The Kentland mural

I traveled out of town for Thanksgiving and passed through Kentland. I stopped to take some pictures of their new mural, painted by local graphic artist Rein Bontreger. The mural is on the Newton County Historical Society Museum and tells the story of Newton County, Indiana's youngest county. The first part has a picture of the Regal Fritillary butterfly, a rare species found at Kankakee Sands. It mentions that the railroad arrived in 1859. On the door there is a map showing the townships and Beaver Lake, the largest lake in Indiana before it was drained.

Moving to the north, the next section has a meteor that hit east of Kentland.  It shows the current court house and its predecessor. The Pumpkin Vine Fair is the Newton County Fair. The man pictured is Warren McCray, who was Indiana's governor in the 1920s and had an interesting history. He owned a bull named Perfection Fairfax that was famous in its time. Foster Park is a very nice park in Goodland. I believe that the Kent Hotel was owned by the man who gave Kentland its name. On the right are three highways that serve Newton County.

The third section features two notable people who came from Newton County, George Ade and Sam Rice. Ade was a writer and his name is on the Purdue football stadium. Rice was a baseball player and is in the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was born in Morocco. South Newton High School serves the southern part of the County.

The Scott-Lucas House is in Morocco. Fair Oaks Farms deservedly gets a mention on the mural. The Nature Conservancy's Kankakee Sands recently added bison. North Newton High School gets a mention. Jenny Conrad established the town of Conrad, which is now a ghost town. She was a strange character. I do not know why the chestnut tree is included.

Below is what the entire mural looks like.

It is a really nice mural that has a lot of meaning for those who live in the County. The dedication is scheduled for December 3 at noon.

(Update: The Newton County Historical Society published an impressive 12-page pamplet explaining the mural. The text for the pamphlet can be found here.)

If Jasper County ever got a similar mural to tell our history, what would you want to see on it?

On my travels last week I saw a few fields that were still unharvested. On Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I met a combine that was getting ready to harvest the field west of the quarry.

Coming back to Rensselaer I noticed signs by the old Monnett School. The person who owned the building died in August and the contents were sold at an on-line action that ended Tuesday. The auction for the building will end on the 15th. More can be found at Kraftauctions.com. I hope it finds a new owner who will restore it and find a good use for it.

I could not resist the opportunity to check out the auction for contents. I did not buy anything because I do not need more stuff. This picture was not for sale and I think I may have included it in a post several years ago. (Found it here.) The building needs a lot of work. On the upper floor plaster is falling off the walls and ceiling.

The most interesting item in the auction was a whole room full of toys and other stuff. It sold for $15. I think a reason that it did not sell for more is that people looking at it did not know what they would do with all the miscellaneous stuff.

Just to the south of the building, the newest trails in the Jasper Foundation park have been paved.

Black Friday seemed very tame this year. Have the retailers killed it by offering too many sales before Thanksgiving?

Rensselaer Central seems to have gotten a grant for $203,428 to buy a new electric school bus. The grant comes from funds that are part of a settlement that the U.S. government made with Volkswagen.