Oct 26, 2026 | Crossroads Discovery Center, Highlights in History, New & Exciting
By David Heighway, Hamilton County Historian Emeritus When it comes to business models, the simple exchange of one item for another is about as basic as it gets. For close to a century, from around 1717 to around 1820, this kind of activity is what powered the economy...
Sep 12, 2026 | Crossroads Discovery Center, Highlights in History
By David Heighway, Hamilton County Historian Emeritus September 17 will be Constitution Day, the 239th anniversary of the signing of one of our country’s founding documents. However, it will also be the anniversary of a shocking event in Noblesville that was spurred...
Jul 27, 2026 | Crossroads Discovery Center, Highlights in History
By David Heighway, Hamilton County Historian Emeritus Carl G. Fisher (1874-1939) was a man who knew how to get his name in front of the public. He was one of the founders of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as well as the leader in the creation of the Lincoln Highway,...
Jun 12, 2026 | Crossroads Discovery Center, Highlights in History
As part of my blog posts about Juneteenth, I’ve mentioned the African American soldiers listed on the monument at Crownland Cemetery. It raised the question “Is this the oldest Civil War monument in the United States that includes African American soldiers?” We don’t...
May 19, 2026 | Crossroads Discovery Center, Highlights in History
This is another part of Hamilton County’s history with steamboats. Many people probably remember the various excursion boats on Morse Reservoir – the “Morse Queen” in 1965, and the “Waterfront Queen” / ”Star of Cicero” which ran in the 1990’s and 2000’s. Hamilton...
