Feet
Burton Gap Cemetery, Burton Cemetery Rd., Mitchell, No phone
John Plesent Burton was a stand-up guy—still is, as a matter of fact. He was born in Virginia in 1758 and was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. In honor of his service he was given a parcel of land out west, “west” being the frontier of Indiana, and the Burton family moved to Lawrence County in 1826. Ten years later, on his deathbed, Burton made a request that he be buried standing up. This required that the grave be 11 feet deep to keep his head from sticking out. His sons dutifully followed his wishes, even though their father did not explain why. When his wife, Susannah, passed away in 1845, she was buried lying down. Today the Burton family celebrates their odd ancestor each year on the first Sunday of the first full weekend in August with a gathering at the Burton Gap Cemetery. But you can visit whenever you like.
Dueling Chiefs
Route 47 just west of I-65, Thorntown
In 1828 two Miami chiefs, Chief Dixon and Chief Chapodosia, did not agree on the Thorntown Treaty, in which the tribe surrendered their small reservation on Sugartree Creek to the incoming settlers. Dixon and Chapodosia argued about it until their respective deaths, and when that wasn’t sufficient, they were planted in a Miami burial ground in full ceremonial dress, sitting upright, defiantly facing one another into the hereafter. That’s where these stubborn guys still sit today, though the exact site is known only to the Miami.
Old-Time Hearse
Dove-Sharp & Rudicel Funeral Home, 420 S. State St., North Vernon, (812) 346-3977, www.dovesharprudicel.com
Maybe strange burial plots are not your style, but strange funerals are. You should consider the services of the Dove-Sharp & Rudicel Funeral Home in North Vernon. Parked out front in a covered pagoda is a spooky, horse-drawn hearse from 1914. If you’re a customer, they’ll pull it out and cart you to your final rest in style, as long as you’re buried within walking distance.
William Henry Harrison got a lot of political mileage from a battle that took place just north of Lafayette on November 7, 1811. But his military victory at the Battle of Tippecanoe was made possible, in part, by the idiotic advice given to his foe, Tecumseh, by his one-eyed brother Tenskwatawa, better known as the Prophet. Just before his fateful conflict with Harrison’s invading militia, the Prophet (a medicine man) claimed to have had visions of the invading army’s musket balls passing right through his followers’ bodies without harming them.
He was half right. Clad in little more than the Prophet’s assurances, the warriors made a preemptive strike against Harrison’s encampment of 1,000 men, killing 37 and fatally wounding 24 more. But they suffered far greater casualties than they inflicted. Fleeing the battle, the Native American survivors wanted to kill the Prophet but settled for a curse Tecumseh was said to inflict on the US government that had provoked this conflict: he claimed that every president elected in a year ending in 0 would perish in office. (Before this, no American president had died while serving.)
James Monroe was elected in 1820 and lived out his term. So much for the curse. But in 1840, William Henry Harrison, campaigning under the to-hell-with-the-Indian-curse slogan “Tippecanoe and Tyler, too!”, was elevated to the nation’s highest office … and dropped dead 31 days later. Elected in 1848, Zachary Taylor, who also fought at the Battle of Tippecanoe, died in office in 1850. Abraham Lincoln, first elected in 1860, was assassinated in his second term. And then James A. Garfield (victor in 1880) was gunned down, followed by William McKinley, whose second term began in 1900. Warren Harding, the 1920 winner, died in office three years later, possibly at the hands of his wife. FDR was reelected for a third term in 1940 and perished after his fourth term. John Kennedy in 1960? Everyone knows what happened to him, or thinks they do. Ronald Reagan outlived the curse but not without getting a bullet in the chest. But finally, George W. Bush served two full terms and broke the presidential curse, along with just about everything else.
After visiting this historic site, if you have trouble visualizing the battle of two centuries ago, visit the stunning mural of the conflict at the Tippecanoe County Courthouse (301 Main St., (765) 423-9326, www.tippecanoe.in.gov) in nearby Lafayette. The 48-foot-long painting was relocated from the Fowler Hotel when it was torn down.
200 Battleground Ave., Battle Ground, IN 47920
Phone: (765) 476-8411
Hours: March–November, daily 10 AM–5 PM; December–February, Thursday–Tuesday noon–5 PM
Cost: Battlefield, Free; Museum, Adults $5, Seniors (60+) $4, Kids (4–12) $2
Website: www.tcha.mus.in.us/battlefield.htm
Directions: At the southwest end of town on Ninth Rd.
Ignoring lessons learned from the Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood, some Hoosiers have established a wolf sanctuary in the American heartland. The folks at Wolf Park believe the lovable lupines have gotten a bad rap and, given the informative presentations at this nature center, they might be right.
The wolves here are not allowed to hang around and wait for a sirloin handout, but must work for their food. Friday and Saturday evenings are Howl Nights when the wolves sing for their supper. And on Sunday afternoons, the pack is encouraged to develop their tracking and hunting skills on a herd of penned bison. You’re invited to all the demonstrations, and all the proceeds go to preserve this endangered species.
4004 E. County Road 800N, Battle Ground, IN 47920
Phone: (765) 567-2265
Hours: May–November, daily 1–5 PM; Wolf Howl Nights, May–November, Friday–Saturday 7:15 PM, December–April, Saturday 7:15 PM
Cost: Adults (14+) $8, Kids (6–13) $6; Howl Nights, Adults (14+) $8, Kids (6–13) $6
Website: www.wolfpark.org
Directions: Head north out of Battle Ground on Harrison Rd., then turn right on 800N.
Are wolves not your thing? Well, there are three other animal rescue operations in Indiana that you might enjoy visiting instead.
Exotic Feline Rescue Center
2221 E. Ashboro Rd., Center Point, (812) 835-1130, www.exoticfelinerescuecenter.org
Joe Taft founded the Exotic Feline Rescue Center in 1991 to take in abused and abandoned large cats. Most are former circus and private zoo animals, or pets that got too big for their owners. Unable to be released back into the wild, they live out their days on this 108-acre facility in southeast Indiana. Currently the center has more than 230 large cats, and your $10 admission fee goes to feed these hungry beasts. If you’d like to fall asleep to the roar of lions, the center has a B&B for $200 per night.
Wild Winds Buffalo Preserve
6975 N. Ray Rd., Fremont, (260) 495-0137, www.facebook.com/wildwindsbuffalopreserve.net
Looking for animals once indigenous to the state? Try the Wild Winds Buffalo Preserve, the third-largest private herd in North America—about 200 altogether. The working ranch offers $10 tours for day visitors and overnight accommodations—in a teepee, if you prefer. They would have 201 buffalo, but as you’ll see if you spend the night, buffalo sausage is on the breakfast menu.
Red Wolf Sanctuary
3027 SR 262, PO Box 202, Rising Sun, (812) 438-2306, www.redwolf.org
The Red Wolf Sanctuary was founded by Paul Strasser in 1979 with a single red wolf, but today it includes bears, bobcats, coyotes, raptors, buffalo, and more. Most of the animals found on this 450-acre preserve were being raised illegally as pets and were confiscated by authorities. Others have been brought here because they were injured; some can be rehabilitated and returned to the wild. Strasser offers tours of his operation, but by appointment only.
In the 1830s, Swiss immigrants began settling in east central Indiana (after a brief stopover in Ohio) and in 1852 established a town named for their native capital, Bern, but with an extra e. As the epicenter of all things Swiss, it’s only logical that you would find the state’s only re-creation of a Swiss village here.
The place has much of what you’d expect—a cheese house, a one-room schoolhouse, a cow barn, wandering yodelers—but one thing you wouldn’t expect: the World’s Largest Cider Press. Built by Swiss immigrant William Hauenstein in 1864, its press beam is 30 feet long and weighs 2 tons. It can squish 30 bushels of apples into 100 gallons of cider in a single pressing. Which is good—after lifting a 2-ton beam, you’ll be thirsty.
Swiss Heritage Village, 1200 Swissway Rd., Berne, IN 46711
Phone: (260) 589-8007
Hours: May, Saturday 10 AM–4 PM; June–October, Monday–Saturday 10 AM–4 PM
Cost: Adults $6, Seniors (55+) $5, Kids (6–12) $4
Website: www.swissheritage.org
Directions: East of Rte. 27, north of Parr Rd., on the north side of town.
If Swiss Heritage Village leaves you wanting more, Berne’s got it. In 2010 the town christened a 160-foot-tall Zytglogge, a $3.5 million replica of the famous clock tower in Bern, Switzerland. Each hour a robotic Bernard the Bell Ringer comes out and bangs his clanger to let you know another hour has passed, and at 3, 6, and 9 pm, 12 Glockenspiel characters emerge to recreate scenes from the founding of Berne. The best time to visit is during Swiss Days (www.bernein.com/swiss-days), held here each July.
Muensterberg Plaza, N. Church Ave., Berne, IN 46711
Phone: (260) 589-5139
Hours: Always visible
Cost: Free
Website: www.berneclocktower.org
Directions: At the corner of Main St. (Rte. 218) and Church St. (Rte. 27).
If you want to get high, you’re better off in Colorado than Indiana. No, I’m not talking about marijuana—I’m talking about elevation. Sheesh! Still, there is a spot in this state where you can get higher than anywhere else: Hoosier Hill. This wooded bump encircled by cornfields is barely 20 feet above the surrounding land, but it’s 1,257 feet above sea level, Indiana’s Everest. Not that you can tell; you’ll just have to take the surveyors’ word.
Hoosier Hill is accessed from a turnout on a rural road, and the “hike” is about 40 feet up into the trees. There you’ll find a mailbox with a visitor’s log in a ziplock bag. Be sure to chronicle your accomplishment. Then sit down and have a beer, or something else, because out here, all alone in the middle of nowhere, it’s easy to get really, really high.
As high as you can get in Indiana.
Hoosier Hill, 11404 Elliot Rd., Bethel, IN 47341
No phone
Hours: Daylight
Cost: Free
Website: www.peakbagger.com
Directions: Head north out of town on Rte. 227 to Bethel Rd./County Line Rd., turn west and go one mile to Elliot Rd., turn north for ¼ mile to the turnout, park and walk 40 feet into the woods and look for the mailbox.
The Russians were coming! The Russians were coming! … or so the folks of Cairo were encouraged to believe. Back in the early 1950s, before the military was able to install a national radar system, the US Air Force came up with a low-tech solution called Operation Skywatch. Patriotic citizens were asked to volunteer to sit in watchtowers all across the nation and keep their eyes and ears peeled for enemy aircraft or missiles. They were known as the Civilian Ground Observation Corps.
The Cairo Tower, also known as Delta Lima 3-Green (DL3-G), was commissioned on August 16, 1952, the first Operation Skywatch tower in the nation. Built in the backyard of local grocer Larry O’Connor, it was staffed by a group of 90 volunteers on rotating two-hour shifts.
Today, the tower (a reproduction) stands empty, its stairs collapsing, while a vigilant limestone statue of a Leave It to Beaver family gazes skyward. A plaque reads, THEY ALSO SERVE WHO STAND AND WATCH. So true.
Let’s see the Ruskies get past THIS!
County Road 850N, Cairo, IN 47923
No phone
Hours: Always visible
Cost: Free
Directions: Just east of County Road 100W on County Road 850N in the center of town, just south of the I-65 overpass.
Two stories tall and very fat, the World’s Largest Candle anchors a store that sells—you guessed it—candles! The colossal candle was built in 2006, along with the rest of the store, because it is part of the store. Sorry to reveal its shortcomings, but it’s not a candle deep down, just a candle-shaped room filled with more candles. The flame on top is not real, either, but it does light up and flickers at night. From the interstate it looks almost real.
Warm Glow Candle Outlet, 2131 N. Centerville Rd., Centerville, IN 47330
Phone: (765) 855-2000
Hours: After dark; Store, daily 9 AM–7 PM
Cost: Free
Website: www.warmglow.com
Directions: Exit southbound from I-10 at Centerville Rd.; store is southeast of the intersection.
Burn, baby, burn!
Long before there were Psychic Hotlines, spiritualists were the folks people turned to for answers to otherworldly questions. And what is spiritualism? According to this place’s literature, it is “the Science, Philosophy, and Religion of continuous life, based on the fact of communication, by means of mediumship, with those who live in the spirit world.” Translation? You can talk to the dead, and they’ll be glad to help.
This Spiritualist Camp was founded by Dr. J. Westerfield in 1890. During the years following the Civil War, spiritualism was very popular with Americans who wanted to contact loved ones lost in battle. The practice of contacting the dead suffered a tremendous setback when the Fox sisters, who singlehandedly started the religion, confessed that they were not receiving “raps” from beyond the grave but were popping bones in their feet in answer to questions.
That hasn’t stopped the true believers. Spiritualism survives to this day in a few places around the country, like Chesterton. Built as a commune for mediums, with small huts surrounding a central park, you can pick up a listing of those accepting clients at the main office. On a nice day, the mediums sit out on their porches, waiting for business, with their prices clearly posted. To avoid a price war, all have agreed to standard fees: $50 for a Private Clairvoyance or Healing, $40 for a Private Trumpet or Trance Séance, etc. You can save money by arranging for a larger group séance, but you’ll have to share your communication time with your aunt Clara.
The grounds of the Spiritualist Camp are filled with statues, totem poles, a cave, a labyrinth, and creepy, moss-covered benches. If you call ahead, you can have them unlock the Hett Art Gallery and Museum. It’s filled with paintings rendered while channeling spirits through an artists’ brushstrokes.
Camp Chesterfield, 50 Lincoln Dr., PO Box 132, Chesterfield, IN 46017
Phone: (765) 378-0235
Hours: Wednesday–Saturday 10 AM–4 PM, Sunday 10 AM–2 PM; Museum, first Saturday each month (Psychic Fair Saturday) 10 AM–2 PM, or by appointment
Cost: Free; Séances, $40–45/person
Website: www.campchesterfield.net
Directions: Off Rte. 32 in the center of town, two blocks north of the Rte. 232 intersection.
Some in the community of Cloverdale might call the Kennedy family a bunch of ding-dongs. The Kennedys would probably reply, “Thank you very much!” Because while most folks are satisfied with a lawn gnome or two, the Kennedys have filled their rural yard with bells, bells, and more bells—about 230 in all. They call it the Texas Mouse Trap, and it includes some nonringing items, such as windmills, anchor chains, giant axes, and large bear traps. You’d think noise would be a problem for the neighbors, but the Kennedys live way out in the country and can clang away to their hearts’ desires. Stop by for a concert on a windy day.
4291 County Road 900E, Cloverdale, IN 46120
Private phone
Hours: Always visible
Cost: Free
Directions: West of town five miles on Rte. 42, turn left on County Rd. 900E when Rte. 42 makes a sharp turn north at the county line.
If global warming gets as bad as predicted, there might be a lot of people flocking to the Rainbow Christian Camp north of Converse, less for spiritual salvation than for what they’ve got moored outside their main building: an ark. Unfortunately, it’s not big enough to hold every last human, and certainly not two of every creature on earth, so latecomers will be out of luck. The ark is a quarter-scale version of the structure supposedly discovered by Roger Wyatt on Mt. Ararat in Turkey.
This could come in handy in 2050.
The Converse ark is today used as a classroom for kids and, truth be told, is no more seaworthy than the Wyatt ship. If the oceans rise this high, you’re probably better off praying anyway.
Rainbow Christian Camp, 3522 N. 1000 W27, Converse, IN 46919
Phone: (765) 395-3638
Hours: Daylight
Cost: Free
Website: http://thearkcm.org
Directions: At the east end of town, head north on Rte. 1000 W27.
When you think of Ben-Hur, you probably think of Rome. Or chariot races. Or Charlton Heston’s overacting. But do you ever think of Crawfordsville, Indiana? You should, for it was here that most of the book was written under a beech tree near the Hoosier home of Major General Lewis “Lew” Wallace.
Wallace was a soldier, an artist, a violinist, an inventor, and a territorial governor of New Mexico, but he is remembered best for writing Ben-Hur, first published in 1880. The book was a hit even before it landed on the silver screen. Wallace’s Crawfordsville study is surrounded by a frieze depicting the exploits of his heroic character, and displays two costumes from Hollywood’s interpretations of his tale. Outside, a statue of Wallace stands on the museum grounds.
Wallace was born in downstate Brookville on April 10, 1827. When he died in Crawfordsville in 1906, he was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery.
General Lew Wallace Study & Museum, 200 Wallace Ave., Crawfordsville, IN 47933 Phone: (765) 362-5769
Hours: February–December, Tuesday–Saturday 10 AM–5 PM
Cost: Adults $5, Students (7–18) $1
Website: www.ben-hur.com
Directions: One block south of Main St. on Elston Ave., at Wallace Ave.
Oak Hill Cemetery, 598 Oak Hill Rd., Crawfordsville, IN 47933
Phone: (765) 362-6602
Hours: Daily 9 AM–5 PM
Cost: Free
Directions: Head north on Rte. 231 from downtown, once over the bridge turn left (west) on Oak Hill Rd.
Around and around the criminals go, and where they stop determines if they go. Welcome to the Montgomery County Jail, home of the world’s first rotating circular jail.
Construction on the unique building was started in 1881 and completed a year later. It was the brainchild of William H. Brown and Benjamin F. Haugh as a means of reducing the number of law enforcement officials needed to guard a jailful of ne’er-do-wells. The concept was simple: build a two-story set of 16 cells, each shaped like a wedge, that could be turned by an external crank. This oversized coffee can rotated within another set of bars, this one with a single exit. Spin an interior cell’s door to match up with the external door, and the inmate could move in or out. All the rest would have to wait.
This design had obvious drawbacks, particularly in a fire, but it didn’t concern the county too much; they used it from 1882 until 1939. But then the 27-ton drum was welded to keep it from rotating, and multiple doors were cut into the outer cage. This stationary jail was used until 1973. Two years later the empty structure was put on the National Register of Historic Places and eventually restored.
225 N. Washington St., Crawfordsville, IN 47933
Phone: (765) 362-5222
Hours: March–May & September–November, Wednesday–Saturday 10 AM–3 PM; June–August, Wednesday–Saturday 10 AM–3 PM
Cost: Adults $5, Kids (6–17) $1
Website: www.rotaryjailmuseum.org
Directions: On Rte. 231 (Washington St.) just north of Rte. 136 (Market St.).
Everyone’s got to start somewhere, and for the Reverend Jim Jones, that somewhere was the dinky town of Crete near the Indiana-Ohio border. He was born here on May 13, 1931, to Jim and Lynetta Jones, both of whom would launch young Jim on the road to kookdom. Lynetta believed she was the reincarnation of Mark Twain and told family and friends that her departed mother had come to her in a dream to proclaim she would give birth to the World’s Savior. Talk about pressure!
Jones’s father worked for the railroad, if “worked” meant “collected a paycheck.” For the better part of his life he was plagued by alcoholism and depression, and not without reason; he returned home from World War I with his lungs nearly destroyed by mustard gas. Jones spent his free hours at the local watering holes, wheezing out war stories with the local drunks. He was also a member of the local KKK.
Jones Birthplace, 8400 S. Arba Pike, Crete, IN 47355
Private phone
Hours: Private property; view from street
Cost: Free
Directions: The first house on the right, heading south from Rte. 36 along Arba Pike.
Everyone’s got to start somewhere.
The Jones family moved after the railroad rerouted through Lynn in 1934. There, the family moved into a small house along the tracks on the south side of town. Little Jim became known as Lynn’s version of St. Francis, always followed by a menagerie of stray dogs, cats, and other critters. At first he was content to let them roam free, but later he built cages for his animals in the family barn.
Residents recall how Jim liked to run around naked, or at least pantless, until it was time to enter school. He could also be coaxed to deliver profanity-filled diatribes for a five-cent honorarium. The local ne’er-dowells always had a spare nickel for the weird kid who cursed on command.
Early on, Jones attended religious services with his family at the too-tame Church of the Nazarene (232 Eastern Ave., (781) 593-5742, http://lynnchurch.com). But soon he began attending a holy-roller congregation on the west side of Lynn, the Gospel Tabernacle, where they spoke in tongues and actually stood up in the pews. The minister later capitalized on Jim’s swearing talent, turning his foul-mouthed rants-for-pay into fire-and-brimstone sermons from the new child preacher.
Outside church, Jim would baptize his friends in a nearby creek and preside over funerals for rats and other dead animals. Jim set up an altar in the family’s barn and would preach to his playmates, attracting his congregation with lemonade and punch (hmmmm … ) during the hot summer months. And while it didn’t seem too odd at the time, he once locked his friends in the loft when they threatened to leave his group.
Jones also had a passion for science and converted the barn into a laboratory between services. Jones would set up a microscope with insect specimens, or perform experiments, like the time he tried to graft a chicken leg onto a duck with string. Sometimes he would combine science and religion, reviving supposedly ailing rabbits and chickens.
The Jones home, barn, and outhouse are long gone, replaced by a small supermarket. The Gospel Tabernacle, where Jones first preached, is today used as an office for Kabert Industries.
Lynn Grocery & Meat Market (Jones home site), 202 S. Main St., Lynn, IN 47355
No phone
Hours: Home torn down
Cost: Free
Directions: At the corner of Grant and Main St. (Rte. 27), south of Church St.
Kabert Industries (Gospel Tabernacle site), 511 W. Church St., Lynn, IN 47355
Private phone
Hours: Always visible; view from street
Cost: Free
Directions: Five blocks west of Main St. (Rte. 27).
Fans of The Andy Griffith Show know that the TV series was set in a fictional town based on Griffith’s birthplace, Mount Airy, North Carolina. And today, people who have never been to Mayberry still have affection for the place, especially Brad and Christine Born.
The Borns opened the Mayberry Cafe in 1989, which means they’ve been in business 20 years longer than the series, 17 if you count Mayberry RFD, and nobody counts that show. In addition to its Southern small-town decor, the Mayberry Cafe has themed menu items—Aunt Bee’s Fried Chicken, Barney’s Burger, Andy’s Tenderloin, Floyd’s Fish Sandwich, Goober’s Chicken Sandwich, Otis’s Whiskey Burger, Clara’s Cobbler, and, for some reason, a Roast Beef Manhattan Dinner. Most days you’ll find a 1962 Ford Galaxie squad car parked out front and an endless loop of The Andy Griffith Show playing on the overhead TV screens. Come and set a spell … no, wait … that’s The Beverly Hillbillies.
No, you’re not in North Carolina.
78 W. Main St., Danville, IN 46122 Phone: (317) 745-4067
Hours: Sunday–Thursday 11 AM–9:30 PM, Friday–Saturday 11 AM–10 PM
Cost: Meals $8–12
Website: www.mayberrycafe.com
Directions: In the center of town, one block east of Cross St. on Main St.
Few Hoosiers have left as lasting an impression on the outside world as James Dean, and no community in the state has gotten as much mileage out of this long-dead rebel as Fairmount, the town in which he grew up.
Dean was born in nearby Marion (see page 97), but his family moved to California when he was an infant. After his mother died of cancer, his father sent the 9-year-old back to Indiana to live on the farm of Ortense and Marcus Winslow, Jimmy’s aunt and uncle. The family attended the Back Creek Friends Church (7560 S. County Rd. 150 E, (765) 948-5640), and Jimmy was enrolled at West Ward Elementary (torn down), also known as “Old Academy.”
There aren’t too many interesting stories about Dean’s childhood, mostly because his life at the time was typical and uneventful; Jimmy did his chores, obeyed the Winslows, and played a lot with his young cousin Marcus. Dean knocked out four front teeth while goofing around in the Winslows’ barn (which still stands) and learned to play basketball with a wooden basket hoop nailed up by his uncle.
After Dean’s death, the Winslows were initially very open to talking to visitors, at least until they loaned a family photo album to a “reporter” doing a story on their famous nephew. It vanished and has never been returned. The farm is still owned by the family, Dean’s cousin Marcus, to be exact.
7184 County Road 150E, Jonesboro, IN 46938
Private phone
Hours: Always visible; view from road
Cost: Free
Website: www.jamesdean.com
Directions: Drive north past the cemetery on County Rd. 150 E, on the west side of the road, just past County Rd. 700 S.
In high school, James Dean began exhibiting the personal traits that would become his trademark. After Dean gave a rousing monologue for the school’s annual Women’s Christian Temperance Union competition, drama coach Adeline Nall invited him to participate in the school’s plays, a request she did not regret, even when he fired a gun into the set wall to give it a realistic look for a mystery play. His first acting lessons took place in room 21 of the now-crumbling building. He was cast in You Can’t Take It With You, Our Hearts Were Young and Gay, Mooncalf Mungford, The Monkey’s Paw, and Goon With the Wind, as Frankenstein.
Though Dean was a Quaker, and theoretically nonviolent, he was not above getting into scraps. He was suspended for punching schoolmate Dave Fox after he criticized Dean’s reasoning during a debate class.
Dean owned a motorcycle that he rode everywhere, and he spent a lot of time at Marvin Carter’s motorcycle shop (just north of the cemetery on County Road 150E). Once, at the Jonesboro High School baseball park, Dean accepted a dare from two young women to ride his motorcycle nude with friend Clyde Smitson; when the naked pair returned to the park, the women had run off with their clothes, so they had to drive back to Fairmount au natural.
During high school, Jimmy established a close relationship with Methodist Reverend James DeWeerd, who taught him yoga, showed him his travel movies, told him about bullfighting, and encouraged him to sculpt. The minister also taught Dean to drive and took him to the Indy 500, where the teenager got his first look at real speed.
James Dean graduated on May 16, 1949, and two weeks later left for California. His old high school stands empty and is in danger of being torn down. Fairmount boosters have been doing all they can to keep it from a date with a wrecking ball, but in 2013 the roof collapsed. Better see it while you still can.
Old Fairmount High School, Jefferson & Vine Sts., Fairmount, IN 46928
No phone
Hours: Always visible
Cost: Free
Directions: Three blocks east of Main St., two blocks south of Washington St.
Following his fatal car accident on September 30, 1955, Dean’s body was returned to Fairmount for burial. (Some, including Walter Winchell, had suggested that Dean was alive but horribly maimed and was learning to use his artificial limbs before returning to society.) Services were held at the Friends Church (124 W. First St., (765) 948-5099) on October 8. James DeWeerd gave the eulogy, and Elizabeth Taylor sent flowers.
Dean’s grave in Park Cemetery is an ever-changing memorial. Shortly after his burial, a brick monument was erected in the cemetery with a bust of the star, but the statue soon disappeared. At first, fans were suspected, but later evidence revealed that it was sawed off by a local veterans’ group who claimed Dean had avoided the draft by saying he was gay. “I kissed the doctor!” he told Hedda Hopper. Hopper later lobbied to have a granite Oscar posthumously awarded to Dean to be placed on his grave. It never happened.
Dean’s first headstone disappeared for eight years, then reappeared. It was stolen again in 1983, but when it didn’t return, was replaced in 1985. Eventually, the first marker showed up behind a Fort Wayne dumpster in 1987. The second headstone was taken on June 14, 1998, but was found two days later by a sheriff’s deputy after he ran over it on a country road, 60 miles away.
Though chipped and battered, the Dean marker is usually coated in lipstick kisses and surrounded by flowers and items from fans. Packs of Chesterfield cigarettes are a popular offering. But remember, this is a cemetery, so visitors are asked to show some decorum. Leaving mementos is fine; wailing and throwing yourself on the grave is not.
Rebel Not Without a Following.
Park Cemetery, 8008 S. Rte. 150 E, Fairmount, IN 46928
Phone: (765) 948-4040
Hours: Daily 9 AM–6 PM
Cost: Free
Directions: North on Main (Rte. 150) heading out of town, on the left.
Dean fans will find plenty in Fairmount to keep them busy, including two museums. The first is run by the local historical society and includes many items not associated with the town’s favorite son.
The Fairmount Historical Museum has an impressive collection of Dean artifacts, most donated by his family and friends. (The museum is housed in the J. W. Patterson home, built by Nixon Winslow, James Dean’s great-grandfather.) Dean’s first motorcycle was discovered downstate, restored, and is now parked back here, under glass. The museum has his conga drums, a yellow sweater left unclaimed at Del Mar Cleaners after his death, the boots and Lee Rider jeans he wore in Giant, a speeding ticket he got early in the morning on the day he was killed, his grammar school art, and a soil experiment from his days in 4-H.
The museum also sponsors the annual Museum Days Celebration on the last weekend in September. Dean fans from across the nation descend on the small town for a street fair, classic car rally, look-alike contest, free screenings of Dean’s three films, and much more.
203 E. Washington St., PO Box 92, Fairmount, IN 46928
Phone: (765) 948-4555
Hours: April–October, Monday–Friday 10 AM–5 PM, Saturday–Sunday noon–5 PM
Cost: Free (donations welcome)
Website: www.jamesdeanartifacts.com
Directions: Downtown, one block east of Main St. on Washington St. (County Rd. 950 S).
James Dean’s former acting teacher, Adeline Nall used a switchblade to cut the ribbon inaugurating the James Dean Gallery several years back, and this fan museum has been busy ever since. The gallery is filled with Dean-obelia, but most of the souvenirs and trinkets were produced after his death. However, they do have some genuine artifacts on display, including a “life mask” created for makeup artists on his films, a dozen pieces of clothing he wore in his brief movie career (including the wool pants he wore during the Rebel Without a Cause knife fight and an outfit from East of Eden), old posters, high school yearbooks, artworks the actor created, and lots and lots of bad art created by his fans. There seems to be a universal error in the pieces: Dean’s head always looks too large for his body.
The James Dean Gallery also has the best gift shop in town. You name it, his handsome brooding image is plastered on it—mugs, ties, magnets, statuettes, plates, puzzles, bobble heads, Christmas ornaments. Nothing is too tacky for the man who invented cool.
425 N. Main St., Fairmount, IN 46928
Phone: (765) 948-DEAN
Hours: Daily 9 AM–6 PM
Cost: Donation
Website: www.jamesdeangallery.com
Directions: Four blocks south of Rte. 26 on Main St.
Gaze up at the Fairmount water tower and you’ll see not only James Dean but also Garfield the Cat. Why? Cartoonist Jim Davis grew up just outside of town off Route 26 on a 120-acre farm with 25 cats. Today you can take the Garfield Trail tour past 11 jumbo Garfield statues, each with a different theme, located in towns around Grant County: www.showmegrant-county.com/what-to-do/grant-countys-garfield-trail/
It turns out that Fairmount has been the hometown of many celebrities and claims to have 14 times the national average of entries in Who’s Who, per capita. There’s CBS correspondent Phil Jones and Cyrus Pemberton, creator of the ice cream cone. And Bill Dolman, inventor of the hamburger. And Milton Wright, the father of the Wright Brothers. Who knows who the gene pool will produce next?
Remember the scene from Dumbo, when the young elephant and Timothy
Q. Mouse take a bad trip after drinking water spiked with champagne, where they hallucinate about parading pink elephants and wake up in a tree with massive hangovers? They just don’t make kid’s films like that anymore! No, today you have to go to an adult establishment like Elite Beverages to see one of those colorful creatures.
Standing outside this not-exactly-elite liquor store you’ll find a 10-foot-tall, pink fiberglass elephant wearing Elvis Costello glasses and holding a martini glass in its trunk. Though the statue has been has been outside this business for almost a half century, the current father-and-son owners Ray and Adam Cox have been decorating it with different hats for certain holidays—a Pilgrim hat for Thanksgiving, a green top hat for St. Pat’s, and so on. The hats are real, not hallucinations.
Elite Beverages, 308 W. Broadway St., Fortville, IN 46040
Phone: (317) 485-6282
Hours: Always visible; Store, daily 9 AM–11 PM
Cost: Free
Website: www.facebook.com/EliteBeverages
Directions: On Rte. 36 (Broadway Rd.), two blocks southwest of Maple St.
Bottom’s up!
PLENTY O’ PACHYDERMS 
The drunk Fortville elephant might be Indiana’s best-known pachyderm, but it isn’t the only one to be found on the state’s backroads.
Two Elephants
Jim Hipp Nursery, 1013 W. Warrenton Rd., Haubstadt, (812) 867-2892, www.facebook.com/pages/Hipp-Nursery/315356301860631
The Jim Hipp Nursery brags that it is “Home of the Topiary,” which is cool enough, but it’s also got an alcoholic pink elephant with martini glass on its property—the same model as Fortville’s—side-by-side with a smaller gray teetotaler, as well as other oversized statuary: a black panther, a bald eagle, a pair of buffalo, a giraffe, and a few Cyldesdales.
Elephant Parade
Modoc’s Market, 205 S. Miami St., Wabash, (260) 569-1281, www.modocsmarket.com
On November 11, 1942, three elephants from the Great American Circus broke loose before a performance in Wabash. Two—Judy and Empress—wandered off and were recaptured in nearby neighborhoods, but 1,900-pound Modoc headed downtown, where she paused after smelling roasted peanuts at Bradley Brothers Pharmacy. Modoc then burst in, ate the peanuts, and bashed out the back door. She was on the run for five days before being captured in Huntington County. Modoc’s Market stands on the site of the old pharmacy and has a less dangerous parade of elephant statues on the sidewalk out front.
Green Fields Trading Company, 2235 Ripley St., Lake Station, (219) 962-4578, http://greenfieldstrading.com
A trumpeting elephant and stoic rhinoceros guard the entrance to a hippie emporium selling tie-dyed clothing, incense, and beads in Lake Station.
Between 1827 and 1847 (at this location, and before they lived here), Levi and Catharine Coffin helped more than 2,000 slaves escape to freedom in the North, and because of this earned their home its nickname “Grand Central Station of the Underground Railroad.” Not one slave who passed through this station during those 20 years was ever lost to the slave trade. In that respect, they had a better track record than Grand Central Station.
Levi Coffin was unofficially dubbed the president of the movement. The Coffins were the inspiration for Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Simeon and Rachel Halliday in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and the story of one “passenger,” Eliza Harris, became the fictitious Eliza, who escaped across an Ohio River ice floe with her baby in her arms.
The Coffins’ home has been refurbished to its antebellum appearance with period furnishings. On the tour, you will see a hiding place in the attic located behind a headboard and another between the mattresses on the bed, as well as the building’s five different exit doors.
Levi Coffin House State Historic Park, 113 N. Main St., PO Box 77, Fountain City, IN 47341
Phone: (765) 847-2432
Hours: June–August, Tuesday–Saturday 1–4 PM; September–October, Saturday 1–4 PM
Cost: Adults $2, Kids (6–18) $1
Website: www.waynet.org/levicoffin/#house
Directions: Where Main St. (Rte. 27) meets Fountain City Pike.
It was the terror of London, the German V-1 buzz bomb. During German attacks at the onset of World War II, Brits were familiar with the sound of the guided missiles’ engines humming overhead. As long as they could hear the buzz, folks on the ground were safe. But when the noise cut off, the V-1s returned to earth with devastating results.
The V-1 that now sits on the courthouse lawn in Greencastle was decommissioned by the US Army just after the war, purchased by VFW Post 1550, and dedicated to local veterans on Memorial Day 1947—the only one of its kind on public display in the United States. Might those veterans have felt differently had they been British soldiers? Bloody likely!
Skip this site if you’re from London.
Putnam County Courthouse, 1 Court House Square, Greencastle, IN 46135
Phone: (765) 653-3100
Hours: Always visible
Cost: Free
Website: http://cityofgreencastle.com
Directions: On the southwest corner of the courthouse, along Rte. 231, at the corner of Washington and Jackson Sts.
If you think the nation’s recent presidential election was strange, you should hear how things used to be. Two odd, little-known customs can be traced back to the Hoosier State, and there’s a remnant of a third.
Before the donkey became the symbol of the Democratic Party, it had the rooster. It all began when Greenfield Democrat Joseph Chapman was asked to “crow up” support for William Henry Harrison in the 1840 election, and “Crow, Chapman, crow!” became the party’s rallying cry. The rooster remained the Democratic mascot for years until the party adopted the donkey. You can find a monument to Chapman’s first squawk at the entrance to Riley Memorial Park in his old hometown.
Another strange tradition began four years later in 1844 when Democrats erected hickory poles around the United States in honor of their former president Andrew “Old Hickory” Jackson. For many years, during election campaigns, it was common for towns to do the same. Somehow St. Leon got into the act in 1892, 55 years after Jackson was dead and buried, by erecting its first hickory pole in front of St. Joseph’s Church (today St. Joseph’s Rectory). It was hoisted by hand and was topped by an American flag and a fake rooster.
Whether they feel they’re making up for all those lost years, or whether they’re suckers for tradition, St. Leon is the only community in the nation that still raises a hickory pole every four years. So why doesn’t anyone else still do this? Because it’s ridiculous, that’s why.
And finally, one last extinct political symbol sits atop the Monroe County Courthouse in Bloomington: a five-foot-long, fish-shaped weathervane believed to reference the Jeffersonian Republican Party, whose symbol was a fish. That party morphed into the modern Democratic Party, and the fish gave way to the crow and then the donkey.
Riley Memorial Park, E. Main St. & Apple St., Greenfield, IN 46140
Phone: (317) 477-4340
Hours: Dawn–dusk
Cost: Free
Website: www.greenfieldin.org/recreation/facilities/162-rileypark
Directions: Eight blocks east of State St. (Rte. 9) on Main St. (Rte. 40).
St. Joseph’s Rectory, 7536 Church Lane, St. Leon, IN 47012
Phone: (812) 576-3593
Hours: Always visible
Cost: Free
Directions: One block east of Rte. 1, on the west side of the church building.
Monroe County Courthouse, Kirkwood Ave. & Walnut St., Bloomington, IN 47012 Phone: (812) 365-5542
Hours: Always visible
Cost: Free
Website: www.co.monroe.in.us/tsd/Justice.aspx
Directions: North of Seventh St. (Kirkwood Ave.), at College Ave.
This is what happens when you don’t clean your gutters … for 130 years. In 1870 caretakers (to use the term loosely) of the Decatur County Courthouse in Greensburg noticed a small tree had sprouted in a gutter along the highest roofline. They decided to let it grow for curiosity’s sake. Over time, the large-tooth aspen grew big enough to see from 10 stories below. It grew and grew and grew, until it started to rip the roof off the building.
Maintenance crews finally chopped down the 12-foot tree in 1919, but that didn’t put an end to it. A sucker sprouted from the original tree’s roots, and Greensburg’s mascot was back in business. Since then, a series of trees either have been reluctantly removed when they grew too large, or have blown off in windstorms. Remarkably, a new tree always returns.
Today’s tree is the 12th generation, having sprouted in 1958. Greensburg calls itself the “Tree City” and each September throws a Tree City Fall Festival to honor its weird, one-tree arboretum. Rest assured, if the suckers don’t keep coming back in the gutters, the suckers on the ground will plant a new tree.
This is what happens when you don’t clean your gutters.
Courthouse Tower, 150 Courthouse Square, Greensburg, IN 47240
Phone: (877) 883-8733 or (812) 222-8733
Hours: Always visible
Cost: Free
Website: www.visitgreensburg.com
Directions: At the corner of Broadway and Main St. (Rte. 421).
Anyone who’s a fan of late-night creature features knows how it works: nuclear testing irradiates insects that grow to enormous proportions, or the blast opens up an underground colony of superbugs that crawl forth to wreak havoc on the human population. Harmless 1950s sci-fi fantasies, right?
Wrong! Kokomo residents know better. Every day they can see a 22-foot-long preying mantis outside a Subway sandwich franchise near downtown. The gangly green creature was made from scrap material by Scott Pitcher (see Storybook Express to follow) and installed in a walled planter bed at a busy corner, where it stares at passersby with its beady eyes. No, it isn’t alive, nor likely to eat you after mating … unless … has somebody tested the water in Kokomo for toxic waste?
100 N. Washington St., Kokomo, IN 46901
No phone
Hours: Always visible
Cost: Free
Directions: Two blocks north of Wildcat Creek on Rte. 22 (Washington St.), at Sycamore St.
With the runaway popularity of Harry Potter and Game of Thrones, it’s becoming increasingly clear that people today would rather live in an imaginary world than the current real one. If you’re among the fantasy-loving crowd and need a microwave burrito or Slim Jim, and you find yourself in Kokomo, head on over to Storybook Express, a minimart for Hobbit fans.
The weird structure was built in 2012 by Scott Pitcher of Fortune Companies Inc. Crews used recycled brick, stone, and other junk to create this one-of-a-kind convenience store. Walk around the perimeter and you’ll see bowling balls, springs, hubcaps, cast iron medallions, and broken plates fashioned into rocket ships, flowers, a giant electrical outlet, and odd patterns of every shape, color, and texture. Inside, however, you’ll find none of it—just aisles of chips, soda, and jerky. And despite its name, no storybooks.
There’s also a lesser but still cool version of Storybook Express in Kokomo: the building that currently houses Star Nails. It was also built by Pitcher and has the same whimsical walls.
Storybook Express, 316 E. Sycamore St., Kokomo, IN 46901
Phone: (765) 450-5718
Hours: Always visible
Cost: Free
Website: www.facebook.com/pages/Storybook-Express/252323918230199
Directions: Two blocks north of Wildcat Creek, at Apperson St.
Star Nails, 1500 E. Markland Ave., Kokomo, IN 46901
Phone: (765) 453-0743
Hours: Always visible; Store, Monday–Saturday, 9:30 AM–7:30 PM, Sunday noon–5 PM
Cost: Free
Directions: Two blocks west of Rte. 931 (Reed Rd.) on Rte. 22 (Markland Ave.).
Bilbo Baggins’s bodega.
Ask any American who built the world’s first successful commercial automobile and you’re likely to get “Henry Ford” as an answer. But “Elwood Haynes”? Only in Kokomo.
Locals know that Haynes ushered in the age of the automobile when he putted for six miles along Pumpkinvine Pike on July 4, 1894. Town leaders had so little faith in his contraption that they asked him to drive it outside the city’s limits, heading away from town. They thought it would scare horses, explode, or both. The experimental vehicle averaged 7 mph during its inaugural run.
The car had been built by Edgar and Elmer Apperson under Elwood’s direction. The trio formed a company in 1898 called the Haynes-Apperson Automobile Company but split up and formed their own companies in 1902.
Haynes’s accomplishments were not limited to the automobile. In 1906 he invented Stellite, a versatile metal alloy, and in 1912 he created stainless steel. You’ll learn this and many other facts at the Elwood Haynes Museum, located in his former home. (He lived here from 1915 to 1925.) You won’t see his original vehicle, however, because Haynes donated it to the Smithsonian in 1910. But his fourth car can be found at the Kokomo Automotive Museum, along with other classic cars.
Elwood Haynes Museum, 1915 S. Webster St., Kokomo, IN 46902
Phone: (765) 456-7500
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday 11 AM–4 PM, Sunday 1–4 PM
Cost: Donations only
Website: www.cityofkokomo.org/departments/elwood_haynes_museum.php
Directions: On the east side of Highland Park, just north of Kokomo Creek at Stadium Dr.
Haynes Monument, Pumpkinvine Pike (E. Boulevard St.) & S. Goyer Rd. (Rte. 150E), Kokomo, IN 46902
No phone
Hours: Always visible
Cost: Free
Directions: Four blocks west of Rte. 31 on E. Boulevard St.
Kokomo Automotive Museum, 1500 N. Reed Rd., Kokomo, IN 46901 Phone: (765) 450-9248
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday 10 AM–4 PM
Cost: Adults $5
Website: www.kokomoautomotivemuseum.com
Directions: Head east on North St. from Reed Rd. (Rte. 931), then north on the service road.
For most towns it would be honor enough to claim the World’s First Automobile, but not go-go-Kokomo, the “City of Firsts.” No less than 14 earthshaking inventions were introduced in this town:
It is special enough to be able to visit the stuffed remains of the World’s Largest Steer, but to discover that it sits next to the World’s Largest Sycamore Stump? Too good to be true! No, you’re not in Road Trip Heaven, you’re in Kokomo.
Old Ben was a lot of bull … er … steer. He weighed 135 pounds when he was born in January 1902 on the Murphy farm in Miami County. At a year and a half, he was up to 1,800 pounds, and by the time he was four years old, over 4,000. Old Ben became a local celebrity and toured county fairs. Then tragedy struck in February 1910, when the eight-year-old bovine slipped on a patch of ice and broke his leg. At the time he weighed 4,720 pounds, stood 6 feet 4 inches tall, and was 16 feet 2 inches from nose to tail. Old Ben had to be destroyed, but when a butcher suggested selling his meat to the local community, the locals responded with an emphatic “NO!” Instead, Old Ben was shipped off to a meatpacker in Indianapolis for processing. His hide was stuffed and returned to the Murphy farm, and in 1919 it was donated to the city and placed in the windowed shed where you will find him today.
A lot of bull.
The tale of the World’s Largest Sycamore Stump is every bit as dramatic as that of Old Ben. This 100-foot-tall tree grew for 800-something years along the banks of Wildcat Creek on Tilghman Harrell’s farm, two miles north of New London, before being felled by a violent windstorm. The hollowed-out trunk was moved to town in 1916 and used for some time as a phone booth. Today, the stump with the 57-foot circumference is protected from the public in the same shed in Highland Park as Old Ben.
Highland Park Visitors Center, 1402 W. Defenbaugh St., Kokomo, IN 46902
Phone: (765) 456-7275
Hours: Daily 8 AM–10 PM
Cost: Free
Website: www.cityofkokomo.org/departments/old_ben.php
Directions: Five blocks south of Markland Ave., at the north end of the park.
If you drive around Indiana long enough, you’ll think there’s a Pizza King in every town with a stoplight. This Hoosier chain started on the south side of Lafayette at a venue that still stands. And it is perhaps the strangest restaurant in the state.
The carpeted booths seem more like office cubicles than restaurant furniture; their backs are so high you won’t see any other patrons except those directly across the aisle. This is good, because each booth is outfitted with its own coin-operated television. If your date’s a drag, just pop a quarter into the control box in the wall, and you’ll get 15 minutes of video entertainment. Magic Fingers for your brain.
To place an order, pick up the tableside phone—no wait staff here! Your drinks will arrive on a toy train that runs along the booths, protected by a Plexiglas window and decorated with scenes from Lafayette-area attractions. Don’t worry that another customer can spike your drink; only the trap door at the destination booth can be opened when the train is in operation.
And the pizza? Well … the trains and TV make up for a lot …
Jefferson Square, 1400 Teal Rd., Lafayette, IN 47909
Phone: (765) 474-3414
Hours: Sunday–Thursday 11 AM–11 PM, Friday–Saturday 11 AM–1 AM
Cost: Meals $5–12
Website: www.theoriginalpizzaking.com
Directions: East of Ninth St. on Teal Rd., across from the Tippecanoe Fairgrounds.
Dinner is served!
… Made from Single Pieces of Limestone—an important caveat. While you’d think that the world’s tallest single-piece limestone columns would be found on the Lincoln Memorial or the Acropolis, they actually grace the Boone County Courthouse in the Indiana town of Lebanon. The problem is logistics—how do you move a 40-ton pillar hundreds of miles from its original quarry? You can’t. But if you live in Indiana, where limestone quarries are everywhere, it’s doable and was done in 1912.
There are eight columns in all. Each is 36 feet tall and more than 14 feet in circumference. They’re located on the north and south entrances of the building and really are impressive, especially up close. So impressive, apparently, that they attracted William “Captain Kirk” Shatner and his fourth wife, Elizabeth Martin, who were married here on February 13, 2001.
The structure isn’t the only unique feature of this courthouse. Though you can’t see it, a resident cat lives on the roof of the building. It’s up there to drive away the pigeons that tend to poop on great works of architecture. The feline has its own warm house in which to seek shelter during bad weather, so don’t feel too bad for it.
Boone County Courthouse, Courthouse Square, Lebanon, IN 46052
Phone: (765) 482-3510
Hours: Always visible
Cost: Free
Website: www.boonecounty.in.gov
Directions: At the intersection of Lebanon (Rte. 39) and Main Sts., one block north of South St. (Rte. 32).
On February 8, 1931, Winton and Mildred Dean became proud parents of a boy they named James Byron Dean. At the time, they lived in the Green Gables apartments, where they stayed until young Jimmy was three, when his father came up with a harebrained scheme to raise bullfrogs for profit. The trio moved into a house at Washington and Vine Streets in nearby Fairmount, but as you might expect with a home-based frog farm, the orders didn’t come rolling in. Soon, the family left for California so his dad could accept a position at a Los Angeles VA hospital.
As big a star as James Dean is, very little marked his birthplace until recently. Green Gables was torn down long ago, and for years the land was used for a tire store parking lot. A bronze star was embedded in the sidewalk to mark the historic site—dedicated by Martin Sheen, no less—along with a small plaque near a bus stop bench. The land was later made into a small, shrub-encircled park with a 2001-like black obelisk engraved with a picture of Dean as a baby.
Best One Tire & Auto Care, 302 E. Fourth Sts., Marion, IN 46952
Phone: (765) 664-6460
Hours: Always visible
Cost: Free
Website: www.bestoneofmarion.com
Directions: Two blocks east of the courthouse on E. Fourth St. (Rte. 18), on the southwest corner of E. Fourth and S. McClure Sts.
Eva Fuchs, a.k.a. Grannie, is a big-time hoarder … which doesn’t mean she isn’t discerning—just cookie jars and salt and pepper shakers, thank you very much. Over the years she’s collected so many, 2,600+ at last count, the Guinness Book of World Records has named her porcelain obsession the World’s Largest Collection of Cookie Jars.
Fuchs has jars shaped like gingerbread houses, cartoon characters, Santas and snowpeople, oversized fruit, vehicles, clowns, animals (dogs, cats, pigs, and cows are favorites), decorated crocks, and more. They’re all crammed into display cases and shelves, along with the shakers, in Metamora’s historic two-room Canal House building, which also doubles as an ice cream parlor. If you’re a klutz or a kid, you might want to wait outside and have somebody else fetch your waffle cone—one wrong turn or jutting elbow and you’ll be buying a pile of worthless pottery shards.
10107 Columbia St., Metamora, IN 47030
Phone: (765) 647-1708
Hours: May–October, daily 10 AM–6 PM
Cost: Free; Ice cream, $3.50/scoop
Directions: One block south of Rte. 52, on the east end of town.
Watch the opening credits of Parks and Recreation and you’ll notice a large fiberglass Indian in a full headdress and fringed leather belt, arm upstretched to greet (or hold back) incoming settlers. But this guy doesn’t reside in Pawnee, Indiana—nobody does, since the town is imaginary; he lives in Montpelier. He started his public life outside a Pontiac dealership but now honors less commercial pursuits. A sign in front of him claims that he is Chief Francois Godfroy of the Miami nation, who in 1818 signed a treat at St. Mary’s, Ohio, which moved the tribe to a 3,840-acre reservation on the nearby Salamonie River. That land was sold off by 1836, and now he’s the primary reminder the Miami were ever here.
Another statue of a large man, this one a golfer in a red cap and wind-breaker, also appears in the TV show’s opening credits. He guards the now-closed Tin Lizzy restaurant west of town with an empty ice cream cone in his hand. Will he ever get a second scoop?
Main & Huntington Sts., Montpelier, IN 47359
Phone: (765) 728-2246
Hours: Always visible
Cost: Free
Website: www.montpelier-indiana.com
Directions: On Rte. 18 (Huntington St.) downtown.
Tin Lizzy Restaurant, 7126 N. State Rd. 3, Montpelier, IN 47359
No phone
Hours: Always visible
Cost: Free
Directions: Five miles west of town on Rte. 3, at Rte. 18.
Not in Hollywood.
The Montpelier Indian is certainly the best-known fiberglass chief in the state and has the ceremonial headdress to prove it, but there are others along Indiana’s byways.
Camp Tecumseh Indian
12635 W. Tecumseh Bend Rd., Brookston, (765) 564-2898, www.camptecumseh.org
This YMCA camp’s mascot balances atop a pergola overlooking a playing field. He was moved here from a Gary auto dealership in 1973 and today has forsaken capitalistic pursuits for religious ones—a large sign at his feet commands, Go in PEACE, SERVE GOD AND MAN.
Low-Riding Indian
Richard’s of Toto, 3060 S. Range Rd., Toto, (574) 772-5923, www.richardsoftoto.com
The giant brave outside a discount mall in Toto has no head-dress but, instead, one very tiny feather in his headband. For some reason his leather pants hang dangerously low on his hips. He originally appeared at the Enchanted Forest amusement park in Porter, but when that institution went under, he was moved here. Back in 2015, half of his upraised arm was torn off, but it has since been restored.
Cigar Store Indians
www.cigarstoreindianstatue.com
Let’s face it, a 20-foot statue isn’t practical for most businesses or homes. If you want to decorate with an Old West theme, check out the creations of Indianapolis sculptor Chie Kramer. He has carved more than 6,000 cigar store Indians during his career, and you can get a six-foot model for just $600.
When David Letterman attended Ball State during the 1960s, his ironic sensibility had yet to pay off, or at least pay off in a positive way. His first broadcasting gig came as a student DJ on the campus classical station, WBST, a 10-watt station. One evening he introduced Debussy’s Clair de Lune by asking aloud, “You know the de Lune sisters? There was Claire, there was Mabel …” Letterman was promptly canned.
His next “job” was at WAGO, a pirate station run from a men’s dorm, followed by a position at local outlet WERK. He worked harder at his broadcasting career than his broadcasting major and graduated with a C average. But if Letterman was embarrassed about his academic performance, all that went out the window in 1985 when he established the Letterman Scholarship for telecommunications students with C averages. Brainiacs and apple-polishers need not apply! He also rehabbed the Communication Department’s television and radio studios and mounted a plaque that reads, DEDICATED TO ALL THE C STUDENTS BEFORE AND AFTER ME.
Ball Communications Building, McKinley Ave. & Petty Rd., Muncie, IN 47306
Phone: (765) 285-1889
Hours: Daily 9 AM–5 PM
Cost: Free
Website: http://cms.bsu.edu/map/buildings/campus/ball-communication-building
Directions: Two blocks north of Riverside Ave. on McKinley Ave.
For all those who never outgrew their childhood fascination with model airplanes, Muncie’s the place to go, because in 1994 the Academy of Model Aeronautics moved its headquarters to the Hoosier state, and it brought all its cool toys with it. The AMA’s museum is a re-creation of a 1950s hobby store where nothing is actually for sale, but you can stand with your nose pressed against the display cases crammed with classic models and salivate.
The museum is adjacent to an airplane runway—miniature, of course—where on most days from spring to fall you can find RC enthusiasts flying tiny planes, helicopters, and rockets, so long as the weather cooperates.
Academy of Model Aeronautics, 5151 E. Memorial Dr., Muncie, IN 47302
Phone: (800) I-FLY-AMA
Hours: January–March, Tuesday–Saturday 10 AM–4 PM; April–September, daily 10 AM–4 PM
Cost: Adults $4, Kids (8–17) $2
Website: www.modelaircraft.org/museum/museum.aspx
Directions: Exit Rte. 35 at Memorial Dr., then two blocks east.
Steve Alford has an impressive basketball résumé: Indiana’s “Mr. Basketball” in 1983, gold medal winner at the 1984 Olympics, four-year starter at IU under Bobby Knight, second-round draft pick for the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, traded two years later to the Golden State Warriors, then back to Dallas before he retired from play. He went on to be the head coach at Manchester, Southern Missouri State, Iowa, New Mexico, and today UCLA. And though that all sounds soooooo impressive, you might think differently after stopping by the guy’s hotel in his hometown of New Castle. Why? The guy couldn’t help but win—he’s HUGE! Just look at his Volkswagen-sized sneaker—how could any opponent go up against that?
Well, it turns out that the powder blue shoe isn’t his, at least not to wear. It was created in 1991 by artists Gary Abner and Todd Anders to decorate a billboard advertising Reebok shoes. When the campaign was over, it was given to Alford, and the other half of the pair ended up at the nearby Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame (1 Hall of Fame Court, (765) 529-1891, www.hoopshall.com). Alford’s motel also has a basketball hoop in the parking lot, in case you’re looking for a pickup game, as well as a lobby filled with basketball memorabilia.
You know what they say about big shoes. Photo by Jim Frost
Steve Alford All-American Inn, 21 E. Executive Dr., New Castle, IN 47362
Phone: (877) 55-STEVE or (765) 593-1212
Hours: Always visible
Cost: Free; Rooms $60–100
Website: www.stevealfordinn.com
Directions: At the south end of town on Rte. 3 (Memorial Dr.), north of I-70.
Dan Messner thought he had a bum colt. Foaled at Messner’s Oxford farm to sire Joe Patchen and dam Zelica on April 29, 1896, Dan Patch had bowed legs, the curse of a harness racer. Messner tried to trade Dan Patch to a local horse trainer named John Wattles, but Wattles turned him down. Dan Patch raced in county fairs, but his promise was never fully realized.
Messner finally sold the pacer to M. E. Sturgis of New York in 1902, who later that year sold him to Marion Willis Savage of Minneapolis. In greener pastures, Dan Patch went on to set a world record for the mile, 1:55, in 1906. This record time stood for 32 years and is still painted on the roof of the barn where the horse was born in Oxford.
Dan Patch never lost a race and came in second only twice during heats. The secret of his success was discovered only after his death on July 11, 1916: his heart was found to be twice the size of a normal horse’s heart, weighing a whopping 9 pounds 2 ounces. Owner Marion Savage, whose heart was not as strong as Dan Patch’s, died a day after his famous horse.
Rtes. 352 & 55, Oxford, IN 47971
No phone
Hours: Always visible
Cost: Free
Dan Patch website: www.danpatch.com
Directions: Northeast of the intersection of Rtes. 352 and 55.
Pendleton is a mob town—not capital M Mob, as in Mafia, but lowercase mob. No less than two famous mob riots have occurred in Pendleton, and both have been commemorated with roadside markers. And they’re about 50 feet apart.
The first riot—a slaughter, actually—occurred in 1824. On March 22, seven white men attacked two Seneca families along Deer Lick Creek, site of present-day Pendleton. They murdered nine, four of whom were children, and took their pelts and other items. The incident became known as the Fall Creek Massacre. The first perpetrator captured was put on trial and executed on January 12, 1825, making it the first time in Indiana a white settler was put to death for murdering a Native American. Three others were later tried and convicted of murder. On June 3, 1825, two were executed in Pendleton, but the final killer, 15-year-old John Bridge Jr., was pardoned at the last second by Governor James Brown Ray, who rode up to the gallows on horseback. Today a cement marker in the town park records it bluntly: THREE WHITE MEN WERE HUNG HERE IN 1825 FOR KILLING INDIANS.
Another incident occurred on September 16, 1843. Abolitionists Frederick Douglass, George Bradburn, and William White had come to Pendleton on a lecture tour organized by the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. Midway through Bradburn’s speech a mob of 30 locals attacked with stones and brickbats. Douglass was knocked unconscious but was carried to safety by supporters. He returned to speak the next day at the Friends Meetinghouse, without incident. Unlike with the Fall Creek Massacre, nobody was arrested or punished. A historic plaque can be found in the same park today, just up the hill from the hanging marker.
Falls Park, 299 Falls Park Dr., Pendleton, IN 46064
Phone: (765) 788-2222
Hours: Dawn–dusk
Cost: Free
Website: www.fallspark.org
Directions: Both markers are north of the river on the southeast side of Pendleton Ave.; the Hanging Marker is due north of the footbridge, and the Abolitionist Marker is west of Pets & Vets, northeast of the Fall Creek bridge.
They had it coming.
For many years, Coca-Cola was sold in a standard glass bottle. Ho hum. Then, in 1913, the company launched a manufacturers’ competition to devise a unique bottle. A fellow named T. Clyde Edwards, working for Terre Haute’s Root Glass Works, saw a drawing of a bulging, ribbed, cocoa bean pod and modeled what later became known as the distinctive “hobble skirt” or “Mae West” bottle after it. Edwards was assisted by Alexander Samuelson in devising a manufacturing process, and in 1916 Coke launched its new look. Samuelson and Root owned the patent until 1937, when the Coca-Cola Corporation bought them out.
The original hobble skirt was much fatter in the middle than today’s bottle, as you will see at the Vigo County Museum. They have one of the Root Glass Works’s original molds, a bottle formed inside it, and display cases crammed with Cokeabilia.
Thornton Oil Corp (former site of Root Glass Works), 2330 S. Third St., Terre Haute, IN 47802
Phone: (812) 234-3102
Hours: Always visible
Cost: Free
Directions: On the northeast corner of S. Third St. (Rte. 41/150) and Voorhees St.
Vigo County Historical Society Museum, 1411 S. Sixth St., Terre Haute, IN 47802
Phone: (812) 235-9717
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 1–4 PM
Cost: Free
Website: www.vchsmuseum.org/#!coca-cola/c18xx
Directions: At the corner of Washington Ave. and S. Sixth St.
When you think of Larry Bird you probably don’t think “bronze.” In reality, he’s so white he’s almost translucent. But there is one place you can find him in a bronzed condition: outside the Hulman Center on the campus of Indiana State. Byrd played college hoops for the ISU Sycamores from 1976 to 1979, and all his home games were played at this arena.
Erected in 2013, this 15-foot-tall bronze by sculptor Bill Wolfe shows the Hick from French Lick mid–jump shot in his 1970s short shorts and knee-high tube socks. And if you’d like to see a yellow, somewhat uglier version of Byrd, there’s a wooden totem, carved with a chainsaw, outside the Boot City Opry complex (11800 US Hwy. 41, (812) 299-8379, http://bootcityopry.com) south of town.
As bronzed as you’ll ever see him.
Hulman Center, 200 N. Eighth St., Terre Haute, IN 47809
Phone: (812) 237-3737
Hours: Always visible
Cost: Free
Website: www2.indstate.edu/hctaf/events/events.htm
Directions: Two blocks north of Wabash Ave. at Cherry St.
First the Coke bottle, and now this? What will those talented Terre Hauteans come up with next? The concept is brilliant in its simplicity. By making a donut square, you can do one of two things: (1) fit more donuts on the same-sized tray, or (2) fit larger donuts on the same-sized tray. Either way you maximize its donut capacity!
Square donut technology is still in its infancy, for although the outer edges of these delicious dunkers are square, their holes are still round. No doubt somebody is working to crack that challenge in the bakery’s back-room laboratory.
Even if the donuts weren’t square, they’d be worth a stop—not quite Krispy Kremes, but as close as you’ll get around here. The bakery has two locations in Terre Haute: one downtown and one on the north side. It also has seven franchises in four other cities: Indianapolis (6416 W. Washington St. and 1 N. Pennsylvania St.), Carmel (14 S. Rangeline Rd.), Bloomington (1280 N. College Ave. and 3866 W. Third St.), and Richmond (1241 N. West Fifth St. and 3637 E. National Rd.). Still, you’ll want to come to Terre Haute—somehow the donuts just taste squarer there.
925 Wabash Ave., Terre Haute, IN 47807
Phone: (812) 232-6463
Hours: Daily 6 AM–3 PM
Cost: 75¢/donut, $8/dozen
Website: www.squaredonuts.com
Directions: Six blocks east of Third St. (Rte. 41) on Wabash (Rte. 40).
2417 Fort Harrison Rd., Terre Haute, IN 47804
Phone: (812) 466-9660
Hours: Daily 6–11 AM
Cost: 75¢/donut, $8/dozen
Directions: Five blocks east of Lafayette Ave. on Ft. Harrison Rd.
It’s not just the donuts that are square. Photo by Jim Frost
The story has been passed between generations of Terre Hauteans. When he was alive, Stiffy Green followed florist John Heinl everywhere, and when Heinl died in 1920, the distraught loyal bulldog sat outside Heinl’s tomb to guard his dead master. Stiffy wouldn’t eat, and before long he was found dead beside the mausoleum. Somebody got the bright idea to stuff Stiffy and place him inside the tomb to guard the vault for eternity.
Local teens would head out to the cemetery to peer through the bars where, according to legend, Stiffy would stare back with glowing green eyes or wag his tail. Other visitors have claimed to have spotted the ghosts of Stiffy and Heinl, smoking a pipe, strolling through the graveyard at night. Together again.
Too bad it’s all a fabrication. In reality, Stiffy is very stiff—he’s made of concrete. The dog once stood outside the Heinl home in town and was later placed inside the family crypt. After years of vandalism, Stiffy was removed in 1985 and donated to the local historical society where you can find him today, inside a re-created tomb. And Heinl’s tomb in Highland Lawn? Empty … except for the Heinls.
Highland Lawn Cemetery, 4420 Wabash Ave., Terre Haute, IN 47803
Phone: (812) 877-2531
Hours: Daily 9 AM–5 PM
Cost: Free
Website: www.terrehaute.in.gov/departments/cemetery/highland-lawn-cemetery-1
Directions: Head east on Wabash Ave. (Rte. 40) from downtown, on the left (north) just past the railroad overpass.
Vigo County Historical Society Museum, 1411 S. Sixth St., Terre Haute, IN 47802
Phone: (812) 235-9717
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 1–4 PM
Cost: Free
Website: www.vchsmuseum.org/#!local-legends/ce9u
Directions: At the corner of Washington Ave. and S. Sixth St.
So Stiffy’s no longer at Highland Lawn. No problem—there are still plenty of interesting monuments and dead folks to see at this scenic cemetery.
First, check out the mausoleum of Martin Sheets. It has a chandelier and a telephone inside. Sheets was afraid he would be buried alive, so he had the phone installed to link him to the caretaker’s office. Legend says he also put whiskey bottles in the pillars of the tomb so he would have something to drink until the caretaker arrived. Still wilder claims say flowers appear inside the crypt, even when nobody has brought them. According to locals, when Sheets’s wife, Susan, died years later she was found clutching a phone receiver. Had Martin given her a call? Perhaps. When the tomb was opened to put her in, they found his phone off the hook.
The plot of John Robert Craig resembles a bed. The traveling salesman died of a heart attack while having relations with a woman other than his wife in an Indianapolis hotel room on New Year’s Eve 1931. Craig’s wife commissioned his headstone and coldly observed, “He made his bed. Now he’ll lie in it.”
Chief Bearfoot (born Benjamin Harrison Myers), a long-time performer with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, lies beneath a large granite slab with two silver conch shells embedded in its surface. Open the copper plate on the slab’s face and you’ll see a color photo of the chief in his war bonnet.
Another dead performer buried at Highland Lawn, Louis Rudoph Yansky Sr., worked the vaudeville circuit for years as a strongman. He was known to challenge audience members to out-strong him, and he always won. Today, not so much.
You probably don’t know who Ellen Church Marshall is, but she worked for United Airlines from 1930 to 1932. She has the distinction of being the nation’s first airline hostess, later known as a stewardess, later known as a flight attendant. Coffee, tea, or embalming fluid?
Just inside the main gate is a globe-shaped marker marking the grave of Frank Wiedemann, developer of the X-ray machine. Wiedemann used the profits from his invention to become a world traveler, hence the tombstone.
Anna White was not a famous individual, not in this life anyway. But in a previous life she might have been Egypt’s Queen Nefertiti, for in this life (death, actually) White is buried in an oversized pyramid-shaped tomb.
And finally, Socialist and labor leader Eugene Debs is interred somewhere in his family’s plot—he has a headstone, but it’s not over his head. For security reasons, the exact location is a secret.
Time to review a few Terre Haute inventions. Curvaceous Coke bottles? Great! Square donuts? Delicious! Pay toilets? Talk about getting you coming and going …
Back when there were more railroads running through Terre Haute, Union Station sat at the intersection of north-south and east-west lines near downtown. The station installed what was, apparently, a newfangled luxury at the time: public toilets. The trouble was, so many of the locals were stopping by for a visit that the railroad customers had to wait for a seat. So in 1910, the stationmaster started charging five cents a visit … unless you were a ticket-carrying passenger … and the modern pay toilet was born.
Union Station, 10th & Wabash Sts., Terre Haute, IN 47807
No phone
Hours: Torn down
Cost: 5¢
Directions: Campus Lot J on Wabash between 9th ½ St. and 10th Sts.
In a world filled with ethnic and regional strife, we should all look to Indiana/Ohio community as an example of civic harmony. West College Corner, Indiana, and College Corner, Ohio, have been getting along for some time. Their states’ border runs through the middle of town, which requires that they have different mayors, fire departments, water systems, and taxes, but they have only one post office, united under zip codes 47003 (IN) and 45003 (OH). During daylight savings time, the towns sit in different time zones, so you can leave work in College Corner and arrive home in West College Corner before you punched out. On the downside, you can leave your home in Indiana for a five-minute commute to Ohio and pull into your job an hour late. Still, somehow it all works out.
Back in 1893 the towns built a single high school that straddled the state line. When the building was replaced in 1926, they kept the two-state arrangement. Over the new school’s west entrance was a sign saying INDIANA, and over the east entrance was a sign saying OHIO. Inside the building the border runs right down the centerline of the gym’s basketball court. Today the building is an elementary school whose office is on the Ohio side.
College Corner Union Elementary, 320 Ramsey St., West College Corner, OH 45003
Phone: (765) 732-3183
Hours: Always visible
Cost: Free
Website: www.uc.k12.in.us/college-corner-union-elementary/college-corner-union-elementary/
Directions: Head north on Stateline St., five blocks north of where the railroad tracks cross Rte. 27.
Hoosiers to the left, Buckeyes to the right.
Purdue University calls itself the “Cradle of Astronauts” because 23 alumni (to date) have gone to outer space, including the first human to set foot on the moon, Neil Armstrong. After serving as a pilot in the US Navy, he attended and graduated from Purdue in 1955 with a BS in aeronautical engineering. You can find a bronze statue of him in penny loafers carrying a slide rule (ask somebody over 60) outside the engineering building named in his honor. Nearby are six Armstrong moonprints striding through the grass. They were cast from Armstrong’s original boots but upsized, so it’s rather difficult to re-create his bounding lunar gait, unless you imagine yourself under the moon’s diminished gravitational field. But if you’re a geek, you probably already thought of that.
Just like the moon, but with grass.
Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering, Purdue University, 701 W. Stadium Ave., West Lafayette, IN 47907
Phone: (765) 494-4600
Hours: Always visible
Cost: Free
Website: https://engineering.purdue.edu/Engr/AboutUs/Facilities/ArmstrongHall
Directions: At the intersection of Northwestern and Stadium Aves.
St. Mary-of-the-Woods College started in 1842 as a small convent founded by the Sisters of Providence. A year later, Mother Superior Theodore Guerin went to France to raise funds for the institution and almost perished at sea during the return voyage. Her ship, the Nashville, encountered a violent storm, so Mother Superior prayed to St. Anne for deliverance. And deliver she did—the Nashville made it safely back to North America.
Guerin decided to build a chapel in honor of her favorite lifesaving saint. It was a simple log cabin and was finished in 1844. But it hardly seemed worthy of such a nautical miracle. So in 1875, Sister Mary Joseph le Fer de la Motte and a group of novices began collecting shells from the Wabash River to embed into the walls of a new chapel. And the altar. And the ceiling. And everywhere, except the floor. Some shells were arranged to form images, like a map of Indiana and the waves from the Nashville’s voyage. The chapel was finally dedicated on July 25, 1876.
St. Mary-of-the-Woods College, 3301 St. Mary’s Rd., West Terre Haute, IN 47885
Phone: (812) 535-5151
Hours: Call ahead to have it unlocked
Website: www.smwc.edu/resources/historic-architecture/saint-annes-shell-chapel
Directions: On campus at the east end of Grotto Ln., just west of the cemetery.
Amlico, Paraland, El Reco, Sovereign, DX, and Zephyr. Horses in the Kentucky Derby? Nope, they’re long-since-bankrupt American gas and oil companies. And unless you’re very old, you might not even know they existed were it not for Alan Ray Whitaker. He has collected and displays almost 50 classic metal gas company signs, all mounted atop 18-foot poles like giant porcelain flowers in a gravel-covered garden. Some of them are familiar, like Texaco, Gulf, and Esso, but most will be a complete mystery to you.
649 Brewer St., Whiteland, IN 46184
No phone
Hours: Always visible
Cost: Free
Directions: One block north of Main St., one block west of State St.
