An authoritative look at the Dixie Highway in Indiana
The Dixinana Cafe and Service Station south of La Paz
on the Dixie Highway
Images of America: Dixie Highway in Indiana provides an authoritative look at the route through the Hoosier state. Through the use of vintage and contemporary photographs, postcards, advertisements, and other historical records, the reader is immersed in information about the Indiana’s Dixie Highway. Coauthors Russell S. Rein and Jan Shupert-Arick’s extensive archives and research produced a resource that sparks an interest in touring this gem of Indiana automotive heritage.
In December 1914, Hoosier entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher wrote to Indiana governor Samuel Ralston proposing that a highway be built from Chicago to Miami Beach. Ralston believed in good roads and supported Fisher’s suggestion. Ralston hosted fellow governors from Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia for a meeting about the highway, which was held in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in April 1915. The governors agreed and pledged support of the road. Fisher soon led 15 cars from Indianapolis to Miami on a Dixie Highway path-finding tour. On September 15, 1915, governor Ralston laid the first brick in a stretch of pavement in Martinsville, on the first official section of the Dixie Highway to be completed.
The book’s vintage photos document early structures, homes, and tourist hotels along the early route. Many of these features don’t exist today. I especially enjoy the early 1910’s and 1920’s street scenes and recalling what these areas look like today.
The original Dixie Highway route in northern Indiana passes through Roseland and west of the University of Notre Dame before crossing the St. Joseph River into South Bend at Leeper Park. I wasn’t aware that South Bend’s first settler and fur trader, Pierre Navarre’s, cabin still stands nearby this junction.
I like how the coauthors document the Potawatomi Nation in north-central Indiana. They note that Marshall County was formed in 1836 in an area occupied by the Potawatomi Nation. In the fall of 1838, the Potawatomi were forcibly moved from this region to eastern Kansas. Of the 859 Potawatomi who started, 41 died along the way and were buried in unmarked graves. A Trail of Death marker is on a stone near where the old iron bridge crossed the Tippecanoe River north of Rochester. This spot marks the gathering place where the Potawatomi people met before their departure from Indiana.
For some time I’ve wondered why the Dixie Highway from Indianapolis to Louisville, Kentucky takes the dog-leg shaped route through Martinsville, Bloomington, Bedford, Paoli and New Albany. This book provides the answer. Former Indianapolis Mayor and Indiana Dixie Highway Association Vice-chairman Thomas Taggart influenced the Dixie Highway Commission in selecting the route through southern Indiana. The road from Indianapolis to New Albany skirted Taggert’s internationally known French Lick Springs Hotel and mineral spa 10 miles west of the route through Paoli.
Rein’s and Shupert-Arick’s research, writing, and selection of photographs provide insights about the early days along the Dixie Highway in Indiana. Their captions involve the reader in planning a trip. My copy of the book is well annotated for my next exploration of the Dixie Highway across Indiana.
