Shipshewana

May 7 – 12, 2022

We were a bit concerned when we left Cave Country in Kentucky and headed north on I-65 as we had to drive around Louisville on the day of the Kentucky Derby. Admittedly not the best planning on our part. We closely monitored the traffic as we approached Louisville in case we had to take a last minute detour. Fortunately we had no problem getting through the area. We continued on I-65 to I-465 around Indianapolis, and on to I-69 and then US-9 to our next stop.

Shipshewana

Shipshewana is a small town in LaGrange County, Indiana which boasts the third largest Amish population in the United States. Here you can drive for miles through the rolling countryside and see fresh wash drying on clothes lines, pass horse-drawn buggies on their way to market, purchase delicious meats, cheese, bakery items, and exquisite hand-made furniture, quilts, and other items. Hungry? Prepare for some of the best Amish cooking.

Stopping in this delightful area has almost become a yearly occurrence. Nearby in La Grange is Twin Lakes RV Repair where we schedule routine maintenance and upgrades on the RV. Jay (the owner) is great to work with and does fantastic work.

Shipshewana Campground South Park

Although there are other campgrounds in the area, we normally stay at Shipshewana Campground South Park. The campground has large gravel pull-thrus and modern amenities. Unfortunately the area had received a lot of rain in the weeks prior to our visit so our site was very muddy. Since we had to drop the RV off at the repair facility early Monday morning, Bill elected not to unhook from the truck. Instead, we prepared dinner, watched the Kentucky Derby, and relaxed after a rather long drive.

The next day we gathered what we needed for a two night stay in the Holiday Inn.

Leaving our home behind

Early Monday morning we dropped our RV off at Twin Lakes RV Repair.

Since we couldn’t check into the hotel for several hours we had to find something else to do. First up, breakfast.

We decided to try the Corn Crib Cafe co-located with Yoder Popcorn in a new building in Shipshewana. A ham and cheddar omelet for Bill and two eggs and toast for me hit the spot.

Next up, furniture shopping. This is the place for Amish-made RV furniture. What? Consider that several major manufacturers of RVs are head-quartered near here so it makes sense to make RV furniture here as well. We headed directly to the Lambright Comfort Chairs showroom. Our goal was to replace our theatre seating that was beginning to break down after only 2 years. After looking at various options and talking with a sales consultant we decided to purchase a set off the floor which they could install in our RV three days later. Although the color of this unit was not our first choice, to special order would have delayed delivery and installation until August. Better a bird in the hand….

So, now what? We still had a few hours until check-in time, but luckily they were able to accommodate an early check-in for us. Yea! Off we went to unpack and sit around in a hotel room (not fun). Later we made a trip to Culver’s for some take out.

The next day we were faced with a dilemma. We never expected to conclude our furniture shopping in one day. Do we sit around the hotel room or find something else to do? We opted for the latter and headed out to Indiana Dunes National Park about an hour and a half away.

Indiana Dunes National Park

Walk on glacial sands, pushed and pulled by time into dunes nearly 250 feet high. Paddle across a 300-mile-long lake with waves and scenery that rival the Atlantic. A place unlike anywhere else on Earth? We’re not just putting wind in your sails. It’s a haven for hikers. A beacon for birders. A tenement for tenters. With an unparalleled position along 15 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline, 50 miles of rugged trails, and a diverse ecosystem of dunes, wetlands, prairies, and old-growth forest, Indiana Dunes National Park is a destination for outdoor adventurers of all kinds.

Indiana Dunes

We stopped first at the Visitor Center where I secured another stamp for my National Parks Passport (my fourth so far on this trip). Since we had the dog with us, we were somewhat limited on what we could do here. She’s not a “let’s go play in the sand or surf” type of dog and it was a hot day. Consequently, we opted for a hike in the woods on the Little Calumet River Trail past the Bailly Homestead and Chellberg Farm.

The Bailly Homestead, a National Historic Landmark, was the home of Honore Gratien Joseph Bailly de Messein (1774 – 1835). Bailly played a role in the development of the Calumet Region of northern Indiana. He was an independent trader in the extensive fur-trading network that spread from Montreal to Louisiana, and ultimately to Europe. Joseph Bailly was one of the earliest settlers in northern Indiana. In 1822 Bailly set up his fur trading post at the crossroads of several important trails, including the Tolleston Beach and northern branch of the Sauk Trail. He provided a meeting place for Native Americans and Euro-Americans. Except for White Pigeon, Michigan, Bailly’s trading post was the only stopping place for travelers and missionaries between Chicago and Detroit. The Bailly Homestead complex is the last remaining site of its nature in the Calumet Region, both in its capacity as a fur trading post and in its vernacular architectural features and construction types. The Bailly Homestead was authorized as a National Historic Landmark in 1962.

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We also walked by the Chellberg Farmstead.

The Chellberg Farm represents a typical 1890 through 1910 Swedish and Northwestern Indiana farmstead. The brick farmhouse was built in 1885 as a replacement for an earlier wood-framed house that was destroyed by fire in December of 1884. The bricks for the new house came from a brickyard in nearby Porter. In the 1980s the National Park Service restored the farmhouse to its turn of the 20th century appearance, except for the dining room, which had been modified by the Chellbergs in the 1920s.

Anders and Johanna Chellberg, with their young son Charles, made the long journey from Sweden to this country in 1863. Traveling first by boat and then by train, the Chellbergs arrived here four months after their departure from Sweden. After their arrival in northwest Indiana, the Chellbergs became part of a growing Swedish community. They often gave other immigrants a place to stay and helped them find work. In 1869, the Chellbergs purchased 40 acres of land and established their own farm. 40 additional acres had been added to the farm by 1874.

Anders and Johanna had four children. After Ander’s death in 1893, their son Charles managed the farm. Charles and his wife, Ottomina, had four children: Frank, who died when he was a year old, Ruth, Naomi, and Carl. When Charles died in 1937, his son Carl continued to farm until 1972, when he sold the property to the National Park Service.

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We were amazed that Dawn (our dog) not only completed the 1.5 mile hike but actually seemed to enjoy the different sights and smells.

Indiana Dunes State Park

Next we entered the Indiana Dunes State park headed for the Park Pavilion and a glimpse of Porter Beach. Unfortunately the Pavilion had not opened for the season yet but we did have a good view of the beach.

From Porter Beach we headed on to Beverly Shores to visit the Century of Progress Homes.

Century of Progress Homes

The 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago—called the Century of Progress—offered millions of people in the depths of the Great Depression a hopeful vision that highlighted futuristic changes on the horizon. Developer Robert Bartlett brought a dozen buildings from the fair including five from the Homes and Industrial Arts housing exhibit that make up the Century of Progress Historic District. The buildings were moved by barge and truck to Beverly Shores, a resort community he was developing on the Indiana shore of Lake Michigan.

Four of the five houses looked wildly modern in 1933, so ahead of their time that they remain modern looking today. The Cypress House, honoring its material, looks like a rustic log cabin, albeit with modern amenities. To save the structures, Indiana Landmarks leased them from the National Park Service, then subleased four to people who have restored them in exchange for long-term leases.

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Cypress Log Cabin

The Cypress Log Cabin overlooks Lake Michigan on Lake Front Drive in the town of Beverly Shores. Architect Murray D. Heatherington designed this building to demonstrate the unique qualities and many uses of cypress. At the fair, the cabin presented a mountain lodge atmosphere with fences, arbors, and bridges decorated with cypress knees, carved to suggest animal heads, reptiles, and fantasy creatures. None of these details were replicated when the house was moved from Chicago to Beverly Shores after the world’s fair.

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Florida Tropical House

The Florida Tropical House overlooks Lake Michigan on Lake Front Drive in the town of Beverly Shores. Miami architect Robert Law Weed, inspired by the tropical climate of Southern Florida, designed the house. Weed sought to blend the indoor and outdoor environments, bringing together a spacious two-story living room, with overhanging balcony, and large open terraces on the roof. The original specifications called for poured concrete walls, however, to save money, the house was framed in wood, and finished with a lightweight concrete stucco. The bright pink house became a well-known landmark for mariners.

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Armco-Ferro House

The Armco-Ferro House overlooks Lake Michigan in the town of Beverly Shores and is the only remaining house from the world’s fair that met the Fair Committee’s design criteria; a house that could be mass-produced and was affordable for the average American family. This seemingly frameless house boasts a revolutionary construction system: corrugated steel panels that are bolted together. This system resembles a typical cardboard box; it could be placed on its bottom, side, or top without damaging the structure. The corrugated panels are clad with porcelain-enameled steel panels produced by the Ferro Enamel Corporation. This construction system later provided the inspiration for the post World War II prefabricated housing developed by the Lustron Corporation. Several Lustron houses can still be seen in the town of Beverly Shores.

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Wieboldt-Rostone House

The Wieboldt-Rostone House is located on Lake Front Drive in the town of Beverly Shores. The home was framed in steel and clad in an experimental material called Rostone. Rostone was composed of shale, limestone, and alkali. Its creators advertised that the material could be produced in a variety of colors and forms, including slabs and panels, to exact dimensions. Rostone was not as durable as originally predicted. The material had severely deteriorated by 1950. The residents repaired it by covering the Rostone with another synthetic material, a concrete stucco called Perma-stone. Visitors can still see remnants of the original Rostone surrounding the front door exterior, in the interior entrance area, and around the livingroom fireplace.

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House of Tomorrow

The fifth house – the House of Tomorrow (declared a National Treasure by the National Trust for Historic Preservation) is still awaiting restoration.

The House of Tomorrow on Lake Front Drive in the town of Beverly Shores is the creation of Chicago architect George Fred Keck. The first floor was designed as the service area, originally containing the garage and an airplane hangar. World’s Fair optimists assumed every future family would own an airplane. The second and third floors were the essence of the house, containing the main living spaces and a solarium. The three-story, steel-framed building was originally clad in glass on the second and third floors. Keck defied mechanical engineers, who said that due to the expansive use of glass the house couldn’t be heated, and installed a floor to ceiling “curtain wall system”. Instead of heat loss during the winter, the level of solar heat gain actually reduced the need for mechanical heating. During the summer the solar gain was too great for the home’s revolutionary air-conditioning system to handle, and it failed. When Robert Bartlett moved the house from Chicago to Beverly Shores after the world’s fair, he replaced the glass walls with operable windows to allow for proper air circulation.

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It was time for us to head back to the hotel and do something about dinner. We decided to stop along the way at a farm-to-table restaurant (Rocky River Tap and Table in Mishawaka) that had a dog-friendly outdoor patio. This was Dawn’s first experience at dining out with us. You just couldn’t ask for a better behaved dog. She basically laid down under my chair, accepted a few bites of carrot and pita, and otherwise didn’t move.

Back to the Campground

We checked out of the hotel the next morning and awaited word that the RV was ready. To fill time, we took Dawn to a nearby dog park. In early afternoon we retrieved our “home” and once again set up camp in Shipshewana South. Since our appointment with Lambright was late morning the next day, Bill decided to unhitch for the night. That allowed us to enjoy an early dinner at the Blue Gate Restaurant – yum!

New Furniture

The next morning, we decamped and headed to our appointment at the Lambright Comfort Chairs facility. The guys were waiting for us and quickly disassembled and removed our old theatre seating and assembled and installed our new seating.

We were soon on the way to our first destination. Find out where and for how long in the next post.