Hoosier Byways

Hoosier Byways postcards, note cards and textured frameable prints are available to collectors and dealers. We invite you to a mini tour of Hoosierland. Welcome to a State of Variety.   © Hoosier Byways views are copyright.

Please visit again soon-we are continually striving to expand our offerings.

Ordering information is found beneath this first photo group. 

RAILFANS-your photo section is the caboose of this page.  Click on individual photos for larger view.  

Welcome to an information loaded page. Our shopping cart [click here] uses secure paypal payment plan for regularly in stock items. For advance reservation, special sale and limited availability items please use our 800 service or mail order. You are also welcome to order in stock items by 800 or mail [click here for more detailed instruction].  For the very latest updates click here.

 
   

 

BARNS and BRIDGES.

 

 

5-P74

Covered bridges are found throughout Indiana. Spencerville, Versailles, Brown County Park, Roann, Putnam County-but  Parke County is well known for its 31 and the Covered Bridge Festival in autumn and Mushroom and Maple times in spring, two grist mills (one is the oldest grist mill west of the Appalachians).  These features are found, however, scattered all about the state.   

5-P74 or 5-N174

 

1914 Covered Bridge one of several in Rush County

5-P17

 

5-P7

5-P17 or 5-N17 Red Barn near Metamora

5-P7 or 5-N74 Mule Barn, near Liberty- Glen Welch photo

5-P12

 

5-P22

5-P12 or 5-N12 Tobacco Barn near Rising Sun

5-P22 or 5-N22  Duck Creek Aquaduct,White- water Canal crosses Duck Creek.Metamora,IN

5-P67

 

5-P68

5-P67 or5-N67 1886 Covered Bridge, Moscow

5-P68 or 5-N68   Moscow Covered Bridge

5-P69  

 

5-P70

5-P69 or 5-N69 1888 Covered Bridge, Rush Co

5-P70 or 5N70 1888 Covered Bridge, Rush Co

5-P71

 

5-P72

5-P71 or 5-N71 1877 Covered Bridge, Rush Co

5-P72 or 5-N72 1916 Covered Bridge, Rush Co

 

5-P73

 

 

5-P75  

5-P73 or 5-N73 1914 Covered Bridge, Rush Co

5-P75 or 5-N75 1914 Covered Bridge,Rush Co.

 

 

 

 

For many, Hoosierland is simply territory to be traversed between here and there.  Traveling across the north to Chicago one could easily miss the relaxing lakes or interesting Amish country and suspect that Indiana is a vast flatland of corn. Crossing the south, one might wonder that the Appalachians stretched so far west-and miss the revolutionary era character so important to our nation's existence.  The underground caves, Corydon capital, huge old cotton mill at Cannelton or Evansville's unique blend of Germany and Memphis contrast with bustling Fort Wayne, Indianapolis or South Bend so dramatically that there is no one caricature that can capture it all. Hoosiers not only grow corn, but mint, tobacco, tomatoes, pecans, walnuts, melons, peaches and persimmons . They mine coal and limestone.  They manufacture autos and artificial limbs. We are, well, genuine people.

 

The Hoosier byways photo series is expanding to include slices of mid-America captured over several decades.  These photos are copyrighted. Postcards, frameable prints and note cards are available to individual collectors and retailers for resale and are not overprinted with the Hoosier Byways legend.  As you travel on down this page, you'll find several portions of the state represented – as well as some shots for railfans  Please inquire about larger, frameable,  prints as large as 11x17 inches.

 

Individual postcards (regular size) may be ordered at 3 for $1 (tax included) when you include a stamped, self addressed envelope for their delivery.  (Extra stamp required for each additional three cards). Vista cards are 50c ea and require a #10 envelope. Orders may also be placed with trains on the website shopping cart

 

QUANTITY ORDERS

Dealers must include tax exemption certificate with payment by company check. Other Indiana orders add 6% tax. Min shipping is $5 per US order.

Postcards and notecards must be ordered in dozens of like cards, boxes of 8 like notes. Postcards are $3 per dozen,Quantity postcard orders (shipping $8 to Indiana addresses): 24 dozens (may mix) $2.60/doz; 48 doz $2.40/doz 

8 Boxed Notecards w/envelopes  $4.50 Quantity notecard orders (shipping $8 to Indiana addresses) 24 dozens (may mix) $4.25/box

Giant Vista postcards individually poly bagged with headers  6/$3.25

Quantity vista card orders – include with other quantity purchase

24 dozen (may mix in half dozens of like cards)   6/$2.80

Acrylic postcard, brochure holders available by special order for your counter.

 

Printed in Roanoke, IN, USA  by The Gray Dove

MODEL RAILROAD WAREHOUSE, Box 411, Roanoke, IN 46783

 
 

 

The Ohio Valley

 

 

 

From Cincinnati to Louisville to Evansville-Southern Indiana offers bustling industry, casual villages, and Appalachian-like charm. Unspoiled river towns include the first state capital at Corydon.  Youall.   

5-P9

 

 

 

 

5-P10  

5-P9 or 5-N9 Hillforest Mansion -Cincinnati industrialist and river tycoon home,Aurora

5-P10 or 5-N10  St Michael-built by Irish building nation's steepest RR grade using stone taken from the project, Madison

5-P2

 

5-P13  

5-P2 or 5-N2 Historic Madison Shops include this confectionary, a 50s hamburger shop and blocks of relaxed shopping.

5-P13 or 5-N13 Fairplay Fire Company. Madison is a vast collection of Americana that has not outlived usefulness.

5-P61

 

5-P60  

5-P61 or 5-N61 Historic Federalist Houses abound in Madison

5-P60 or 5-N60 Historic Home, Madison

5-P62

 

5-P4  

5-P62 or 5-N62 Lanier State Memorial-Home of Civil War banker who kept government solvent. Overlooks the Ohio at Madison

5-P4 or 5-N4   Clifty Falls in Clifty Falls State Park, Madison

5-V5 vertical

 

5-V2 vertical  

5-V5  Clifty Falls ---vista card

5-V2 Misty Clifty – vista card

5-V3 horizontal

 

 

5-V4  

5-V3  Clifty Falls – vista card

5-V4 Ohio R & Hoosier hills- vista card

5-V5

 

5-V6  

5-V5 Sunrise on the Ohio –vista card

5-V6  Foggy Morning Tow – vista card

5-P5

 

5-P8  

5-P5 or 5-N5 Belle of Louisville –oldest steamboat on the Ohio in Markland Lock

5-P8 or 5-N8   Belle of Louisville docked at Vevay,IN.

5-P6

 

5-P94  

5-P6 or 5-N6 Belle of Louisville sailing from Vevay, IN

5-P94 or 5-N94  Prayer Dome, New Harmony

5-P95

 

5-P96  

5-P95 or 5-N95  Dorms, New Harmony was home to experimental societies,

5-P96 or 5-N96  Granary from socialist experimental community, New Harmony

5-P97  

5-P98

 

5-P97 or 5-N97 Owen home library lab, New Harmony

5-P98 or 5-N98 Fire Station, Evansville

If you are a Hoosier, your idea of "what is Indiana" is very likely incomplete.  And if you aren't ?   Well, we don't all play basketball. Some of us are into Indy race cars.  We don't all work in steel or aluminum mills, or auto plants.  Some roam the hill country or lakes trapping fur bearing animals or felling prime hardwood-and many drive teams of horses across lush fields or do skilled woodworking. Not far away are neighbors in machines the size of a bungalow. The machines are busy mining coal or limestone – or tilling vast crop filled fields. Not every farm here grows corn.  Your last popcorn, peppermint or birthday cake likely has Hoosier origins. We have pickle plants, vinegar orchards and salsa or catsup (ketchup?) fields galore. Huge semi loads of tomatoes in the northern half may look like the huge coal haulers trundling toward barges at the southern river ports. There is a common phrase-"If you don't like the weather, wait till tomorrow, this is Indiana." Let us show you more Hoosier variety.
 

 

 

 

 

Up North in Lake Country

 

 

 

Folks from these parts are spoiled.

They think there should be  a fantastic choice of fine eateries everywhere they go- like back home in Northern Indiana.

Since we ;ive in the northeast quarter of Indiana it is reasonable that there are fewer pictures of the familiar, right? Major turnpoints in America's Revolution occurred here, so we'll get out to capture more views, like Fort Wayne's fort. Please use caution on our highways, Amish buggies are common. Their cheese, handwork and dinners are tops but we respect their preference not to be pictured. Stop by Grabill (near Ft Wayne),Berne or Shipshewana for a treat. Near I 90, Elkhart County's Bonnieville Park operates a historic undershot mill with clip clop of Amish wagons passing. Peru, home of early circus quarters still trains circus performers-and military aircraft are displayed suth at the airbase. We acknowledge the existence of Michigan just to our north too.

5-P42

 

5-P41  

5-P42 and 5-N42 Lake Peaceful-the lakes were left behind as glaciers scraped this land flat

5-P41 or 5-N41  Lake Huron Beach in Michigan.  Hoosiers enjoy Indiana's dunes and Michigan's  nearby Great Lakes

5-P40

Coming

5-P40 or 5-N40 Lighthouses remind us the commerce of the great lakes. Yes, this one is nearby in Michigan

        Auburn, IN home of the classic car ACD extravaganza each Labor Day weekend-and classic ACD auto Museum. South Bend features the Studebaker Museum

 
West Central Indiana

Highly respected colleges and vast farmlands –as well as Parke County, Turkey Run and the edge of America's vast praries , the edge of vast coal fields and the Banks of the Wabash.

The state continues operation of the historic grist mill at Mansfield.

5-P26

5-P27  

5-P26 or 5-N26 Ernie Pyle Farm Homestead, Dana-- and WWII journalist museum

5-P27 or 5-N27 Rose-Hulman Institute Bell Tower, Terre Haute. –a leading science and engineering college.

 Hoosier Byways photographs are by Merle Rice unless otherwise credited. Some of his works have been national contest winners.  His half century of documenting the Hoosier scene is being digitized and many are available as high quality postcards, notecards and prints produced for us by The Gray Dove in Roanoke, Indiana, --a town that grew with a boatyard on the banks of the Wabash & Erie Canal and had noted early 500 racecar "tinkerers" . We're across the Little Wabash River from a Miami Reservation site- seen locally in early photos and many Misami remain among us. You haven't heard of Roanoke? Your favorite professional athelete's agent and insurer is likely located on our Main St.  You might even see your hero dining in style here in town.  And we are proud to produce one of model railroad's oldest, most respected, brands here. Red Ball kits are shipped around the world.
 

 

 

 

 

Southwestern Indiana

 

 

 

Are you a BBQ or German Gourmet?

Evansville is where Memphis meets Munich.

And Thunder on The Ohio is the waterborne

version of Indy.

Vincennes is home to vast melon fields and peach orchards.  But in the revolution it was a key to the America that we know. Lincoln's boyhood home, coal for today's energy needs, limestone that built America's impressive buildings. You can top by Elnora's cheese factory or a local winery. (The Indiana Territorial Capital in Vincennes is currently undergoing re-restoration). The Gus Grissom Memorial located at Spring Mill is in stark contrast to the Pioneer Village and underground cave boat rides there. European style monasteries and facilities sit astride many southern Indiana hilltops. Hikers trace the great Buffalo Trace from salt licks toward the west.

5-P63

5-P89  

5-P63 or 5-N63 Grouseland, Harrison's Home, Vincennes

5-P89 or 5-P89 Grouseland, Harrison's Home, Vincennes

5-P65  

5-P66

5-P65 or 5-N65 Old Cathedral & French graveyard, Vincennes

5-P66 or 5-N66 Old Cathedral, Vincennes

5-P64

5-P90  

5-P64 or 5-N64 George Rogers Clark Memorial, Vincennes

5-P90 or 5-N90 Springtime Brook, Spring Mill State Park

5-P84

5-P91  

5-P84 or 5-N84 Spring Mill and sawmill. Spring Mill State Park, Mitchell

5-P91 or 5-N91 Spring Mill village in spring.

5-P88

5-P87  

5-P88 or 5-N88 Spring Mill and sawmill. Pioneer Village, Spring Mill State Park

5-P87 or 5-N87 Spring Mill State Park, Mitchell. IN

5-P77  

5-P78

5-P77 or 5-N77 Pioneer Village Cabins, Spring Milkl State Park, Mitchell, IN

5-P78 or 5-N78  Pioneer Village, Spring Mill State Park, Mitchell, IN

5-P79

5-P80  

5-P79 or 5-N79 Pioneer Village, Spring Mill State Park, Mitchell, IN

5-P80 or 5-N80 Cabins in Spring Mill State Park Pioneer Village

5-P81

5-P82  

5-P81 or 5-N81 Cabin in Pioneer Village, Spring Mill State Park, Mitchell, IN

5-P82 opr 5-N82 Mill and Pioneer Village, Spring Mill State Park, Mitchell, IN

5-P85

5-P86  

5-P85 or 5-N85 Spring Mill in spring. Mitchell, IN

5-P86 or 5-N83 Spring Mill in the Spring, Mitchell, IN

5-P82

5-P83

5-P82 or 5-N82 Pioneer Village in springtime. Spring Mill State Park, Mitchell, IN

5-P83 or 5-N83  The mill's huge wooden gears and millstones in action. Spring Mill State Park, Mitchell, IN

5-P92

5-P93  

5-P92 or 6-N92 Springtime in Spring Mill State Park, Mitchell, IN

5-P93 or 5-M93 Springtime in Spring Mill State Park, Mitchell, IN

 

 

Southeastern Hoosierland

 

Whitewater RR excursion trains depart Connersville for Metamora mid day weekends and summer.

 

 

Ice Cream Lovers Alert

Millers home made ice cream shop in Nashville is about two-three hours from the soft ice cream stand on US 50 in Aurora that has choices of  flavor swirls.

Hogs, tobacco farms, Brookville Lake fishing. About the only rush in this corner of Hoosierland is in the names of Rushville and Rush County. Oldenburg is a relaxing  sidetrip from the interstate. Custom Cherry furniture is made at Homer. Milan is the town depicted in "Hoosiers"and casket factories are big down here-and so is little Metamora. Levi Coffin's  house, a prominent Underground RR stop, is at Fountain City and Orville Wright's birthplace is nearby. Farther down the map, the Confederate invasion route is still traceable. Columbus is a city of contemporary architectural jewels and many other SE towns feature century older period architectural jewels. Brown County and French Lick/Baden Springs are well known tourist destinations. Artisans, or country musicians compete with God's creation for your attention at Nashville. 

5-P76

5-P1  

5-P76 or 5-N76 Grass in Greener in Rush County Indiana

5-P1 or 5-P1 Duck Creek Aqueduct, Whitewater Canal Metamora, Indiana

5-P15

5-P3  

5-P15 or 5-N15 Metamora Mill and canal lock.  Metamora, Indiana

6-P3 or 5-N3 Metamora Mill- Cotton mill turned grist mill. Metamora, Indiana

5-P18

5-P19  

5-P18 or 5-N18 Carriage in the streets of Metamora, Indiana

5-P19 or 5-N19 Shops at the main intersection in Metamora, Indiana

5-P20

5-P21  

5-P20 or 5-N20  Metamora Mill and Whitewater RR caboose.  Metamora, IN

5-P21 or 5-N21  Metamora Mill from the gazebo.  Metamora, IN

5-P16

5-P48  

5-P16 or 5-N16  Metamora Mill in waning winter days. Metamoram IN

5-P48 or 5-N48 Duck Creek ducks in the Whitewater Canal, Metamora, IN

5-P24

5-P47  

5-P24 or 5-N24 Metamora Mill and Gazebo. Metamora, Indiana

5-P47 or 5-N47  Metamora Mill and Whitewater RR excursion train. Metamora, IN

5-P49

5-P23  

5-P49 or 5-N49  Metamora Mill and Whitewater Canal locks in the good old summertime.

5-P23 or 5-N23 Whitewater Excursion Train, Metamora, IN

HOOSIER RAILFANS

We can't begin to show you thousands of our pictures. We WILL try to suggest  areas and points of interest. These views may be purchased. This portion is under development and we welcome suggestions. The Calumet Region is so rail intensive we'll leave that to the Chicago sources.

 
 

5-P23

The Whitewater RR headquarters at Connersville house a large collection of small and geared steamers, wood cabooses etc. at S edge of town. Passenger depot is downtown. The excursion ride follows the old canal and river route toward Cincinnati that was a frequent ring washouts. Indiana Hi Rail shops are along SR 1 at north edge of Connersville.

5-P23 or 5-N23  Whitewater RR excursion train at Metamora with Lima switcher.

 

5-P14

The Wabash RR line (N&W)  from Detroit to St. Louis (yards at Ft. Wayne, Peru and Lafayette) is heavily traveled today. It once crossed the Erie at Huntington. This Wabash depot is being restored and the nearby Pizza-freight house lets you literally munch and sit trackside to the action. 

5-P14 or 5-N14 Wabash Cannonball at Huntington, IN depot. Art used by permission/

 

Coming

The CSX bridges the mighty Ohio River just outside Evansville. Follow beside the river south of the compact Westside yard. Access to area docks, Algiers Winslow & Southern loading and Yankeetown Coal dock is now restricted.

 

 

Coming

The Fort Wayne Line  (Pennsylvania from Pittsburg to Chicago) Baker Street passenger station in Fort Wayne is so impressive we are planning aa kit!

 

 

Coming

Privately preserved for decades-and another coming kit-the LS&MS depot in Ft Wayne served LE&W Cincinnati trains and LS&MS Michigan trains. Its existence near the foot of Wells St was a secret until now.

 

 

Coming

Beside the huge French Lick Hotel there is a tourist line and rail museum. Private cars once flooded the area, especially at Kentucky Derby time. Heavyweight passenger gems abound and you can ride out through a tunnel behind a GE 44 T loco-or in a trolley to West Baden Springs. Other tunnels are found on the Southern main line across southern Indiana (SR 64) and B&O near Mitchell (tricky  to find, but neat).

 

 

Coming

Traction fans delight-an impressive operating museum in the park at Noblesville.

 

 

Coming

At Linden, Indiana, where the Monon pnce crossed a busy Nickle Plate line, the joint depot houses a Monon museum with rolling stock on the premises.

 

 

Coming

Erie fans-yes the Erie crossed Hoosierland on its way to Chicago, pieces still exist as shortlines and there is a small museum too.

 

 

Coming

The Corydon  or LNA & C is disappearing quickly as its major customer has ceased woodworking operations. The rail ford across Indian Creek is gone but there are still traces  Other Southern feeder-shortlines included the Ferdinand RR,

 

 

Coming

The [new] Indiana Railroad blankets SW Indiana from Indianapolis.  Official state highway maps show the line.  If you leave main highways, leave a trail of string or popcorn or you may never return (like poor Charlie on the MTA) from the fantastic byways scenery.

 

 

Coming

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cavernous Indianapolis Union Terminal awaits a new birth. Near downtown sport facilities it invites contemplation. Amtrak's impressive Beech Grove shops are also at Indy.

 

 

Coming

Going to Chicago's attractions? Park free at the South Shore's SHOPS in SE corner of Michigan City and ENJOY the electric ride past the Dunes, steel mills, refineries and congestion right to the windy city center. Frequent service 7 days a week. The CSS&SB schedules are on the internet.

 

 

Every Hoosier railfan has favorite train watching locations and special times to be there. Brief postings sent to us will be added here without photos.