Indiana Cities & Towns Thread

[atvdave]

Evansville's West Side Nut Club fall festival is the 2nd largest street festival in the nation, only 2nd to the Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

Evansville Fall Festival - Home

 

[LockStocksAndBarrel]

Eight Ancient Armor-Clad Giants in Walkerton, Indiana? - JasonColavito.com
Carl Litchfield of Teegarden, and Jesse Lichtfield, who lives just north of Teegarden, recently excavated a mound on the farm of Grove Vosburg, some three miles north of Walkerton.

You might also try here to see if they cam help you out.
Heritage House Museum | Town of Walkerton

 

[hammer24]

Major League Baseball's first commissioner, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, was raised from the age of 8 in Logansport, and attended high school there...he dropped out!

 

[hammer24]

Winamac is named for Chief Winamac (Catfish) of the Potowatami. Chief Winamac was one of the key signers of the treaty that gave the land that is now Chicago to the US government. He fought beside Tecumseh at the battle of the Tippecanoe, and was killed in the war of 1812.

 

[gstanley102]

No one mentioned New Harmony.

 

[Frosty]

Eight Ancient Armor-Clad Giants in Walkerton, Indiana? - JasonColavito.com
Carl Litchfield of Teegarden, and Jesse Lichtfield, who lives just north of Teegarden, recently excavated a mound on the farm of Grove Vosburg, some three miles north of Walkerton.

You might also try here to see if they cam help you out.
Heritage House Museum | Town of Walkerton

i just googled this, that's some crazy stuff, I looked at images, but I'm not convinced that they were all real.

 

[hooky]

No one mentioned New Harmony.

got something to share?

 

[DeadeyeChrista'sdad]

Albany is home to the oldest continuous Halloween parade. Period.

On a side note, Wifey and I were in the Verizon store on McGalliard in Muncie getting new phones. We had to wait a little while on some fellah who looked kind of familiar. Turned out to be Mr. Davis. He's something of a fixture in Muncie. His address, and Garfield's, is an Albany address.

Albany 's masonic lodge is home to one who has been Worshipful Master of three separate lodges before age 50. Albany, Dunkirk, and Redkey.

Albany was once home to the Albany Runabout. A short lived car in the early 20th century. A visit to Milton 's restaurant will provide you with lots of local history. Including the Runabout.

Like most of the local area, Albany was once home to several glass factories.

Farmland was the home of Ansil Toney. Mr. Toney became quite famous in his retirement years for his kites. He inspired many of us to go fly a kite.

Modoc is the home of Wilson Wines. Some of the best sweet wines an uneducated palate like mine can find.

In Dunkirk, we still make Ball jars. Thank you for canning.

 

[mom45]

In the movie "Hoosiers", in one of the basketball scenes you can see the name of the opponents on the scoreboard. Oolitic, however you pronounce it, is a real town of about 1200 people.

The first professional baseball game was played in Fort Wayne in 1871.

The Detroit Pistons were originally the Zollner Pistons, and played in the gym of North Side High School until the Memorial Coliseum was built.

I thought that a section of the ferris wheel from the Chicago World's Fair was being used as a bridge somewhere in north west Indiana, but the only info I can find on it's fate is that it was transported to St. Louis and later demolished by dynamite, so maybe that's not true.

The bridge made out of the ferris wheel is in Tefft, Indiana over the Kankakee river. It is west of the current bridge and is only safe for walking on.

 

[gstanley102]

got something to share?

If my memory serves correctly, there have been several attempts at utopian societies
in Indiana.
New Harmony is the site of two attempts.
The Harmony Society formed a comunal society on about 2000 acres.
Their mantra was work, work ,work, pray, pray, pray.
They were succesful and thrived.
In about ten years a rich Scotsman bought the town.
His intent was to build a utopian community.
Brought in very smart people to introduce free education.
Their mantra was work, work, work.
No praying. The Scotsman did not believe in God.
The society failed in two years.
The educators and scientists srayed on to deliver many contributions to science.

 

[DeadeyeChrista'sdad]

Teft is to the south. The hamlet where the bridge is is called Dunn's Bridge. Very nice people there. My aunt and uncle, Dick and Shirley Morgan, used to live in the next to last house on the east drive. I miss it there. I miss Uncle Dick, too. Hope to visit Aunt Shirley soon.

 

[Mackey]

I had a coworker tell me once that there was a POW camp housing German POWS close the Charlestown ammo plant? This true?

Yes, this is indeed true. I know this from talking to the old timers in the area and from local historians. I know one of the men who give tours of the old Ammo Plant.
see also: Charlestown and the Indiana Army Ammunition Plant
I grew up near the ruins of some of the housing areas. we also lived near an ammo dump, a fact I discovered when held at gunpoint by US ARMY personnel when tresspassing on, then government land near River Ridge. They thought we were poaching and were initially afraid we were armed (there were seven of us kids).

 

[mom45]

Starke County (Knox) was home to the world's smallest man Che-Mah and the other thing the kids always found fascinating when visiting the local historical society for school field trips was the two-headed calf (now stuffed and on display there) Two_Headed Calf

There is a documentary called the Everglades of the North - The Story of the Grand Kankakee Marsh that is worth watching as well. Great film of how they drained a huge area and created farmland, etc. spanning several counties in the northern part of the state. Here is more info on that: Welcome To The Kankakee Marsh

 

[mom45]

Teft is to the south. The hamlet where the bridge is is called Dunn's Bridge. Very nice people there. My aunt and uncle, Dick and Shirley Morgan, used to live in the next to last house on the east drive. I miss it there. I miss Uncle Dick, too. Hope to visit Aunt Shirley soon.

Eeks...I guess I forgot about the curve heading toward the bridge when I am heading into Tefft from the north. I get accused of being directionally challenged! Dunn's Bridge it is though. I grew up in Wheatfield and just couldn't remember what it was called!

 

[red_zr24x4]

The trailer to this- Welcome To The Kankakee Marsh was very interesting. Thanks for posting it

 

[mom45]

The trailer to this- Welcome To The Kankakee Marsh was very interesting. Thanks for posting it

We watched the full program on PBS a few times. It really is pretty cool. We compared a map from the early 1800's that a friend got from some web site to the current map of Starke County and it is amazing how much of the county was underwater, including our current home.

 

[red_zr24x4]

That would be cool to see. Were not to far from the Kankakee here, I'm sure the water was fairly close to Walkerton/Koontz lake, depending on how much of it was straightened over here

 

[AnnieO]

Warrenton, just north of Evansville, is home to the Log Inn. Built in 1825, one of the oldest original stage coach stops. Lincoln ate there in November 1844.
History » The Log Inn

 

[DeadeyeChrista'sdad]

LOL. Mom45, you reminded me of something. Uncle Dick was coming home from work one day, and the lady who lived in the first house NORTH of the bridge was lying in the road naked. Dick stopped and asked if she needed help. She smiled and said she was fine, just catching some rays.

 

[Work]

According to local word of mouth, Lafayette/West Lafayette was on the top 10 list to be bombed during the Cold War due to the combination of Purdue University and local Alcoa.

The Lafayette Alcoa use to have the worlds largest extrusion press... I believe there is now larger in Asia, but still a cool little tidbit.

Fairfield Manufacturing in Lafayette is the U.S.'s largest "job shop" with between 700-1000 employees, the next largest is around 300 employees.

Tecumseh did not fight in The Battle of Tippecanoe. His brother, The Profit, went against Tecumseh's wishes and attacked Harrison's company while Tecumseh was away gathering more tribes.

The Feast of the Hunters Moon is the largest re-enactment west of the Appalachians.

That's all i've got for now.