Indiana History Museums in Orange County
Orange County Historic Museum in Paoli
“Orange County has a unique, long, and rich history. Our mission, our goal, is really to preserve the actual artifacts and the stories that are linked to those artifacts,” says Robert Henderson, president of the Orange County Historical Society.
Much of this museum is dedicated to the industries that flourished in the county over the past two centuries.
“Orange County had a rich history with the wood industry. We had a lot of factories that manufactured different types of products,” Henderson explains. “We made beautiful furniture in Orange County. We also had handle factories that made croquet sets and baseball bats, and basket factories. We also had a factory that made television sets and radios and record players at one point.”
Other exhibits strive to represent the day-to-day lives of Orange County residents.
“A fun part of our museum upstairs is a recreation of an old-fashioned one-room schoolhouse, just as you would have found dotted across Orange County once upon a time. That's a fun exhibit area,” Henderson describes.
The museum is free and open to the public, so no matter what you're looking for, this is the perfect place to dive into Orange County’s history.
“Hopefully you’ll take away something of interest or some historical tidbit about Orange County,” says Henderson.
The French Lick West Baden Museum
A few miles west of Paoli, you'll find the French Lick West Baden Museum. The two small towns it represents are primarily known for the historic French Lick Resort, the West Baden Springs Hotel, and the mineral springs that fueled their growth. But as this nostalgic repository demonstrates, that's only the beginning of this area's rich history.
“We primarily start our story at the turn of the century of the 1800s, as lots of settlers and trappers and traders began moving from east to west, trading with the Native Americans in the area, discovering the local mineral water, and creating French Lick,” says Kenton Allbright, director of the French Lick West Baden Museum.
Just like the mineral water in French Lick and West Baden, colorful stories seem to have a way of bubbling to the surface.
“Dr. Bowles, he was a snake oil salesman, as we call him today. When he discovered the mineral water here in French Lick, he found it actually worked. It was a natural laxative. They built the first French Lick Springs Hotel as a stagecoach stop, including a spring that you could directly drink Dr. Bowles’ famous mineral water. That would later go on to be what we know as Pluto, the most popular mineral water in the world for almost 50 years,” Allbright explains.
“The Cross brothers, Henry and Ferdinand Cross, were two of the most world-renowned artists in their own regard. Henry is a world-famous painter. Ferdinand Cross, his brother, would start a stone company in Chicago, creating monuments all across the country,” describes Allbright. “By their elder ages, they both came to French Lick, Indiana, their new home, and they both had a small operation doing a tourist attraction.”
Allbright adds, “Our museum, of course, tells the story of the Hick from French Lick, Larry Bird. He was a 1974 graduate of Springs Valley High School. Our museum tells his story from 1954, his birth, all the way up to high school, into the Celtics, into the Olympics, and into his time coaching with the Pacers.”
The World’s Largest Circus Diorama
Now, no disrespect to Larry Legend, but the museum's real showstopper is a massive diorama depicting the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus, which was headquartered in French Lick from 1913 to 1929.
“The diorama here at our museum is considered the world's largest circus diorama, not by square footage but by number of pieces. The diorama is the creation of one man from Vancouver, British Columbia, by the name of Peter Gorman. He started at a young age and has consistently worked on it throughout his life. There are over 500,000 pieces in that diorama and counting. Each year, we add about 1,000 pieces,” says Allbright.
However, like this intricate diorama, the French Lick West Baden Museum needs to be seen up close to be fully appreciated.
“There are so many small stories that are so important. Our museum tells them and connects the dots,” concludes Allbright.
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The above video is a clip from Journey Indiana from WTIU. You can watch more segments and full episodes at pbs.org/show/journey-indiana/
