Moment of Indiana History
shows Archive
July 23, 2007
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Raintree County Festival
Every summer, the town of Danville, Kentucky sets aside two weeks to commemorate the anniversary of the filming of the last epic film made during MGM’s “Golden Age of Cinematography.” The Raintree County Festival casts a nostalgic glance back to 1957, when Liz Taylor, Montgomery Clift and Eva Marie Saint descended on the Kentucky town to shoot a picture based on a thoroughly Hoosier saga.
July 16, 2007
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Churubusco Turtle Days
Although he’s not as famous as the Loch Ness Monster, Oscar of Churubusco has his very own summer festival. Since 1950, folks in Whitley County have paid tribute to their own version of “Nessie” during Churubusco Turtle Days.
July 9, 2007
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Fred Jewell
In many places around the country, it just wouldn’t be summer without a performance by the municipal band on the town square. The band’s program would be equally inconceivable without a healthy dose of marches. Along with John Philip Sousa and Karl King, Hoosier Fred Jewell may be credited with a good deal of the march repertoire still heard across the U.S
July 2, 2007
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Pekin of Fourth of July
Although these observances predate it, the Pekin celebration is noteworthy for having recurred annually since its inception in 1830, when several families gathered for the 54 th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Though Pekin was platted on the south side of the Blue River in 1831, within twenty years a station for passengers traveling on the New Albany and Salem Railroad was built on the river’s more level north side.
June 25, 2007
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Jim Jones
The tragic outcome of the Jonestown Agricultural Project is well known. A thorough understanding of the 1978 massacre of more than 900 people in Guyana, however, remains elusive—as does common knowledge of the group’s roots and its leader. Jim Jones called Indiana home for the first 34 of his 47 years. Born in Crete in 1931, James Warren Jones was raised in Lynn, another small town in Randolph County.
June 18, 2007
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Charity Dye
A portrait of the Indiana Historical Commission in 1915 shows eight members, some bearded and most white-haired, in similarly cut three-piece suits. But it is the ninth commissioner that especially piques our curiosity. Barely peeking above the others’ shoulders is a woman of a certain age, in a broad-rimmed black hat. Having just begun serving on the commission when that portrait was made, Charity Dye used the appointment to play a major role in the state’s Centennial Celebration.
June 11, 2007
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Unigov
Toward the end of the 1960s, a diminishing tax base and a deteriorating downtown prompted Indianapolis civic leaders to push for measures that would revive the city. In 1970, the Indiana state legislature provided for the consolidation of the governments of Indianapolis and Marion County.
June 4, 2007
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Hoosier Puzzlemaster II
Public radio listeners are most likely familiar with the name Will Shortz. The Puzzlemaster from NPR’s Weekend Edition on Sunday mornings has been on the air since that program started in 1987. The estimated sixty-four million Americans who work crosswords have probably also encountered the native Hoosier’s name at some point or another.
June 4, 2007
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Extension Homemakers
As the days grow brisker and the leaves take on brilliant hues, many Americans of a certain generation are wont to characterize the season with an expression born in Indiana. “When the frost is on the punkin” is the opening phrase of a classic poem by James Whitcomb Riley.
May 28, 2007
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Hoosier Puzzlemaster I
The publication of a Sudoku puzzle in the Indianapolis Star on January 22, 2006 represented a sort of homecoming for the number-based puzzle. Although the addictive brain-teaser based on the 18th-century concept of the Latin square first gained renown in Japan, its long-concealed roots are in Indiana. Debuting without a byline in Dell Pencil Puzzles and Word Games in 1979 as “Number Place,” the puzzle showed up in a Japanese magazine in the mid-80s with an unwieldy title meaning “the digits must occur only once.”
