I don't know when that road turned into the road I'm on...

I've been on the road a lot the last few days, but contrary to what you might think, that doesn't mean I haven't been learning anything new.  As a matter of fact, I've found one can learn quite a lot by just reading road signs.  So, I thought I'd forward along some of the interesting things I've seen and learned while reading signs during my late adventures about the Midwest.  Take this as a kind of road-sign travelogue.

- There is a monument in Mt. Olive, Illinois to Mother Jones, who was apparently an important labor organizer in the early 1900s.  (Later in the week, I ran across an interesting article/illustration in a magazine named after Mother Jones about the ever-expanding size of the American Dream.)

- Steak 'n' Shake, of course, is usually a 24-hour establishment.  However, at around 2 am last Wednesday night/Thursday morning (May 14/15), the Steak 'n' Shake off of I-55 in Springfield, Illinois was totally empty.  Doors locked.  A handwritten sign explained that the store was "close" for the night.

- The BP just down the road from Steak 'n' Shake, however, is always open 24 hours a day, and features a bathroom with an automatic cologne dispenser. By depositing a quarter, customers can get a spritz of their favorite imitation designer cologne.

- The Dairy Queen in Martinsville, Indiana is hiring a cake decorator. They are also having a special sale on cheeseburgers.

- The Green Tree Inn, near exit 4 on I-65 by the Indiana/Kentucky border, purports to be close to everything.

- Jonathan Byrd's Restaurant & Cafeteria in Seymour, Indiana contains an "extensive Norman Rockwell collection."

- Contrary to all sound and ordinary logic and reason, guns actually save lives.  

- It appears that the only decent places for one seeking to purchase fireworks in a given state are found near the border of another state which has stricter fireworks laws.  I wonder if those who monitor interstate fireworks trafficking have caught on to this peculiar coincidence.

- Steward, Illinois can afford "no services," according to a helpful (albeit disappointing) little sign affixed below the sign announcing one's passing through the town on I-39.

And that's what I learned on my trip.

The Dead and Dying, Back in My Little Town

This week, I'm at a conference in Michigan for the Society for the Study of Midwest Literature.  I'm presenting a semi-academic but mostly-creative piece that I've written about the Mt. Pleasant Indian Industrial School - a school for the "re-education" of Native American children that was in operation from 1892 to 1933 in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, just North of my hometown of Shepherd.

Large portions of my piece, though, are taken from archived letters and news reports about the school.  So, for this week's letter, I'm forwarding along a fragment of a particularly odd piece of correspondence from a businessman from my hometown to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in Washington, proposing Shepherd as the site of the new Indian School.  

"October 4, 1891

Sir, The undersigned committee acting for the citizens of Shepherd & vicinity respectfully submit the following offers for a site for the Indian school to be located in Isabella county, Michigan.

Before specifying the offers we desire to recite the advantages of the village.

Shepherd, Coe Township, Isabella Co. is on the line of the Toledo, Ann Arbor & North Michigan R.R. 9 miles from Mt. Pleasant & 10 miles north of Alma where is located the Alma College which under the care of the synod of Michigan has taken such deep interest in the education of the Indian youth.  The surrounding is one of the finest farming tracts in the state, the farmers are all well to do & very frequently could for many weeks give employment to hundreds of Indian youth.  

The village has four religious societies, Methodist, Baptist Disciple & United Bretheren, the first three have each fine large edifices the village has a commodious opera house, a bank, a saw mill, a shingle mill, a planing mill, clothes pin factory, foundry & machine shops, a roller process mill with a daily capacity of 125 bushels & numerous stores representing all branches of business, good union school & a well equipped fire department with all modern conveniences, population 600."

Ten days later, Estee sent another letter to the Commissioner, complaining that "your representative Col. R. S. Gardiner has not given the locations which we offer a proper and careful examination. [...] Col. Gardiner did not examine the springs in fact did not see them and never saw the 40 through which the spring brook runs except from the highway as he drove by. [...] The balance of some two weeks Col. Gardiner has spent in the interest of the Mt. Pleasant petitioners.  We therefore respectfully urge that a more competent examination be made of the sites offered by us before a decision is made."

There is no evidence Estee's request was granted, and just a month later the decision was made official in favor of locating the school in Mt. Pleasant.  Estee and his fellow businessmen, no doubt, thought they had been deprived of an important opportunity to establish the prominence of their town in the area.

Today, the former buildings of the Mt. Pleasant Indian Industrial School are still standing, but are empty and abandoned, and the town has largely forgotten about them and the concerted efforts of local businessmen to get them built there.