The Boys with the Shovels: The CCC at Pokagon State Park

CCC - Pokagon Chieftain.2015For 62 years, veterans of the Civilian Conservation Corps, most of them from Company 556, have been coming to Indiana’s Pokagon State Park on the last Sunday in July, for the oldest continuous CCC reunion in the country. For the last 25 years, I have never missed one, although the rapidly dwindling number of veterans is painful to see.

In 1953, twenty years after the CCC had been established in the depths of the Depression, Roger Woodcock, formerly of CCC Company 556, along with several others who had worked at Pokagon, sought the park’s help in setting up a reunion. The gathering would be at the open air Combination Shelter overlooking the beach, both constructed by Company 556. Roger consulted a local meteorologist as to the best day to hold the event, and the fellow assured him that it never rains the last Sunday in July. Indeed, in all those years, it has rained only four times.

Pokagon State Park was largely unforested farmland when the Indiana Department of Conservation took possession in 1925 and named it to honor Simon Pokagon, a chief of the Potawatomi tribe that once inhabited the area. Above the southern basin of Lake James, a large glacial lake in this moraine area, construction began on the Potawatomi Inn, which opened in 1927. Park personnel developed two beaches and over the next few years improved campgrounds at the north end of the park. The beginnings of a boys’ camp, built in part through a Civil Works Administration (CWA) project, appeared in the early 1930s on a bluff overlooking the upper basin of the lake. (CWA was a short-lived New Deal work program during the winter of 1933-34.)

CCC Company 556, initially formed in the fall of 1933 to do several projects, including an imaginatively designed group camp (all long since demolished) at Indiana Dunes State Park on Lake Michigan, finished its work there and established Camp SP-7 at Pokagon the following year. The park underwent an ambitious development program, including reforestation, landscaping, road building, and construction of numerous outdoor recreational facilities. The CCC boys hewed local timber and split native stone to construct buildings that harmonized especially well with the park environment, in keeping with guidelines created by the National Park Service, which oversaw master plans for CCC parks projects. adjustedCCCshelterPerhaps the best example is the beautiful two-story shelterhouse (now called the “CCC Shelter”) that nestles at the edge of the woods above the beach. Nearly all the park’s present landscaping and buildings–including the old gatehouse, the saddle barn, the dining hall and much of the group camp, the bath house, and overnight cabins near the inn–are the work of the CCC, which remained in the park until January 1942. They also built a toboggan slide, which has since been rebuilt and remodeled several times, adding to winter fun at Pokagon. Other than several expansions of the Potawatomi Inn and the construction of a nature center in 1981, relatively little has been added or changed on the property. Most of Pokagon State Park, that encompassed by the boundary in place in 1942, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. I had the joyful task of writing that nomination in the mid-1990s at the behest of the CCC veterans, who presented me with a plaque upon the park’s successful listing.

Initially I had met these men in 1991, when I was documenting all the New Deal sites and structures in Indiana’s state parks for the Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology. As various structures built by New Deal agencies turned 50 years old, I frequently received calls from the preservation folks, asking about one building or another, and I had lobbied hard to do a survey and documentation like this. For this was not my first New Deal project; I had already put in ten years by then, starting with a grant from the Indiana Humanities Council for a year-long project, “Making a Better Indiana”: WPA, Labor and Leisure that sought out structures built by the New Deal and created programs around these findings. More grants followed, along with trips to the National Archives in those pre-computer days. Why WPA? Why the New Deal? In northern Indiana, where I grew up, I was surrounded with examples of their work. My favorites were Battell Park in Mishawaka, with its fieldstone fantasy rock garden that cascades down a bank of the St. Joseph River, and Washington Park in Michigan City, where the creative use of discarded construction material by FERA and WPA is still a wonder to behold, crowned with a four-story observation tower atop a dune. MichCity2What a joy it was to write that National Register nomination, one of my first, for the park and its zoo! For whatever reason, the New Deal captured my interest, and only later did I learn that a major engineering feat in South Bend, the straightening of an oxbow bend in the St. Joseph River, was a WPA project on which my grandfather had worked. And as I was busily collecting information on the New Deal in St. Joseph County, my mother casually mentioned that she had a clerical job at her high school through the National Youth Administration (NYA). Later I discovered several shelterhouses in various city parks around the state with plaques proudly proclaiming them to be the work of the NYA. The joy of discovery never ends–and I still stumble on New Deal work everywhere. Indiana was always a leading state in New Deal projects, difficult as that may be to believe given the current politics.

So, as always for the past 25 years, I spent the last Sunday of July at Pokagon State Park, honoring the boys of the Civilian Conservation Corps who, some 80 years ago, made the park what it is today.   There were two veterans present (a third, bless him, had intended to come but had a fall and couldn’t make it). 2015CCC Interpretive naturalist Fred Wooley, who retired this spring after 35 years, returned to emcee the program. Fred left a wonderful legacy himself; among other projects, his cherished dream of marking the location of every building on the site where the CCC camp was, including interpretive signage for each, has been realized. gatehse:smAnd soon, the beautiful gatehouse built by these boys so long ago and abandoned owing to changing traffic patterns will become a mini museum dedicated to them. Their legacy lives on.

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My Mother Never Warned Me about the House on the Rock

For years I have loved south central Wisconsin, a beautiful land of lakes and rocks and rivers. Within a fifty-mile or so radius of Madison are many wonders, both natural and manmade, and I have wandered the old roads about there through the decades. Early on the famous Wisconsin Dells was a destination for my family; sadly I discovered it has become a distorted playground of water parks and endless taverns, no longer the seemingly innocent tourist area of souvenir shops and amusements adjacent to the natural beauty of the Dells that had been the real draw in my youth. The Dells, fantastic stony bluffs and formations along the Wisconsin River, are, of course, still there, but I wonder if visitors even bother. Later, living in Chicago, I sometimes ran off to meander the winding roads, passing through charming towns such as Lodi, or stopping to hike at Devil’s Lake State Park.

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Now that I live the better part of a day’s drive away, my occasional trips to Wisconsin have been pilgrimages of sorts. Once it was to see Taliesin, fabled home of master architect Frank Lloyd Wright near Spring Green; other times, to marvel at the International Crane Foundation, which keeps breeding pairs of all fifteen of the world’s cranes and works to restore their habitats, and also to commune with the spirit of early environmentalist Aldo Leopold at his legendary Shack nearby in the Wisconsin River floodplain.

There was one major attraction I had always missed but had always wanted to see. Indeed, I had passed very close to it on my way to Taliesin (now there is a building with which I can dance!) Although I have been aware of it most of my life, apparently The House on the Rock near Spring Green is well known only regionally. My parents went to see it once, I think, and later my widowed mother went there with a busload of seniors from her home in northern Indiana, where I grew up. Mom never spoke all that much about it, only to recommend it as fascinating and that there was a lot to see. Oh brother! What an understatement.

I have always embraced architecture and museums of many sorts. I am a public historian, after all! But what is The House on the Rock anyway? Is it a museum of amazing artifacts of history and popular culture in dire need of a curator, or a massive interactive art installation? Or perhaps a great mischievous joke on the public? Yes. It is all those things. I doubt I will ever return, but I will never forget it. P.T. Barnum would have loved it!

It begins innocuously enough, although there are hints. The House is, as advertised, built upon a chimney rock overlooking the Wyoming Valley and reached by meandering rural roads south and west of Spring Green. At the entrance to the property and at intervals along the lengthy winding drive leading to the house are huge, vaguely medieval, vaguely Oriental urns. With dragons.  I really was not sure what to expect; the brochures are cryptic, although not obviously so. The website was no better. Let us simply say that they leave a lot out. There were multiple large parking lots amidst trees and flower plantings and more urns.

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Surrounded with flowers, the visitor orientation center, apparently one of the most recent buildings, offers views of the property, ticket counters, a gift shop, and a sizable exhibit on Alex Jordan (1914-1989), the builder of The House on the Rock. The story is that Jordan found this beautiful site in the 1940s and gradually built a weekend retreat, supposedly never intending it as anything else. But he kept building, kept collecting things (he may have been the world’s greatest hoarder), and people were curious, so he began asking a nominal fee for admission. And it grew from there. And it grew. And it grew.

Admission tickets are sold in sections or a special price for the entire attraction; the latter seemed to make sense, since a return trip was not likely. Material I had read said to allow at least three hours (ha!). The first section was the original house and additions; it felt like a combination treehouse and cave, which may make no sense until you see it. It was dark and shadowy and labyrinthine, with an overabundance of antique you-name-its on display on dimly lit shelves and in nooks and crannies all around. It is in this section that one finds the famous Infinity Room, one of the last additions to the House under Jordan’s ownership.

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“Stumbles upon” may be a better term; the passageways are twisted and multi-leveled, and it is dark! I cannot imagine my mother and her fellow seniors, even in healthy shape, rambling about in there. It seemed the only way out was to go back the same way.

The second section–and there is a ticket taker at the beginning of each–is in a separate building, or series of buildings, leading into a recreated turn-of-the-[20th]century street. I should at this point note that there are restrooms scattered throughout the site, and each is filled with collections or concoctions as well. The entrance is open so that men, too, can at least glimpse,  IMG_3839for example, this artful display of glassware in the ladies’ room before The Streets of Yesterday.

Yesterday’s streets, which of course are dark and somehow seem a little odd compared to those you may have seen in other museums, gradually lead you to an array of mechanical coin-operated animated musical devices. They take tokens that you purchase when buying your tickets.

 

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At first I was charmed, for I have seen a fair number of entertaining antique musical devices, and this seemed to be a marvelous collection, albeit ill-maintained. Then I was awed, for down the passageways were orchestrions that then merged into room-sized contraptions; then there were rooms filled with orchestras of various instruments, playing, seemingly, by themselves. Most were a little or lot out of tune, adding to the growing feeling of unease. And so much, so many, too much!

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Indeed, the order of things is lost in my mind, and there were no maps. Was the vast space that displayed the 200-foot sea creature(!) in mortal battle with a giant squid before or after all the mad music? The scale of the diorama, if you could call it that, was imposing. The walls of the room displayed endless cases of priceless nautical artifacts–or were they?–including a sizable collection from the Titanic. From there, I think, the passages led to another huge space filled with various relics of transportation. All, everywhere, was shadowy, and everywhere was. . . stuff.

But also here, incongruously, in what felt like an underground cavern, was a cafeteria and a little ice cream shop, a place at last to rest a bit, for the walk by this time could be measured in miles–or so it seemed, what with endless climbing and clambering. Later there was another resting place (with a few concessions available) that overlooked the Wyoming Valley from beneath the Infinity Room. On the hillside, by chance, I trust, a few deer grazed, a most welcome dose of reality.

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The third section perhaps was strangest of all. Here surely would be “the world’s largest indoor carousel,” something I had been eager to see this entire “long strange trip.” The passage opened into another huge space of several levels. A portion of the walls was entirely covered with dusty carousel horses. My historian heart cried out in dismay. Indeed, this room would shatter it. The whole experience had become as a dream, bordering on nightmare. There stood a three-story carousel ceaselessly whirling–and you can’t even ride on it! Instead, it is a huge assemblage of carousel animals, including not one horse, all torn asunder from their origins–or are they? Perhaps they are simply very accurate reproductions. All around the carousel loomed large machinery, created of pieces of other machinery, even an Edison dynamo! At the other end of this Stygian expanse was a gargantuan cannon. Maybe. Who knew what was real at this point?

But even that dungeon of delusion was not the end. The way out led through rooms full of old animated circus displays of several scales, another of endless dolls, yet another with a amazing collection (these were real, I’m certain) of early 20th century animated window displays for jewelry shops. Apart from some signage explaining the window displays, there was no interpretation. I struggled for air. At last, after hours at a furious pace, we had made it through. But even outside there were odd relics–or fakes–all surrounded by riotously blooming gardens.IMG_3831

That’s the thing. There is a reason the House on the Rock is so dark within. It’s all part of the illusion.

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Ice Cream Sodas, a Carousel, and Two Rivers: My Logansport

Just up the old Michigan Road from Indianapolis, about 75 miles, is Logansport, which, given its key location at the confluence of two rivers (the Eel and the Wabash), existed even before this historic route was platted to it.  Logansport was a port on the Wabash and Erie Canal and later became an important railroad town.  I’d always been intrigued by this county seat (alas, lacking a historic courthouse) with its plethora of fine old buildings and layers of transportation history.

It has a lot of personal history, too. Twenty and more years ago, my mother, who lived in the far north part of Indiana, would meet me here, a halfway point between there and Indianapolis, to spend the day together. We’d hike around, explore old roads, and sample the local eateries. If we stayed in Logansport, we wandered the downtown, the historic Mount Hope Cemetery, or the parks, usually Dykeman or Riverside (on the Eel River), where we’d ride the carousel and try for the brass ring. Mom would tell me stories about the carousels of her youth and her collection of non-brass rings! Once or twice we played miniature golf on an old course near the carousel, great old-fashioned fun. It’s still there.

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In recent years Logansport has been making very good use of its historic assets.  In 2009 it was designated a Preserve America Community. Today a historic railroad depot downtown houses a museum and anchors an attractive riverside public space to the south, the Little Turtle Waterway Plaza City of Logansport, Indiana / Locations / Little Turtle Waterway Plaza & Trail , a nice place to start an exploratory walk downtown that still boasts a number of great old buildings, many of which now house interesting shops and restaurants.  From there also are trails to follow along the Wabash River. In the past few years quite a lot of new public sculpture has appeared downtown, including a carousel horse, clearly a tribute to that 19th century carousel in Riverside Park, which came to Logansport from its previous location in Fort Wayne in 1919. It was carved by master craftsman Gustav A. Dentzel, considered the best in his art, and is a National Historic Landmark–one of only three complete Dentzel carousels in the country. (By the way, Indiana boasts another at the Children’s Museum in Indianapolis.) Despite this honored status, rides are only 75 cents, and you can still try for the brass ring!   Cass County Carousel, Inc | Logansport – Cass County Indiana  Unlike 25 years ago, the carousel is today housed in a climate-controlled building, the better to ensure its preservation. I appreciate the need, but I’m a bit nostalgic for those days when it was in an open shelter and its joyous music rang through the park on a sunny afternoon. The miniature golf course still remains, not far from the carousel, as does the old miniature train.

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Along with Dyckman Park, Riverside Park contains several 1930s-era Works Progress Administration resources–always a plus for me!   Riverside is on the Eel River, and a recently constructed bridge connects the Eel River Run Trail in the park with the River Bluff Trail on the other side.  That trail leads to the 35-acre Hervey Nature Preserve, which even includes a labyrinth.

I’m fond of old drive-in restaurants, and Logansport has two I recommend.  The Char-Bett is located in a former 1930s gas station on the outskirts of town on the old Michigan Road (State Road 25) heading northeast toward Rochester:  tasty drive-in food and all manner of ice cream treats, including sodas, which can be hard to find these days. I had passed it several times in my journeys up and down the Road, but always in the off-season. This year I’ve managed to stop twice.

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For some reason, over the years I had missed the Sycamore Drive-In, just off old US24, once a major route, at 316 20th.

Sycamore:L'port7:14I reveled in the discovery, for they, too, offer sodas among their ice cream treats and a nice assortment of drive-in fare. How fortunate Logansport is!

 

 

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Snow Wonder

Early January:

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It is snowing–a big, old-fashioned snow as pictured on the Christmas cards.  The snow of my dreams, the snow of my childhood–at least as I remember it.

I grew up in Michiana glacial lakeland where the prevailing winds brought extra mountains of lake-effect snow from that nearby inland sea, Lake Michigan.  Indeed, there was a period of time when the town of New Carlisle, where I attended high school, touted itself as the “Snow Capital of Indiana,” although those in the know were aware that the community of Hudson Lake, immediately northwest over the county line, would likely receive an inch or two more.  For children it seemed glorious; over any given winter we could count on about 14 “snow days” off.  In the days before computers or robocalls, we eagerly listened to the local radio station rattle off names of closed schools.

I would spend hours at a time outside all bundled up.  In the yard beside the garage one year was my “igloo”–I think it actually may have a pile of building materials that my dad had gathered for an anticipated project in the spring.  I remember it was covered over with plastic sheeting but there was a hollow space in the middle large enough for me.  My grandparents lived next door, and in the adjacent lot my grandfather had planted perhaps two hundred white pines sometime after the war.  (That would be World War II, but a certain generation always called it “the war” and we all understood.)  We had a source of Christmas trees for years!  White pines grow very quickly, so that by the time I was in elementary school the trees were thick and fifteen to twenty feet high.  A good snowfall turned this little forest into a magic place with tunnels beneath the branches and crisscrossed passages.  Such fun!  Whenever I headed back into the house my mother would stop me on the porch with a broom to sweep the snow off me, front and back.

All this and more came to mind, walking in my urban neighborhood so very different from my childhood home.  But the snow took me back.

A few days later:     Wearing an outfit not so different from what I wore decades ago–longjohns and “snowpants” and thick coat–I head out to a nearby park to go sledding.  My sled, scored years ago for less than a dollar at a yard sale, is very like the one I used as a child.

Unlike Charles Foster Kane, I cannot with 100 percent certainty recall the brand name of my sled, which was a hand-me-down from a cousin, I believe.  It was likely American Flyer but maybe it was Radio Flyer (not “Rosebud,” in any case).  I searched the internet hoping a photograph would jog my memory, but instead I was stunned by the prices old sleds go for these days and appalled they were considered merely a decorative item!  Sleds were meant to be used!  As usual, I am the only one at the hill with a sled of this kind.     A lovely bonus to the day was a bald eagle flying low over the park–no mistaking it!

snow2Days of bitter cold follow.  The snow lingers but sunny days melt patches that reveal harbingers lying in wait.

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A month later:     The wonder returns.  Another beautiful snow, all fluffy and a lot of it!  Snow sifting through streetlights at night seems to create a fantasy land, not that of endless snow and temperatures worthy of Minnesota.   But we are tired of the cold.  When there is snow, the temperatures are too frigid to play.  And what of the snowdrops, after all those nights of below zero?  A month later, they are still biding their time.

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Two months later:      Surely the last of the big snows (and not so big, at that), but who knows.  Perhaps, though, the last chance to go sledding once more.  The sun is weak and the clouds eventually prevail.  Oddly, the hill is deserted–have kids simply tired of sliding down hills?  Have they given up completely?  There are, however, some twenty or so squirrels frolicking nearby, as only squirrels can: up and down and tree to tree with mad abandon.  I suppose, as I shriek my way down the slope trying to steer around the bumps, that I am exhibiting the same.  I never grow tired of it and am grateful for another day on the hills.  But–the snowdrops are eager, and this snow lasts but a short time.

When more than a hint of spring visits for a day or two, we are ready.  And so, it seems, are the bees!

snow5Climate change brings great contrasts, and after today’s sunny and mild 60s, tomorrow brings rain, sleet, snow–and a sixty-degree thud in temperature.  March is indeed an angry lion.  The snowdrops will carry on until they are joined by other floral companions.

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On the Confectionery Trail: A Movable Christmastime Feast

A new tradition began a year ago.  It happened to be on my mother’s birthday, which is why this trip is now marked to become an annual event though it was just a coincidence the first time.  Mom is gone now, but there is much of her in me.  She loved chocolate, and, possibly to my regret, instilled that passion in me right enough–oh yes, indeed.

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Having visited Schimpff’s Confectionery in Jeffersonville, Indiana a few times more or less on business, we made a plan to go there just for fun a little before Christmas last year.  Located at 347 Spring Street, Schimpff’s is a family-owned candy store, soda fountain, and lunch counter over 120 years old.  (www.schimpffs.com)

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Decorated for Christmas, the place is a fantasy land filled with jars and glass cases of Schimpff’s yummy candy.  Ooooh!

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You can watch them making it in the adjoining space, where that day they were rolling out sheets of glassy hot cinnamon candy on its way to becoming their famous cinnamon Red Hots (they are)!

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In the back is a fascinating–and oh so nostalgic!–little candy museum that features containers, advertisements, and candy-making equipment from all over the country.

Remember these?  They were still around when I was very young.

sdisplayChoosing from among all the wonderful candies was a lot of work, so we decided to have a light lunch in the back, where there is an old-fashioned soda fountain and some tables and booths.   Heavenly days, they had phosphates and venerable lunch counter fare, so I ordered an egg salad sandwich and a chocolate phosphate, just as I used to do when I had lunch with my Mommy and Granny at Kresge’s in downtown South Bend.  As I sat bathed in nostalgia I thought what an appropriate place to be.  It was my mother’s birthday, and she would’ve loved this place (and probably would have ordered the same thing.)  Not only for the childhood memories; she and I used to wander around the state quite a bit and sought out such places–not for us the boring fast food.  The tear that fell was one of joy and a sense of her presence.

The day was chilly but sunny, just right for a stroll down historic Spring Street with its many interesting shops.

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I don’t knit or sew, but I have many friends who no doubt would love the yarn shop named Grinny Possum. http://grinnypossum.com/

We did wander around Horner Novelty, rather a museum in itself.  Horner Novelty – The Party Planner’s Paradise  (I thought better of sharing the photo of me in a flamingo hat.)

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We thought of popping back into Schimpff’s for a chocolate soda–tempting!–but decided instead to stop in Columbus on the way back to Indianapolis.

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Why?  To go to Zaharako’s, one of the most wonderful historic restorations I have ever seen.  This confectionery, also into its second century, is itself a museum,with an additional room full of beautiful soda fountains and restored mechanical musical devices such as orchestrions and juke box pianos. Zaharakos Ice Cream Parlor

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When we entered Zaharako’s, the Welte Orchestrion, which is original to the establishment, was playing a robust and joyful medley of Christmas carols.  It made me want to dance (oh wait, maybe I did)!   Oh, why not, we indulged in a sundae and drank in the festive atmosphere, not in any hurry to leave.  A slow day of peace and joy and wonder in these fast times.

And that is why we will be doing it again this year.  Happy Birthday, Mom.

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The Road Less Taken: Indiana’s Upper Right Corner

I always love a chance to go to the northern part of our state where the glaciers left behind lots of lakes and rolling terrain. And Pokagon State Park, one of our earliest, dating to 1925, in Steuben County is always good excuse. Pokagon offers all the activities you’d expect in a state park–I love to hike through the bird-filled woods–including swimming in a real lake, a plus. (I grew up on the Michigan border where it was impossible not to be within a stone’s throw of some lake.) In winter Pokagon offers a toboggan slide, still on my–cue the overused term–bucket list. All this and history, too: the park is listed in the National Register of Historic Places for its many examples of the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The last Sunday in July is CCC Remembrance Day at the Nature Center, an extension of the longest-lived CCC Annual Reunion in the country that began in 1953 as a 20-year reunion. I wouldn’t miss it for the world. And yes, some CCC veterans, 90 and older now, still come! There were three at the reunion this year.

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The restaurant at Pokagon’s Potawatomi Inn is a fine place to eat; their Sunday brunch is decadence itself.  Still, whenever I’m in the area I try not to miss Clay’s Family Restaurant (7815 N Old 27, Fremont) just a few miles north of the park, just south of the Michigan state line.  Their food is just darned good and their pies are heavenly!  Clay’s IS, after all, the home of the annual Pie Day in June, when, for a fixed price, they offer unlimited samples of every pie they make. ( Following in My Foodstops: Pie in the Sky | Dancing with History, Wandering through Time, Embracing the Earth )

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Steuben County is lovely to explore, what with its lakes, woods, small farms, and small towns.  About ten miles west of Clay’s on SR120 (a very old road, formerly the Vistula or Toledo Road) lies Orland, a small village, but it boasts the Fawn River State Fish Hatchery, constructed by the WPA (Works Progress Administration), listed in the National Register.  DNR: Fawn River State Fish Hatchery

Orland, originally known as Vermont Settlement, was the earliest settlement of European-Americans in the county (it and the settlement started in 1834); the area was formerly hunting ground of the Potawatomi tribe.  Orland has a strong association with the pre-Civil War Underground Railroad. Indiana brags Underground Railroad houses like Virginia et al. boast “Washington Slept Here,” and just about as misinformed, but in this case it’s true.  Abolitionist Samuel Barry hid runaway slaves in his house, which still stands.  DNR: Underground Railroad Sites: Orland   If you’re in Orland Tuesday, Wednesday, or Saturday, check out the Joyce Library downtown.  It’s charming, but check out the second floor, where the library first started.  It still has its original woodwork and a lot of the original books!  Many of us remember when most public libraries looked like this.

If, rather, you go east from Clay’s on SR120, you will encounter Fremont, founded in 1834 as Willow Prairie and platted three years later as Brockville.  The village rechristened itself once again in 1848 to honor explorer John C. Fremont.  Fremont, home to about 1700 people, has a charming downtown and a number of National Register-listed buildings.  Their library, surrounded by a bit of restored prairie on the west edge of town, offers several pieces of outdoor sculpture.  Behind the building an environmental trail winds through a woods.

The county seat and the “big city” in Steuben County is Angola, platted in 1838.  Its beautiful courthouse square features an impressive Soldiers Monument, topped by the allegorical figure of Columbia, erected in 1917 in the center, formerly the location of the town pump.  More men per capita enlisted in the Civil War from Steuben County than any other in Indiana.  The courthouse, dating to 1868, sits in the southeast corner of the square.  Opposite, in the northwest corner, are two historic movie theaters, the Strand and the Brokaw.  Angola is the center of recreational activity for the lake-filled county (101!, boasts the county website), which likely contributes to the continued survival of these theaters.

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One of those lakes, only a mile to the southwest, was the first resort open to middle class black families.  Listed in the National Register, the Fox Lake Historic District is a modest collection of lake cottages built in the 1920s and 30s.  The area still retains much of its heritage with traditional activities, like the Labor Day picnic, that are decades old.

History, lakes, small towns, lakes, roadside farm markets, lakes, and more!  While it is much like going home, I still discover something new every time I journey to Indiana’s northeast corner.

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I Believe in Dr. Film!

I was asked to write a guest column in “Dr. Film’s Blog.”  Read it here:

http://www.drfilm.net/blog/?p=463

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Following in My Foodstops: Pie in the Sky

Pie Day?  Who thought of this?  And who would be crazy enough to drive 170 miles to check it out?  Pie Day?

Well, to answer the second question, I was.  Clay’s Family Restaurant, a stone’s throw from the Michigan state line on former US27, just held its eighth annual Pie Day to celebrate what many agree they do best.  Mind you, most all their food is worth celebrating, not just their scrumptious pies.   But they make about thirty different kinds, and their customers find themselves in a quandary as to which one to choose–assuming they are capable after finishing their meals, which are tasty and generous.  And so. . . Pie Day was born. gjblog

I’ve written about Clay’s before.  (Check them out here Clay’s Family Restaurant ) For sixty years this family-run restaurant, perched above Lake George not far from Pokagon State Park, has offered great food and friendly service to local folks and people passing through who prefer the old highways.  When the restaurant opened, US27 was one of the major routes into Michigan, all the way up to the Straits of Mackinac.  When I-69 opened decades ago, US27 was routed onto it, but business remains brisk at Clay’s, owing, no doubt, to its having laid such a solid foundation.

Their entrees and especially the soups are fabulous, but the pies are positively divine.  I learned of Pie Day last year and thought it might be fun to do.  This is how it works:  normally Clay’s is closed on Mondays, but in June there comes a Monday designated as Pie Day when, for just four mad hours, Clay’s is open.  The restaurant sells advance tickets for a buffet offering of every pie they make–cut into smaller-than-normal pieces, of course, so one has a better chance of sampling several.  Just so that it is not complete decadence, along with the plethora of pies, Clay’s serves soups and melt-in-your-mouth pot roast.  Tickets, priced at $12.99 for all you care to eat, sell out quickly.  Even if your capacity gives out before you sample all the pies, it’s a good deal.

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For about two weeks before the event, the owner and all the family frantically roll out pie dough in large square pans and refrigerate them, because the pies themselves are made fresh the morning of Pie Day, starting VERY early.  During the course of the four-hour event they sell the equivalent of 80-100 regular pies.

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And so, just for the experience, last month I called Clay’s and made the reservation.   As it happens, I had a number of libraries to see on the way up since I’m still hawking my books, so it was not entirely crazy to make such a trip.  (Well, okay, perhaps it was.)  My route included stops, all successful, at two small college libraries and two little Carnegies, one in Converse and this one in Montpelier.

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On arrival at Clay’s around 6pm, the small parking area was full and there were only a few spaces across the street.  The aroma of home cooking was tantalizing and soon we were seated by the harried but friendly waitress.  Overindulging in the main dish fare would have been easy, but this was Pie Day, after all.  Even so, there was no hope to taste them all.

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I think I managed to try about ten or twelve.  My vote still goes to the blueberry, which is the piece at top right, although the cherry is equally good.   My companion, who wore an appropriate shirt (pi), favored the blueberry also, along with the strawberry.

gjblog8Virtually every fruit pie one can imagine, but also several cream pies, and a chewy concoction called “oops” pie tempted the customers.  The atmosphere was festive, the staff resolutely friendly–indeed, everyone was smiling and laughing.  I do not advocate gorging oneself on a regular basis, but indulgence now and then sweetens life, and Pie Day is the place to do it.

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The Road Less Taken: Up the Pendleton Pike

 

Just a short trip from Indianapolis up Pendleton Pike is, well, the town of Pendleton, a pleasant place to play hooky for an afternoon.  I discovered it years ago, exploring the charms of a nineteenth century road, Pendleton Pike.  The first time I followed it I noted many mid-nineteenth century remnants from its early years, as well as roadside architecture from Highway 67.  Much less of either remains, lost to the growing northeasterly sprawl out of Indy; now you really have to look.

Pendleton, which was laid out in 1830, but whose site was where the earliest Madison County government was located (in 1823), still offers much of its history in plain view.

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Falls Park ( Picturesque Falls Park in Pendleton, Indiana) is a special attraction.  Fully 150 acres, it’s a lovely park with trails and lots of “above-ground archaeology” in the form of remaining bridge abutments from interurban lines and such like.  It’s a great place to hike around.  Historically it is the site of the final chapter of the infamous Fall Creek Massacre, where the perpetrators of the crime–the brutal murder of several friendly Indians (once thought to be Delaware but tribal affiliations now in question)–were tried and hanged in 1825, marking the first time white settlers were convicted for murdering Indians.  Three men were hanged.  A fourth, only a boy for whom there was sympathy as people felt he was forced into the deed by his father and uncle, was about to be hanged when Governor James Brown Ray stepped out of the crowd and pardoned him.  Some accounts have it that Brown galloped up madly at the last minute and loudly proclaimed: “There are only two who can save this boy.  God Almighty or Governor James Brown Ray.  I am Governor James Brown Ray and I am here to save this boy!”  It makes a great story.

The park is dotted with charming rock features constructed by the WPA and a large duck pond that predates the New Deal, with a stone “lighthouse” recently restored (it had leaned for years.)  The ducks are always hungry, and if you go in spring, you’re likely to see whole families of them.

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The Pendleton Historical Museum, remodeled from what had been a bath house (the creek once served as a public swimming pool) overlooks the falls; it is open to the public on weekends.

Only a couple of blocks from the park is the historic downtown, which offers nice antique and special interest shops, a coffee bistro called Gathering Grounds, and many marvelous old buildings for those of us who love them.  The New Deal-era post office features within a 1939 mural by William F. Kaeser, who a few years earlier had begun holding art classes for a group that decades later evolved into the Indianapolis Art Center.  The mural, a personal favorite, depicts muscular horses pulling a wagon of huge logs in lengthening shadows, silhouetted against the setting sun.

I recommend lunch or supper at Jimmie’s Dairy Bar ( Jimmies Dairy Bar) on the edge of town on Pendleton Pike near Water Street.   It’s an old fashioned drive-in that’s been there over fifty years. They advertise that they offer the “best barbecue in Indiana” and I’m not going to argue–it’s delicious, with bits of all kinds of things adding to the flavor.  The baked beans are wonderful, too.  It is, after all, a dairy bar, so you can satisfy your sweet tooth (any place that I can still get ice cream sodas is great with me!)

 

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The Road Less Taken: The Lincoln Highway in Eastern Ohio

I do so love old highways, especially those that have become byways, bereft of their numbers.  How much people miss by not taking just a bit more time along the way!   As mentioned in earlier postings, I grew up just off the former Lincoln Highway–the original 1913 route–in northern Indiana, very near to an early roadside landmark still standing (albeit changed some), the old Bob’s Corner, which stood on the north side of the Lincoln Highway at the junction of what later became two major highways, US20 and State Road 2.  Decades ago the junction, always dangerous, was moved a good ways east and proper traffic lights added, leaving the abandoned stretches of 20 and 2–the Lincoln Highway–to become Oak Knoll Road.  My family and I continued to use the old way, shaving off a good mile or so and avoiding the traffic light to and from LaPorte.

But I digress, which, of course, is the whole point of taking old roads.

The Lincoln Highway, a coast-to-coast route from New York to San Francisco, was the ambitious dream of Indianapolis entrepreneur Carl Fisher, a man known for his grand visions.  (Among other things, he and his partners founded the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and later, Miami Beach.)  In 1913 Fisher, long a promoter of automobiles, formed the Lincoln Highway Association.  The plan, audacious for its day (long before numbered routes), was for a clearly marked improved road across the nation.  By 1915 the route was complete, if not the actual improved roads.  A film of the entire length of the Lincoln Highway was made and shown at the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco that year.  The route of the original Lincoln Highway roughly (very, in several places) follows old US30, that is, except in Indiana, where the original 1913 route swoops northward to catch Goshen, Elkhart, South Bend, and LaPorte.  The revised 1928 route through Indiana did indeed follow mostly what is today old US30 through towns such as Warsaw and Plymouth.   Both routes became part of the Indiana state byway system last year.  Ohio’s portion of the Lincoln Highway in all its variant routes is part of a similar system.

Of course I’ve been all over Indiana’s routes, and over time and numerous trips, I had covered virtually all the spiderweb of routes of the Lincoln Highway in Ohio as well, except for the easternmost counties beyond Massillon, where, as in many Indiana towns, the main street is called Lincolnway.  In earlier posts I mentioned some of the joys of the route from Van Wert, not far from the Indiana line, eastward through Wooster, home to a fabulous Hungarian pastry shop and Books in Stock, a shop in which to lose yourself for hours.  I longed to see that last stretch of the Lincoln Highway that threads through Canton and beyond enters a wonderland of foothills, agricultural delights, and forgotten little towns.

And I had wanted to explore further the city of Mansfield, home to the Kingwood gardens (read about it here Home), a wonderful accidental discovery during one of those earlier Lincoln Highway diversions.  The first time I saw this it was late in the year and so there was no admission charge.  Endless gardens–not to mention hungry peacocks!  On its northeast side Mansfield also boasts the massive architectural wonder, the Ohio State Reformatory (Experience One of Our Nation’s Most Historic Treasures – Mansfield Reformatory Preservation Society) dating to the 1880s.  The city’s downtown, smack on the original Lincoln Highway, boasts many wonderful buildings and some interesting revitalization efforts.

But I also had a yen to return to an old tourist attraction that my family visited before I was five: Ohio Caverns, which was the kernel of another recent post (http://gloryjune.com/wordpress/?p=118 ).  The cave is northeast of Dayton amidst rolling farmland, so I planned a route incorporating the old National Road (US40, mostly) into Ohio, then northeastward to Ohio Caverns, and then continuing up to meet the Lincoln Highway at Bucyrus with a night stop in Wooster and breakfast the next morning at Tulipan Hungarian Pastry and Coffee Shop, good plan!

Starting eastward from Bucyrus, a county seat town (famous for its bratwurst!) on the Sandusky River, we watched for all those roadside artifacts that spoke of the Lincoln Highway’s heyday, such as the occasional road marker or something more esoteric, like this barely visible abandoned drive-in theater on the 1928 route via Crestline.

Much like Indiana and Illinois–and no doubt most of the other states this historic route traverses–Ohio’s Lincoln Highway diverges into multiple roads as the routes were refined over time or a town clamored to be included.  (Few part ways as much as the two main routes of Indiana’s section of the Highway, however.)  Earlier variations of the Lincoln Highway between Bucyrus and Mansfield wound through Galion, and it is a pleasant alternate route worth taking.

Most of the time what was once an old highway that has lost its official status is fairly obvious to me.  These roads shout out their former import in the way they are laid out, their width, and as I mentioned, evidence along the roadside, both glaring and subtle.  There might be the occasional Lincoln Highway pillar–a few do survive–or a barely visible remnant of a roadside park.   The architecture may suggest the heyday of the highway.  I  rarely listen to the radio or converse with my fellow traveler in the midst of these excursions, preferring instead to hear the road’s song.  It never grows old, although it is timeless.

The route through Crestline takes one into Mansfield north of the main drag but eventually goes to Park Avenue, passing the afore-mentioned Kingwood Gardens.  We decided to stop and see the peacocks, who evidently remembered that we’d fed them in the past.

After threading through Mansfield, the Lincoln Highway to Wooster is a very pretty stretch, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, winding through woods and farms and little towns like Mifflin and Hayesville.   We stopped to eat at the Oak Park Tavern, a roadside supper club near Mifflin dating to 1940 (read about it here:  Oak Park Tavern ) and spent the night in Wooster.

The next morning, fortified with a wonderful breakfast of rolled omelets at Tulipan ( Tulipan Pastry and Coffee Shop ) and armed with a couple of Hungarian open-faced sandwiches for the road, we set off toward Massillon and the unknown Lincoln Highway beyond.  I was delighted to discover another Twistee Treat (mentioned in an earlier blog http://gloryjune.com/wordpress/?p=92) on the east side of Massillon.   Two within a few miles on my favorite highway!  Cool!  These ice cream cone buildings are wonderful examples of mimetic roadside architecture and evoke a much earlier era than when they were actually built.

In the once-industrial city of Canton, probably known best as the home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the Lincoln Highway is Tuscarawas Street, the main drag, which boasts a number of architectural gems.  But beyond this urban diversion, adventure beckoned, and it was easy to feel the wonder of the early road.   In the days before road maps, how did an intrepid automobile traveler find his way?  The Lincoln Highway, as did others, offered guidebooks that relied heavily on landmarks and mileage.  A compass would have been useful, too.  But also there were concrete markers placed at intervals.  Here is one of several that survive in Ohio, this one about five miles east of Canton.

This was only one of a seemingly endless stream of early road artifacts in this section of the highway, which grows ever more hilly as one travels east.  The road laughed and so did I at the joy of discovery.  Numerous old, mostly former, 1950s-era motels appeared; there were more concrete markers, and most intriguing of all, several short abandoned segments of the original highway, paved with brick and wide enough for a Model T.   Bumping along these, time travel becomes real.

The charming town of Lisbon, the Columbiana County seat, was worth a brief stop to admire the courthouse and other interesting 19th century buildings.  Ohio’s portion of the Lincoln Highway ends sixteen miles farther on in East Liverpool, situated along the fabled Ohio River across from West Virginia.  Here once thrived an immense ceramics industry, fed by the wonderful clay found in this region.  Almost all the scores of factories are gone now, and the two that I knew best (given my fondness for 1930s kitchenware), Hall and Homer Laughlin, have merged.  But the story is still told in the Museum of Ceramics, housed in the city’s glorious former post office built in 1909.  It is a fascinating place, displaying examples of all the pottery and china that was once made in the area (read more about it here: http://www.themuseumofceramics.org/index.html ).  Lifesize dioramas illustrate the manufacturing process.  The museum gets little funding, but boasts a dedicated and very knowledgeable staff.  Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the building, hardly a block from the river, stands on the highway that was created four years later, with a concrete marker in front of the entrance to prove it.   Not terribly far from it is the Hall/Homer Laughlin factory outlet, at the site of the Hall factory; the Homer Laughlin factory, home of Fiesta ware, lies just across the river in West Virginia.  Tours are possible, but for another day.  East Liverpool deserves more exploration as well.  Always something to call me back! 

 

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