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| Indiana State Capitol Building, Indianapolis |
While researching the history of Indianapolis
for a possible future novella, I was surprised to learn that I share a
birthday—January 10th—with our state's capital city!
As it turns out, we also share unpropitious beginnings. I
was born in a small town; actually the small town John Mellencamp referenced in
his song of the same name.
Indianapolis,
too, had humble beginnings. It began as a backwoods swamp. Nearly everyone
outside the handful of visionaries who saw the benefit of situating
Indiana’s capital city in
the center of the state, considered the choice both baffling and a grand folly.
In 1816 when Indiana became
the 19th state in the Union, Corydon, on
the state’s southern border, served as the capital. In those days, rivers and
other major waterways were the superhighways of their time. Situated
near the Ohio River, Corydon could be accessed by boat
from any point in the country.
However when Indiana gained statehood, the U.S.
Government set aside land in the central part of the state for a capital since
most states were centrally locating their seats of government. In 1820,
prominent members of the Indiana legislature
embraced the notion of a new capital city set smack dab in the center of Indiana.
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| Native American village |
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| Fall Creek, Indianapolis |
Most residents
of the new Hoosier state considered the idea lunacy; the central part of the
state was but a wooded swampy marsh still peopled exclusively by Native
American tribes, and not accessible by a major waterway. Undaunted, the
proponents of the move insisted that the west fork of the White
River, which did flow through the proposed site, would allow
access to the new capital. Later, that stream proved far too shallow and pocked
with sandbars to be navigable by most boats, but by the time this fact became
evident the deed was done. January 10th, 1825, the little capital that could
was moved from Corydon to Indiana’s
swampy midsection near a little pioneer settlement called Fall Creek. The
town’s new name would be Indianapolis, joining “Indiana” with “polis,”
the Greek word for city.
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Soldiers and Sailors Monument at
Monument Circle, Indianapolis
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Architects Alexander Ralston and Elia Pym Fordam were chosen
to design the city of
Indianapolis.
Ralston, an apprentice to Pierre L’Enfant the French architect who’d designed
Washington D.C., plotted
Indianapolis on one
square mile centered by a circular common. That circular center, originally called
Governor’s Circle and planned to be the site of the governor’s mansion, later
became
Monument Circle;
the site of the iconic Soldiers and Sailors Monument, completed in 1901.
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| Indianapolis Motor Speedway |
Thanks to the National
Road which reached Indianapolis
in 1831 and the Madison
& Indianapolis Railroad that arrived in 1847, the lack of a navigable waterway was no longer an issue and the city flourished. By the
turn of the last century Indianapolis
became a leader in automobile manufacturing which, in 1911, spawned the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway and its now world renowned 500 mile open-wheel automobile race. Throw in the NASCAR 400, a professional basketball franchise, and a professional football franchise, and Indianapolis has come a long way from that miasmic
backwoods swamp.
As for me, hey, Indianapolis
proves that however humble your beginnings, anything is possible. At the start of this new year, in our birthday month, the achievements of Indianapolis encourage me to dream big, ignore all naysayers, and reach for the stars.
