Little Indiana

Jessica Nunemaker

Description

2016 Foreword Indies Finalist, Travel category

Best of Indiana Journalism, Nonfiction Book Category, from the Society of Professional Journalists

View a list of addresses for businesses featured in Little Indiana Connect with the author: Website Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest Google+ Flickr

Where was James Dean's hometown? What do A. J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, and Al Unser have in common besides winning the Indianapolis 500? Where was the world's first theme park? Find these answers and more in Little Indiana: Small Town Destinations. Featuring towns of 15,000 or fewer inhabitants, Little Indiana explores where to eat, stay, play, and shop in over 90 small towns. After six years of traveling the state in search of amazing local experiences, blogger and TV host Jessica Nunemaker shares a treasure trove of what to expect in Hoosier small towns. Perfect for any length of excursion—day or weekend—the book is organized by region and town and provides travelers easy access to information found nowhere else. From wineries to antique shops, alpaca farms to chocolate stores, unique attractions are awaiting discovery. Full-color images showcase specialty stores, mouth-watering meals, and exciting attractions tucked off the beaten path. Proof that there's always something to do in a small town, this book is the perfect way to kick-start your next Indiana adventure!

Preface
Acknowledgements
Northern Indiana
1. Bremen
2. Brookston
3. Chesterton
4. Converse
5. DeMotte
6. Denver
7. Francesville
8. Furnessville
9. Kouts
10. Kniman
11. La Fontaine
12. Lowell
13. Monticello
14. Monon
15. Morocco
16. Nappanee
17. North Judson
18. North Liberty
19. Peru
20. Porter
21. Remington
22. Rensselaer
23. Roann
24. Roselawn
25. Star City
26. Wabash
27. Wakarusa
28. Walkerton
29. Wheatfield
30. Williamsport
31. Wolcott

Central Indiana
32. Arcadia
33. Battle Ground
34. Cambridge City
35. Centerville
36. Cicero
37. Covington
38. Cutler
39. Danville
40. Dayton
41. Delphi
42. Fairmount
43. Farmland
44. Fortville
45. Fountain
46. Fountain City
47. Gas City
48. Greencastle
49. Greens Fork
50. Hagerstown
51. Kirklin
52. Knightstown
53. Maplewood
54. Martinsville
55. Matthews
56. Morgantown
57. Mulberry
58. North Salem
59 Perkinsville
60. Romney
61. Rossville
62. Swayzee
63. Upland
64. Winchester

Southern Indiana
65. Batesville
66. Bean Blossom
67. Cannelton
68. Corydon
69. French Lick
70. Friendship
71. Greensburg
72. Hatfield
73. Holton
74. Huntingburg
75. Leavenworth
76. Lincoln City
77. Madison
78. Marengo
79. Mauckport
80. Milan
81. Moorefield
82. Nashville
83. Osgood
84. Paoli
85. Rockport
86. Santa Claus
87. Salem
88. Scottsburg
89. St. Meinrad
90. Tell City
91. Versailles
List of Addresses
Index

Sujets

• Midwest
• Transportation
• Restaurants
• Medio Oeste de Estados Unidos
• Restaurante
• Lodging
• Travel
• General officer
• Midwestern United States
• Food
• Restaurant
• General
• United States
• Feed
• Middle West
• Indiana

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 29 avril 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253020703
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

This book is a publication of
Quarry Books an imprint of
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS Office of Scholarly Publishing Herman B Wells Library 350 1320 East 10th Street Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
2016 by Jessica Nunemaker All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in China
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nunemaker, Jessica. Little Indiana : small town destinations / Jessica Nunemaker. pages cm Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-253-02061-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) - ISBN 978-0-253-02070-3 (ebook) 1. Indiana-Guidebooks. 2. Cities and towns-Indiana-Guidebooks. 3. Indiana-Description and travel. 4. Indiana-History, Local. I. Title. F524.3.N86 2016 977.2-dc23
2015034021
1 2 3 4 5 21 20 19 18 17 16
For Jeremiah, Joey, and Jack. Here s to hours more car time, my awesome parking ability, made up songs, Baby s Butter, and a whole lot of laughs!
For my Dad, Richard Holobowski, the original little Indiana.
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
NORTHERN INDIANA
1. Bremen
2. Brookston
3. Chesterton
4. Converse
5. DeMotte
6. Denver
7. Francesville
8. Furnessville
9. Kniman
10. Kouts
11. La Fontaine
12. Lowell
13. Monon
14. Monticello
15. Morocco
16. Nappanee
17. North Judson
18. North Liberty
19. Peru
20. Porter
21. Remington
22. Rensselaer
23. Roann
24. Roselawn
25. Star City
26. Wabash
27. Wakarusa
28. Walkerton
29. Wheatfield
30. Williamsport
31. Wolcott
CENTRAL INDIANA
32. Arcadia
33. Battle Ground
34. Cambridge City
35. Centerville
36. Cicero
37. Covington
38. Cutler
39. Danville
40. Dayton
41. Delphi
42. Fairmount
43. Farmland
44. Fortville
45. Fountain
46. Fountain City
47. Gas City
48. Greencastle
49. Greens Fork
50. Hagerstown
51. Kirklin
52. Knightstown
53. Maplewood
54. Martinsville
55. Matthews
56. Morgantown
57. Mulberry
58. North Salem
59. Perkinsville
60. Romney
61. Rossville
62. Swayzee
63. Upland
64. Winchester
SOUTHERN INDIANA
65. Batesville
66. Bean Blossom
67. Cannelton
68. Corydon
69. French Lick
70. Friendship
71. Greensburg
72. Hatfield
73. Holton
74. Huntingburg
75. Leavenworth
76. Lincoln City
77. Madison
78. Marengo
79. Mauckport
80. Milan
81. Moorefield
82. Nashville
83. Osgood
84. Paoli
85. Rockport
86. Salem
87. Santa Claus
88. Scottsburg
89. St. Meinrad
90. Tell City
91. Versailles
List of Addresses
Index
Preface
It began with sirens. Our first December in our small town had so far been a typical Indiana winter: bleak. We were just getting ready to sit down for dinner when sirens started wailing. They sounded so close. My husband decided that he would hurry out and see what he could do to help because they droned on and on. He rushed out the door and burst almost right back in, yelling, Get your coats on! You aren t going to believe this, but there s a Christmas parade down the street!
Christmas lights twinkled in storefronts. Color-guard flags rippled in time to the marching band music. Teens driving red or green tractors threw out candy, while bundled-up folks followed alongside floats passing out candy canes. Even Santa was there. All this holiday cheer was happening a mere block and a half from our home-and we had no idea. That got me thinking. If we didn t know about the parade, and we lived right in town, then how many other people didn t know?
After walking through a crumbling opera house where James Whitcomb Riley once took to the stage, somewhere I had never even heard about yet I lived less than an hour away from, I knew I had a good thing going. After a few trips, I began to see a recurring theme: every small town had something. Whether it was a winery, chocolate shop, pioneer cemetery, or other attraction, these little communities had all the appeal of the big-city stops but without the high prices, traffic, or anonymity. Customers weren t just people to hurry out the door but opportunities to socially connect and pass along the latest town news. It s the kind of places where one dollar can still (amazingly) buy a cup of coffee, kids ride their bikes down Main Street, and folks sit on their front-porch swing most evenings.
It took more than a year to fine-tune the idea. The website went live in 2009, eleven days before the birth of our second son. After visiting so many towns, after speaking with so many people, and reading e-mail after e-mail from online readers or television viewers asking for help planning trips, a book seemed the next natural step. The majority of travel guides focus on cities, or when they actually include small towns, it s the same small towns and same recognizable landmarks used in every other print publication. Little Indiana is different. I have traveled to each and every one of these destinations. Knowing, as I do, that some of you are trying to follow along in my travels, a handy checklist (with contact information) is included to make your travels that much easier. There is no scheduled itinerary. Part of the fun of small-town traveling is discovering the unexpected and incorporating it into your day. During our travels, some of our happiest memories were made because we ditched our schedule and embraced the accidental. Always remember to call ahead, carry some cash, and learn to go with the small-town flow.
Events, festivals, and the everyday: there are so many incredible things inside these towns. Please do not consider an omission a lack of interest. As a one-woman show (with family in tow), I have tried to seek out a healthy range of towns that are fifteen thousand people or fewer but have certainly not visited all three thousand of them . . . at least not yet. They are a reflection of what we have seen and done. Do not take it as a final answer but as the base of a small town, the starting point. My must travel list is brimming with plenty more I d like to tackle.
Although I originally saw Little Indiana as a sort of small-town travel guide, I learned that it has an audience reaching far more than travelers. Hoosiers, displaced Hoosiers, and even soldiers serving overseas have turned to the website to connect with home, to remember childhoods, to savor a memory, and to make new ones.
Little Indiana captures these small towns for a moment in time. Everything that a town is-the restaurants, museums, and bridges-is captured, cherished, and preserved right here. I hope this book will inspire you to venture off the interstate, explore your own backyard, see what is out there, and fall in love with Indiana all over again.
Acknowledgments
Since 2009 Little Indiana has been exploring. That kind of travel is made so much easier with the help of folks who know their stuff. From reader e-mails to social media connections and random chats on the street, thank you for sharing your small-town story with me.
With years of traveling Indiana behind me, there are a multitude of people more than deserving of a little recognition, like all of the small business owners who opened their doors to me and my camera, especially in the early days before the site had any readers. Thank you to the crew, hosts, and fabulous producer, Sarah Curtiss, of The Weekly Special for providing Little Indiana with another outlet to spread the shop-small message. Thanks to Laura Baich, electronic marketing manager at Indiana University Press, for setting things in motion, and Sarah Jacobi, my sponsoring editor, and Michelle Sybert for taking on this project. I apologize now for the barrage of questions to come.
These pieces of Indiana history are common knowledge . . . in the towns where it happened. Years of visiting town museums have provided plenty of fodder (when I could read my handwriting), and the historians behind the museums in this book are so incredibly capable. I am especially grateful to Jayne Beers of the Clay Township Historical Society Museum, Jerry Cole of Historic Farmland, Susan Cottingham of the Osgood Museum, Brandi Hess at the Perry County Museum, Roselyn McKittrick at the Milan 1954 Hoosiers Museum, and Mark Allen Smith, the Delphi/Carroll County historian who wears many hats. You ve instilled a love of history in our children in addition to showcasing your town s past so wonderfully.
Tourism is a tough job, particularly when there s a family of four involved. Special thanks are in order for the organized and informed tourism pros I have worked with over the years. Although this is an incomplete list, the following folks travel assistance went a long way toward becoming the book in your hands: Kim Blumenstock of Harrison County Convention and Visitors Bureau, Melissa Brockman at Spencer County Visitors Bureau, Kate Burkhardt at Hamilton County Tourism, Josh D