Rensselaer Adventures

This blog reports events and interesting tidbits from Rensselaer, Indiana and the surrounding area.

Monday, February 18, 2019

Tidbits 02-18-2019

The new exhibit at the Jasper County Historical Society is called "Uncommon Jasper County." It highlights unusual things about the County and its history. For example, the Helen Reynolds Skaters were a local group that toured nationally.
 Helen Reynolds King died in 2001.

The Chicago Bears provide another bit of interesting Jasper County history. The team trained at Saint Joseph's College from 1944 through 1974.
 There is almost no physical evidence left of Gifford's railroad, which started in McCoysburg and ended in Dinwiddie in Lake County.
 The exhibit is still being developed. The Museum is open on the first and third Saturday's of each month from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm. It is also open for the monthly Historical Society meeting. The next one is Tuesday evening at 6:30 pm.

Every few years there is ice ideal for ice skating east of Weston Cemetery. This year we had a high river level that contributed to flooding the field and then cold weather that froze the water. At least one person tried skating on it and left skate marks on the ice. (The two people below did not have skates.)
Sunday's snow may end the skating season. Or may not.

Below is a newspaper article that reminds us of how much technology has changed life in the past century.

1 comment:

Grey Friar said...

There were upright posts that supported the railroad across the Oliver Ditch 1/2 mile north of Newland. These were next to the pump house that is now partly fallen down. I saw them in the 50's and 60's when I grew up in Newland and again about 10 years ago when I visited Newland and drove out to the site. The railroad track paralleled the Newland Ditch that ran from the center of Newland, northwest to the Oliver Ditch. There was a dirt road along that ditch which was on top of the railroad bed, but I think it has been taken over by the cornfield under the current owners. There was also a scale platform in the yard of the Cavendish-Shirer house in Newland and the concrete floor of an old ware house that was next to the track. The Cavendish-Shirer house burned down between 1975 and 1978.