Michigan Road to reality in the south

We held our first two meetings in southern Indiana over the last two days in promoting the Michigan Road as a Historic Byway stretching, as blogger Jim likes to say, "Coast to Coast in Indiana". Thursday night Main Street Greensburg played host to a small but committed and enthusiastic group supporting the byway in Decatur County. Many thanks go to their Main Street Director who is stepping up to lead the charge in Decatur County, Bryan Robbins. This guy clearly has a heart for his hometown and the know-how to make things happen. What's Greensburg's landmark? That's right-there's a tree growing out of the courthouse tower.....ever since it was first noticed during the Civil War. Geesh, I get trees growing out of my gutter and no one pays them any attention!

My wife and I headed south to spend the night at Clifty Falls in Madison. Along the way on the Michigan Road are the two towns of Napoleon and Osgood. A block off the Michigan Road is this bit of chain saw art depicting the short fellow the town is named after. Napoleon is a great little town with tons of history dating to the Berry's Trace constructed in 1808, twenty years before the Michigan Road would become reality.



I have a good friend who is a huge Napoleon fan. I'm thinking about buying he and his wife a night's stay in this sleepy little town. Buy a little grub at the old mill, pay tribute to the statue and think about some real estate investment at the Napoleon Bank.

On my first trip down the Michigan Road I noticed this little theater in Osgood that obviously had suffered from years of neglect. What a pleasant surprise to drive through today and see that the Damm Theatre got a new lease on life. Someone evidently er, uh, gave a Damm. (before/1999 and after)

More on building the Southern Alliance for the Historic Michigan Road Byway to follow. It was a wonderfully refreshing and encouraging time and these pictures by no means do justice to this beautiful piece of Hoosier landscape. Please join the effort in celebrating this important route in Indiana....visit http://www.historicmichiganroad.org/