Spring Mill State Park hosts program on railroad history

Aug 18, 2023

Spring Mill State Park will host "What do Railroads Do?," a talk on railroad history, at 2 p.m. June 17 at 2 p.m. in the park's Pioneer Village tavern.

Two long-distance railroad lines were built close to Spring Mill in the 1850s. These lines were a big reason the milling business was successful in the village, and why there was flour milling in nearby Mitchell. A similar story played out in Jackson County, where a mill in Rockford closed, but a new mill opened in nearby Seymour, a town the railroad ran through.

David Nord's presentation will compare these two stories and talk about how the railroads changed these areas. Nord is a professor emeritus of journalism and adjunct professor emeritus of history at Indiana University. He is a former interim editor and associate editor of the Journal of American History of Spring Mill and Lawrence County. The journal recently completed Mapping Lawrence County, Indiana: An Annotated Bibliography 1818 to 1941. The story is available as a downloadable PDF through the online catalogs of the Indiana Historical Society, the Indiana State Library, and Indiana University.

Spring Mill State Park is a 1,358-acre state park south of Bloomington and about three miles east of Mitchell. It contains a settler's village, the Gus Grissom Memorial, a nature center and campgrounds.

It is also home to the Spring Mill Inn, although the inn is currently undergoing renovations.

The park is at 3333 Indiana 60 East, Mitchell. For more information, call 812-849-3534.

Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles.