Indiana Trivia & Tidbits - Page 9

Looking for Indiana trivia? Try our list Indiana little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

Beanblossom, home to the Bill Monroe Bluegrass Festival, was named after a river that had been named after a person.

first appeared: 2/22/2004

Ernie Pyle, the Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent in World War II, was born in 1900 near Dana (pop. 662), the only son of tenant farmers.

first appeared: 2/15/2004

The Levi Coffin house in Fountain City (pop. 735) was known as the “Grand Central Station of the Underground Railroad” for the more than 2,000 runaway slaves who passed through it. It is a National Historic Landmark.

first appeared: 2/8/2004

True to its motto, “Crossroads of America,” Indiana has more miles of interstate highway per square mile than any other state, and more major highways intersect in Indiana than in any other state.

first appeared: 2/1/2004

Late night television comedian David Letterman was born April 12, 1947, in Indianapolis. His father was a florist, his mother a church secretary.

first appeared: 1/25/2004

McCormick’s Creek in Spencer (pop. 2,508), the state’s first park, features a mile-long canyon cut 100 feet into limestone, a scenic waterfall, large sinkholes, natural bridges and small caves.

first appeared: 1/18/2004

The first Indianapolis 500 race was held in 1911 with a purse of $27,500. The winner’s average speed was 74 mph. In 2003, the purse topped $10 million, and the winner’s average speed was 156 mph.

first appeared: 1/11/2004

The original Wabash Cannonball Trail runs on a line built by the Wabash Railroad in 1855 from Fort Wayne to Toledo, Ohio. Freight service continued until 1969.

first appeared: 1/4/2004

Claude Ferguson of Bedford (pop. 13,768) is a foremost spoons player and author of You, Too, Can Play the Spoons. Born in 1923 in Willow Springs, Mo., (pop. 2,147) Ferguson has been clacking spoons since age 10.

first appeared: 12/28/2003

In 1840, Father Joseph Kundek platted Ferdinand (pop. 2,277) and named the German settlement after the emperor of Austria.

first appeared: 12/21/2003

Founded in 1888, Kokomo Opalescent Glass in Kokomo (pop. 46,113) is the world’s oldest manufacturer of opalescent and cathedral stained glass.

first appeared: 12/14/2003

Near Milltown (pop. 932), hundreds of shoes dangle from a tree. The Shoe Tree, as it’s known, has been a landmark for 25 years.

first appeared: 12/7/2003

The first electric basketball scoreboard lit up in Wingate (pop. 299) in 1934.

first appeared: 11/30/2003

The six-acre Crossroads Greenhouse in Indianapolis is the nation’s largest methane-operated greenhouse. Methane gas is produced and recovered from a nearby landfill.

first appeared: 11/23/2003

A hip place, Warsaw (pop. 12,415) is home to three major manufacturers of artificial hips and knees: Biomet, DePuy and Zimmer Holdings.

first appeared: 11/16/2003

George Ade, the "Aesop of Indiana," wrote the popular 1899 Fables in Slang. He was born in 1866 in Kentland (pop. 1,822).

first appeared: 11/9/2003

U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar was named Indiana’s 2002 Tree Farmer of the Year. He owns 604 acres of corn, soybean, and walnut trees in Marion County.

first appeared: 11/2/2003

Open since 1850, the Slippery Noodle Inn in Indianapolis is the state’s oldest continually operated bar, first operated as the Tremont House roadhouse.

first appeared: 10/26/2003

A limb from a 42-foot-3-inch circumference sycamore is preserved at Worthington (pop. 1,481) Park. The tree, which toppled in 1924, stood 150 feet tall and townspeople picnicked inside its hollow trunk.

first appeared: 10/19/2003

Actress Marjorie Main, who was born Mary Tomlinson in 1890 in Acton, starred as Ma Kettle in the Ma and Pa Kettle movies from 1949 to 1957.

first appeared: 10/12/2003

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