New Harmony,
Indiana is a very small town in southern Indiana. When I say small, I
mean really really small. The 2010 census put the population at less
than 800 people. I cannot imagine living in a town so small, but
there are obviously enough people who will.
The town is in
Posey County, which is the most southwestern county in Indiana. New
Harmony is on the Wabash River, which forms the border with the state
of Illinois.
New Harmony has
been around for a long time, it was first founded in 1814, a couple
years before Indiana became a state.
They settled here because it was
on the water, which was a necessity back then. At the time, goods
were often shipped by water, and you were missing out if you weren't
close to water.
George Rapp, the
original founder, came from Germany, and early visitors to the area
apparently mentioned feeling as though they were back in the old
country. Though the community was originally founded by a religious
group, the main focus seemed to be on industrial work. There were
factories for a brewery, a distillery, and a wool carding and
spinning factory.
The original
founders of the town were there for only 10-11 years. When they
decided to leave, they sold their land, and Robert Owen bought
everything.
Robert Owen was a
Welsh industrialist and social reformer, he bought the town with the
plan of creating a utopian society. It didn't work, and crashed hard,
but a lot of the ideas are still around.
Even though the
Owenite group failed in their desires, they did things like open a
free library, make schools open to both men and women, and more.
The town is laid
out in a grid pattern, which makes it easy for visitors to get
around.
I drove from
Bloomington to New Harmony, about 130 miles in two hours, heading
almost straight southwest. It was easy to find a place to park, there
is plenty of street parking.
First up was a
church, but not just any chuch. It doesn't look at all like a church,
and if I hadn't known about it ahead of time I never would've thought
it was a church. It's called a roofless church, and to describe it
I'd say this: a giant coffee mug turned upside down, with the bottom
(roof) cut out. Wikipedia tells me the shape is like an upside down
rosebud, but I like my description better.
This church is a 'new'
addition to the town, as it was only dedicated in 1960. It's an open
air, interdenominational church. I'm not sure if regular services are
held there, but I imagine it is used for special events from time to
time.
The whole thing is
in a small-ish courtyard surrounded by red brick walls. There is
nothing but carefully tended grass in the courtyard, so your eyes are
drawn to the church.
A bit further down
the road was another new building, the Atheneum. It has a fancy name,
and quirky architecture, but it seems to be a visitors and tourist
information center. I went inside, and grabbed a paper map of town,
but that was it.
One side of the
Atheneum grounds is on the river, so I headed that way next. The
banks of the river don't seem like a place for people to hang out,
but maybe that's because it was just before noon on a hot and humid
summer day.
I could see a
bridge heading over the river, to Illinois, but as I got closer I
could see that the bridge was closed, and falling apart. I wonder how
long it has been in that condition. I wanted to walk out onto the
bridge and take a few photos, as it would've been easy to go over the
barricades at the end of the bridge, but I didn't want to get in
legal trouble ;)
I walked back
toward the visitors center, and found a labyrinth on the ground, near
a cemetery. Imagine a hedge maze, with the lines on the ground,
instead of vertical hedges. Does that make sense? It took some time
to sort out the correct path to get out, which is the point, I
suppose.
One of the
buildings in the city center used to be a school gymnasium, and still
had that architecture, at least on the outside. From what I could
tell, it is now an event center, so I wasn't able to go in, darnit.
On one side of New
Harmony I got to see the sight that is probably the most photographed
sight in the town: a proper hedge maze! It was fun to walk through,
and good to know that there are small gates you can open in case you
lose patience for finding the correct path. By this point in the day
I was having a hard time with the heat and humidity, sweat was
rolling down my back nearly constantly. Gross.
Since I knew I
needed to cool down, I made my way toward a building I knew was open:
the library. This building had a library in one side of the building,
and a local museum in the other side. Free entry, there wasn't any kind of entry desk at all, woo hoo!
I wasn't particularly thrilled
with the exhibits, and normally wouldn't have spent much time inside,
but the air conditioning felt fantastic.
After cooling down
in the library and museum, I walked back to my car and started
driving toward Vincennes. The drive was over an hour, a bit over 60
miles almost directly north, nearly entirely on state highways.
Modern Vincennes
was founded in 1732 by French fur traders. It was named for one of
the traders, Francois-Marie Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes.
With this
founding date, it is the longest continually inhabited European
settlement in Indiana, and one of the oldest settlements west of the
Appalachian mountains. The next few hundred years involved a lot of
fighting between different European countries.
Native Americans
lived in the area for thousands of years before Europeans arrived.
Even though various groups of American Indians lived in the area for
much longer than any Europeans, there is far less documented history
of them.
Vincennes was the
first capital of the Indiana Territory, until that was moved to
Corydon in 1813. The city currently has nearly 20,000 residents.
Immediately after
arriving in Vincennes I found a place to eat. A diner of sorts,
combined with an ice cream shop. Is there any better combination?
I came to Vincennes
because I wanted to see the George Rogers Clark memorial. It's huge,
and is supposed to be on the sight of the former Ft Sackville. The
fort was captured by Clark (and his men,) from the British during the
American Revolution, so its an appropriate location for the memorial.
I found parking not
too far from the memorial, thank goodness. It's a giant rotunda, with
a big statue of the guy inside.
Unfortunately I didn't think about
going inside until just after the doors were locked and closed for
the day, argh. The memorial sits on the banks of the Wabash River, in
sight of Lincoln Bridge, which crosses the state border over to
Illinois.
There is a
riverwalk along the water, but the water itself isn't very pretty at
that particular spot. I would've walked a little longer, but the
humidity and direct sun was wearing me out.
On the other side
of the memorial was a big Catholic Church, with a grand European,
classical interior. I was thrilled that the front door was open and I
was able to step inside for a few minutes.
The interior of the
chuch was quiet, which I loved. The ceiling was fantastic, and I was
able to climb stairs to a viewpoint over the entire sanctuary.
Beautiful.
Not too far from
all of this, I could see a local festival taking place. I didn't
figure out what kind of festival it was, but I'm guessing something
related to summer. There were vendors selling snacks like popcorn and
cotton candy, families and friends hanging out.
Another sight I'd
found on a map was the county courthouse, a building that is almost
always quite grand in comparison to other buildings when you're not
in the capital city of a state.
Rather than try to sort out another
place to park, I opted to walk. The streets between the Rogers Clark
memorial and the county courthouse are probably considered 'downtown'
Vincennes. They looked like small town main street, very quaint.
On the corner of
the courthouse property I found a Civil War memorial, which was neat
to see. I've long felt that Americans don't learn or remember much of
the history of our own country, so memorials are a good thing. When
you learn history you're far less likely to repeat it.
After that I walked
back to my car and drove back to Bloomington. I don't think I need to
return to New Harmony, but there is definitely plenty more to see and
do in Vincennes.
No comments:
Post a Comment