By Glenda Winders
To see the Central Canal in downtown Indianapolis today, you'd never guess that work on this scenic, energetic, culture-filled area was at one time stopped and the project deemed a complete failure.
In 1836, inspired by the success of the Erie Canal in New York, the Indiana General Assembly passed an act to create a better system of transportation throughout the state. Millions of dollars went into roads, railroads and canals, with the Central Canal the most expensive. It was intended to run 296 miles to connect the Wabash and Erie Canal to the Ohio River. But three years later, with only 26 miles dug and nine miles operational, money ran out.
In the 1980s the city began to restore the canal, extending it into White River State Park and the Indianapolis Zoo. Then in 2004 the Indianapolis Cultural Development Commission established the Central Canal and White River State Park as one of the city's six cultural districts that can be enjoyed by people of all ages.
Today the walk along the canal is alive with bikers, bladers, runners and walkers. Some people push baby carriages, others roll through on Segway tours. Paddleboats are available for rent, and in the summer a Venice-style gondola plies the waters. The canal area is also a venue for outdoor concerts in warmer months.
Arranged around the canal are several of Indianapolis' most important and exciting museums, and that's where my husband and I enter the picture. At the prodding of friends who had recently seen some of the exhibits and pronounced them unforgettable, we set aside a few days to see what these institutions had to offer.
To celebrate Indiana's bicentennial, we decided to start at the Indiana State Museum's "Indiana in 200 Objects." I had heard it described as "fabulous" and "extraordinary" by several people. One of those was James H. Madison, a professor of history at Indiana University and author of "Hoosiers: A New History of Indiana," who said in a talk I attended, "You have simply got to go see it." He was right.
The curators have gathered 200 significant pieces and displayed them in creative ways. Among some of the most memorable are the leather jacket Elton John gave to AIDS victim Ryan White, World War II journalist Ernie Pyle's typewriter, Gus Grissom's NASA nametag, and Bobby Plump's warm-up jacket from Milan High School, which inspired the movie "Hoosiers." Also there is a life jacket signed by the survivors of the USS Indianapolis, an early TV set made by RCA, one of Michael Jackson's costumes and a teaspoon wrapped around a twig found after the 1965 tornado in Elkhart.
For another memorable but very different trip to the past we visited the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center, which houses the Indiana Historical Society. Here, in the "You Are There" exhibits, we literally stepped through the mists of time to the year 1948 and Muncie, Indiana, where we encountered three women cutting up apples they would turn into applesauce and can in glass jars made by the Ball Bros. Since women canning at home could only do small batches, the company created a way for them to bring their own produce and preserve it along with that of others for the coming winter. They also provided a playground where children could play while their mothers worked and visited.
"It's nice to be able to sit and talk to other women and not have to have our children around," said a costumed interpreter who identified herself as "Mrs. Taylor." "We can be productive while we talk and have some semblance of a social life. We're not exactly bridge club material."
Our next stop took us to pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly's first small laboratory and the year 1877. Col. Lilly, as he was called because of his Union service in the Civil War, showed us how he made pill compounds by mixing up a batter, rolling it into a "snake" and then using a shaper to cut off the small bits that would be dried and then coated with cocoa, cinnamon and sugar to make them palatable.
"Prior to my company, pharmacies had to mix up medicines every time they had a customer," he said. "Now they're higher in quality and consistency."
When I told the very convincing Lilly that many years in the future I would tour his company with my high school science club and see how pills were polished in massive tumblers, he asked if I had been drinking some of the medicinal wine he had shown us.
In another exhibit and the year 1816 delegates gather to draft the state constitution. In the Cole Porter Room, decorated to resemble a lounge at the Waldorf Astoria in New York, visitors are invited to choose one of Porter's songs for a professional singer to perform.
To go back even farther into history we went next to the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, whose mission is to present American Indian history in the state that was named for them. The Southwest architecture of the building is as much a part of the experience as the exhibits inside, which include sculptures by Frederic Remington and paintings by Albert Bierstadt. Other exhibits display Indian artifacts and situations re-created by artists. Most spectacular is the flag Gen. Anthony Wayne presented to Miami chief She-Moc-E-Nish at the signing of the Greenville (Ohio) Treaty in 1795.
We came back to contemporary times with the NCAA Museum located adjacent to the organization's national office. Here great moments in college sports are captured in sculptures, flags and memorabilia. What we liked best, however, was the constantly running film that shows students what can be accomplished with athletic scholarships if they work hard, stay in school and make good grades.
The hotel where we stayed, the Crowne Plaza Indianapolis Downtown Union Station, is worth a mention because of its own extraordinary history and convenient location. Opened in 1853, the building was at one time the city's main railroad station, but when railroad service dwindled, it was scheduled for demolition. A local architect formed a committee to save the station, and in the 1990s it opened as a hotel. The fun part is that they also refurbished 13 1920s-style railroad cars into guest rooms and did the renovation around them. Today "ghost" statues created by Indianapolis native Gary Rittenhouse are reminiscent of the building's earlier days. The figures include a nun holding a suitcase, a newsboy hawking papers and hobos helping one another climb aboard.
The hotel is within walking distance of the White River State Park in one direction and of the statehouse and the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in another. It's adjacent to the Indiana Convention Center and just across the street from Lucas Oil Stadium, where the Colts play, and Victory Field, where the Indians baseball team plays.
We only took our car out once, and that was to visit the Indianapolis Museum of Art just a 10-minute drive away. Robert Indiana's iconic "Love" statue on the front lawn greets visitors, and inside is a remarkable collection that includes pieces by well-known artists. But my favorites were an 1894 version of the very canal we had been visiting — "Morning Effect" by Richard B. Griolle — and a painting of favorite-son poet James Whitcomb Riley by favorite-son artist T.C. Steele.
Our visit had been the perfect way to celebrate the state's bicentennial. Happy birthday, Indiana.
WHEN YOU GO
For help planning a trip to Indianapolis: www.visitindy.com
The "Indiana in 200 Objects" exhibit will be on display until Jan. 29, 2017: www.indianamuseum.org.
The "You Are There" exhibits at the Indiana Historical Society are ongoing but change periodically: www.indianahistory.org.
The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art: www.eiteljorg.org
The NCAA Hall of Champions: www.ncaahallofchampions.org
Indianapolis Museum of Art: www.imamuseum.org
Crowne Plaza Indianapolis Downtown Union Station:
www.ihg.com/crowneplaza/hotels/us/en/indianapolis/inddt/hoteldetail?cm_mmc=GoogleMaps-_-CP-_-USA-_-INDDT
Glenda Winders is a freelance writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
View Comments