Discover Indiana’s Transportation History All Around the State – Travel Indiana

story by JULIE CAMPBELL

Nestled between the cornfields that line US-421 exterior of Monon, a hidden gem protects virtually two century’s value of railroad artifacts. The Monon Connection Museum is way more than only a roadside attraction—it’s one man’s accumulation of priceless items of historical past from the Hoosier state and past.

What began out because the late Dale Ward’s non-public assortment rapidly morphed right into a full-blown museum, full with a train-themed restaurant—The Whistle Cease—within the early 2000s. Ward’s daughter, Nikki Wireman, is now carrying on her father’s legacy as proprietor of the museum.

“Mr. Ward began accumulating railroad memorabilia as a result of he thought the railroad was an essential a part of our nation’s historical past,” mentioned Mark Reynolds, the museum’s curator. “He began accumulating in 1994, and his spouse lastly mentioned, ‘Dale get it out of right here.’ He rented a storage facility, after which we finally opened up in 2005.”

Contained in the museum, railroad lovers will discover all the things from collections of conductor hats, bells, lanterns, indicators, keys, and railroad badges, in addition to a full-size reproduction of an Illinois Central Depot. There’s additionally an enormous HO scale mannequin practice structure in a single room and a gorgeous assortment of eating automotive china in one other.

“It’s in all probability the biggest public show of eating automotive china in the US,” mentioned Reynolds. “It’s not simply from Indiana or simply from the Monon, however it’s from all throughout the nation.”

The museum’s latest acquisition is an 84-foot-long passenger automotive that rich businessman Henry Flagler constructed for his spouse within the late Nineties. When Flagler contracted the Jackson & Sharp Firm to construct the automotive, he despatched them a clean examine and mentioned, “I need one of the best cash should buy!”

The beautiful passenger automotive is the right achievement of Flagler’s needs, full with 30 custom-made Tiffany glass home windows, stunning hand- carved woodwork, and a marble onyx fire—one of many first fireplaces to ever be put in in a practice automotive.

Exterior the museum, a number of railroad vehicles, railroad cranes, cabooses and indicators beckon guests to discover and take a selfie with a bit of historical past.

Practice excursions are additionally a well-liked method for railroad lovers to spend a day within the Hoosier state. You may experience in model on the Spirit of Jasper, which departs from the Jasper Practice Depot. Three renovated, climate- managed lounge vehicles have restrooms, comfy seating and a money bar. The depot is a duplicate of the previous construction inbuilt 1906, and options an quaint ticket window, rolltop desks, pot stomach range and genuine memorabilia.

The Indiana Railway Museum at present operates because the French Lick Scenic Railway, working passenger trains over 25 miles from French Lick to Jasper. As a result of the practice IS the museum, guests get a firsthand expertise of how railway journey impacted each passengers and the world round them. Widespread occasions embody the Scenic Excursions, the Dinosaur Journey Practice, Summer season Splash Bash, Polar Categorical and extra.

All aboard the Whitewater Valley Railroad, the place riders can journey from Connersville to the charming canal city of Metamora each Saturday and Sunday between Could 1 and October 31. Themed occasions just like the Polar Categorical, Easter Bunny Categorical, Pumpkinliner and extra are widespread with adults and youngsters alike.

Take an hour and a half experience by way of the countryside on the Nickel Plate Categorical, which options themed excursions from February by way of December aboard historic Santa Fe El Capitan vehicles. The practice departs from Forest Park in Noblesville.

In Michigan Metropolis, the Barker Mansion’s “Legacy of Freight” exhibit will take you thru Michigan Metropolis from the 1830s to the early 1900s. The exhibit is a tribute to the Haskell & Barker freight automotive manufacturing unit and its employees.

In Starke county, go to the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum which affords practice rides on an genuine caboose. The county additionally celebrates their transportation heritage with the Yellowstone Path Competition every August in the neighborhood of Hamlet, which was on the Yellowstone Path–the primary transcontinental car freeway in the US.

If air journey is extra your model, a go to to the Grissom Air Museum in Peru is a should. Guests can discover historic plane from the Chilly Conflict period, take off in a simulator, or climb the commentary tower. Guided excursions are led by former navy guides who’ve both served at Grissom Air Base or have lived within the space lengthy sufficient to know the particular tales guests need to hear.

On the Wilbur Wright Birthplace and Museum in Hagerstown, you’ll see the delivery residence of Wilbur Wright in addition to a full-size reproduction of the 1903 Wright Flyer. Full with hand carved propellers, the reproduction took 10 years to construct.

Over in Muncie, try the biggest assortment of mannequin plane in the US on the Nationwide Mannequin Aviation Museum. Throughout the summer time months (Could – September), go to the 1,000-acre flying web site and see the Academy of Mannequin Aeronautics (AMA) members fly their plane in competitions. The AMA is the world’s largest mannequin aviation group, serving because the collective voice for about 200,000 modelers in 2,400 golf equipment in the US and Puerto Rico.

Somewhat hold your toes nearer to the bottom? The Auburn Wire Duesenberg Car Museum in Auburn Is residence to round 120 of one of the best traditional vehicles within the nation. The museum constructing is definitely the museum’s largest artifact, constructed for the Auburn Car Firm in 1929 from a design by A.M. Strauss of Fort Wayne. It is among the most interesting examples of Artwork Deco structure within the Midwest.

When you’re in Auburn, make a journey to the Nationwide Auto & Truck Museum to see an enormous collection of historic vehicles from the early 1900s, muscle vehicles, vehicles, and the GM Futurliner—certainly one of twelve constructed by Basic Motors for the Parade of Progress tour within the Nineteen Forties and 50s.

Elwood Haynes was born in Portland, Indiana, earlier than shifting to Kokomo. He was the inventor of the primary commercially profitable gasoline- powered car, which he named “The Pioneer.” His former Kokomo residence is now the Elwood Haynes Museum and homes a group of his possessions, innovations, and cars. It’s positioned at 1915 S. Webster Avenue in Kokomo.

On the Mannequin T Museum in Richmond, you’ll discover a formidable assortment of automobiles together with one of many first Ts and one of many final, a Pietenpol airplane, a classic storage, showroom, working machine store, T-related memorabilia, an in depth reward and e book store, and the Bruce McCalley Memorial Library and Analysis Middle.

Referred to as “The Best Spectacle in Racing,” the Indianapolis 500 race is loved in individual by round 300,000 of race followers yearly. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum is positioned inside the famed 2.5 mile oval, and its assortment encompasses cars and artifacts representing greater than a century of Indianapolis 500 tradition, drama and competitors, plus automobiles representing NASCAR, Formulation One, American short-track racing, drag racing and bikes.