Oct. 1-31 Pumpkin Fantasyland Ligonier
Oct. 1 Birding by Kayak Gene Stratton Porter State Historic Site Rome City
Oct. 1 Lions, Tigers, and Beer Black Pine Animal Sanctuary Albion
Oct. 1-2 Apple Festival Kendallville
Oct. 29 All Hallows Eve Chain O Lakes State Park Albion
Oct. 29 Main Street Zombie Walk Kendallville
FUN Guide of Noble County Ind.
Visitor's Guide HERE
Includes the towns of Kendallville, Ligonier, Avilla, Albion, Wolf Lake
By Jody Grismore Vance
Over the past few years, the Noble County Fun Guide has presented in-depth articles about several events and places of interest in Noble County. We have enjoyed learning the history and behind-the-scenes stories of the festivals and locales…and we enjoyed passing them on.
So we thought we'd take a few minutes to look back at some of those articles, pick a couple of paragraphs from a few of them and refresh our memory and yours. If you’d like to read the full stories outlined below, go to avilla.org/funguide.html. MORE
Indiana's new Tombstone Trail is about much more than the stone monuments that mark historic gravesites.
The trail, which runs through Northern Indiana's Noble, DeKalb and Kosciusko counties, tells stories of people who lived and died in the area.
People like Alonzo Anderson, a black man who served in the Civil War and later owned a barbershop in Kendallville. And the Wilkinson sisters, both buried in Oak Park Cemetery in Ligonier, who owned a turn-of-the-century nationwide quilting business.
Of course, the trail also highlights a few scandals and murder victims.
Sitting in the new commissary at the new Black Pine Animal Park in its new home at the 4-H Park just west of downtown Albion, Director of Development Lori Gagen talks about an old and growing problem—the exotic pet trade. She stresses repeatedly the need for people to understand that pet ownership is a responsibility and mentions some of the animals that have lucked out and found a new home at Black Pine—just as the park itself has found a new home.
Big cats, small cats, primates, birds, camels, reptiles. Reptiles? Reptiles? She is asked if there are any snakes and she answers, A Burmese python, two red-tailed boas and a ball python.” She is asked, “Are they within 50 feet of me now?” She answers that there is one right next to me.
That's the type of answer that will get your attention. And it is a funny situation: I'm amazed that I have been sitting next to a SNAKE for 20 minutes or more and am not even on a plane. We laugh.
Betty Peterson, of the Ligonier Tourism Bureau, talks about the museum's newest display, an original Mier Carriage built in Ligonier in the early 1900s.
Luckey Hospital Museum in Wolf Lake has much equipment from the days that tiny hospitals in small towns served the local population. Many area people were born in Luckey Hospital. Watch this video about a room in the museum dedicated to the wardrobe of nurses over the years. (KendallvilleTV on YouTube) Watch Video
Off a country road and down a lane and into the woods, go there and you will find a tearoom. In the middle of the dining area with curving walls full of windows, under the wooden-beamed roof that reaches up toward the sky, you will find a scaled down baby grand piano. It is a rustic place with a feel of casual elegance.
This tearoom, The Quiet Corner Tea and Coffee Room, is a personal place of relaxing atmosphere that the owners, Richard and Shirley Rinker, want to share as much as it is a business. In fact, after talking with Dick Rinker, the argument can be made that it is more a labor of the heart than an economic enterprise.
Why do I begin this piece with gentle talk of mood rather than the specifics of teas and coffees available and sandwiches on homemade bread? I think I do because it is the mood of the place that is actually the chief item on the menu.
Russ Becker makes the homemade ice cream at Fashion Farm in Ligonier.
For those of you unfamiliar with Fashion Farm, it is not a clothing mall, nor design business; it is a restaurant, an Old Memory House, a greenhouse, a 200-acre farm, the old Ligonier Jail and the site of Octobe's Pumpkin Fantasyland. As to the name – Fashion—well, that relates to a heifer purchased in the 20’s by the founder, Charles (Charlie) Williams, Russ Becker’s father-in-law. The animal’s name was Ole Fashion…and the 200-acre farm was her farm.
For those of you unfamiliar with the old-fashioned ice cream machines, they had cranks on them and on hot summer days, family members would take turns turning that crank. Being allowed to crank was almost a rite of passage event, albeit one that was more fun anticipated than performed.
Ask Becker about his ice cream machine while miming the cranking motion, and his response is a hearty chuckle as he himself cranks the air and says, "My ice cream maker is almost to that point because it is 32 years old."
We know what to expect when the Apple Festival is at the fairgrounds' and we've had over a 100 years of experience with the Noble County fair. But twice a year since 1990—on Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends – the Tri-State Bluegrass Festival pitches camp there and, well, we’re not so well versed in its protocol.
The main point is this: It can be a destination for enjoyment. Northern Indiana Bluegrass Association President Jim Winger compares it to a family reunion atmosphere, only here you don't have to share genes or put up with in-laws, here the connection is music, playing or listening.
