By Natalie Derrickson When the weather turns cold, one need only visit the Fort Wayne History Center’s Festival of Gingerbread to be enveloped in the warmth of the season and the tantalizing aroma of gingerbread.  During the festival’s run from Nov. 24 through Dec. 17, visitors can expect to see professional-level gingerbread creations, including depictions… Continue reading.

According to the Indiana War Memorials Foundation, no other city in the United States maintains as much acreage dedicated to honoring veterans as Indianapolis. Featuring a variety of museums, parks, memorials and monuments, downtown Indy provides several opportunities to pay tribute to the state’s rich military history and the men and women who have served…. Continue reading.

Constructed in 1908, the Indiana State Sanatorium was originally built to give respite and healing to those suffering from tuberculosis.  More than a medical facility, the Sanatorium, and its surrounding buildings situated on over 200 acres, functioned as a self-sufficient community. Doctors and nurses lived on the property. There was a greenhouse, a dairy barn… Continue reading.

The day before our nation’s “four score and seventh birthday,” the momentous question whether the United States would survive intact to celebrate any future birthdays hinged on the outcome of the Civil War battle fought at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. This month marks the 160th anniversary of that battle. Fought July 1-3, 1863, Gettysburg is perhaps the… Continue reading.

Strawberry Fields may be forever — at least in some of our Beatle-inspired minds — but the juicy red morsels of late spring and early summer are fleeting. Be certain not to miss out on these first fruits of the season by visiting a strawberry festival near you. All around Indiana, festivals featuring strawberries kick… Continue reading.

March and April are the two months when the four letters “N-C-A-A” roll off the tongue most frequently — especially in basketball-crazed Indiana. Though the clock runs out on the college hoops season with the Final Four, Hoosiers don’t have to let the lore or excitement fade with the arena crowds. The NCAA Hall of… Continue reading.

Valentine’s Day falls perfectly between the year-end holidays and spring break, which is usually still a month or so away. In the deadest of winter, Valentine’s Day is a shining moment that gives everyone from harried parents to budding couples a chance for some rest and romantic relaxation. Whether you live in the northern or… Continue reading.

Eighty years ago this spring, the Nazi regime in Germany, already in the throes of its genocide against millions of people it deemed undesirable and a World War it instigated, began conducting perverse pseudoscientific medical experiments on sets of twins. Among those pulled from the population bound to the concentration camps in the spring of… Continue reading.

Something magical happens when trains couple with Christmas. Be it a model electric train circling the base of a Christmas tree firing up a child’s imagination or a genuine old-fashioned steam or diesel engine chugging through a winter’s night to real holiday delights, trains add to the nostalgia and memories of the holidays like no other… Continue reading.

The hills of Monroe and Owen counties will be alive with the sound of music — not to mention the whirring of wheels, grinding of gears, huffing and puffing, and oohs and aahs of Indiana autumn splendor. The Hilly Hundred Weekend returns Oct. 21-23 for its 54th annual go-round … and up and down.  The… Continue reading.

The “Sunflower State” is Kansas. But Indiana is no shrinking violet when it comes to celebrating the giant, sun-loving flower that brings the radiance of the sun to our fields and gardens. Beginning this month and continuing until the sun starts to fade into fall, Hoosiers will be celebrating sunflowers at various festivals and events…. Continue reading.

When it comes to the world’s fastest motorsports, the 2.5-mile oval at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is where it’s at during the month of May and Memorial Day Weekend. But the Fourth of July Weekend belongs to the annual Madison Regatta and its 2.5-mile circuit on the Ohio River. Skimming and skipping across the water… Continue reading.