September 18, 2025: We took a short two day trip to northeast Indiana with our good friends, Don and Julie. Weather was perfect the entire time.
As I was growing up and with my Mother's family connections, this was always an area we would visit often, especially during the summertime. My Mother was born and raised in Angola, Indiana and lived on Gale St. Her father, mother, step-mother, grandparents, great-grandparents and more are interred in this area.
I mentioned to Don about remembering the local AM radio station WOWO in that area of the state, and since his Mom had lived in Ft. Wayne, she told him about WOWO standing for "Weenies Only Wiggle Once!" Which I had never heard! Made for a good laugh.
We and our friends had spoken earlier in the summer about the possibility of making a visit to the Auburn Cord Dusenberg Car Museum in Auburn, Indiana and decided to make it happen. That museum did not disappoint. It is truly a world class car museum, particularly focused on the early history of the automobile industry and the grand styling of several early 20th century car companies.
But before Auburn, we decided to check out a somewhat newer Ouabache State Park east of Bluffton, IN. I had never driven through this part of the State. It was an adventure and a pleasure. Ouabache is not an easy place to get to, roads-under-construction and such, but once there, we enjoyed seeing the Bison (not the same as Buffalo), Lake Kunkel and the Fire Tower. Julie was the only one of our group brave and steady enough on her feet to make the climb and take a few photos from the top. There wasn't much room up there, and she couldn't believe there was actually some guy up there sitting on the small tower floor, working on his laptop. "Kinda creepy," she thought.
Ouabache State Park Visit 09/18/2025 2:07 min
We drove past the original "Fort" in Ft. Wayne and found a very nice block long pedestrian street area called "The Landing," where we discovered a very nice Mexican restaurant named Mercado for our lunch. Then it was on to the highlight of the day: the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Car museum. Even though there were three buildings available to explore for a price, we opted for the main museum building only, which was the original Cord Company building. And it was more than enough. Just a wonderful experience - "Nicotine Stain" and all. This was the name that Julie had given to one of the many beautiful classic car paint colors displayed on a board. But for some reason the original Car Company Marketing department thought "Cigarette Cream" might be more a appropriate and appealing color name.
Auburn Cord Duesenberg Car museum Orientation Film 18:50 min
Auburn Cord Duesenberg Car museum 09/18/2025 8:32 min
We spent more time in the museum than originally planned, so we opted to start heading to our night's final destination - Potowami Inn in Pokagan State Park on the north shore of Lake James. But first, Julie wanted to stop at the Eckhart Public Library she knew about in Auburn and it was well worth seeing. I guess it was a Mr. Eckhart that was the visionary who wanted something more than another Carnegie Library for Auburn and he got it - a beautiful historic building with a somewhat lesser than stellar more recent addition. Julie also wanted to make a stop at the Sechler's Pickle factory in Ft. Wayne, but I nixed that idea.
My grandparents once owned a cottage on the east end of Lake James, the "Pill Box," and also another on the south side of the Lake, "Green Gable." Both of these have long since been resold and rebuilt into more year-round proper houses of a more costly, substantial and imposing nature. We had booked a couple of the "Historic Rooms" at the Inn for our night's accommodations and they were perfectly fine and totally adequate.
Potowatomi Inn and Pokagon State Park 09/18/2025 2:21 min
Friday, the 19th, we visited the Tobogan Run inside the park before venturing on to try and visit my ancestors gravesites. First stop, Jordan Cemetery, to try and find the headstone of my Great Great Grandfather, John Neal Creel. We did find it and a few pictures were taken!
Next stop was the famous Powers Church to see that beautiful historic church and search for the gravesite of my Great Great Great Grandfather, Calvin Powers. Amazingly, we found two Calvin Powers tombstones, but I think we were able to pin down my Great Great Great Grandfather's as the one with a reference to Lorenzo Creel on the back side as being the correct one. Lorenzo was my Great Grandfather's (Thomas Jefferson Creel's) brother and died while serving in the Indian territory of Nevada. And according to "www.findagrave.com" he is buried in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Powers Church & Cemetery Visit 09/19/2025 7:29 min
We then spent a few minutes in Metz, Indiana. This was where my Great Grandmother Edna Browning Wood Creel was born and raised. Next stop, Circle Hill Cemetery in Angola. I have many relatives buried there, but Circle Hill is a big cemetery and we couldn't locate their gravesites. When we got back home, I called the Cemetery and a very nice lady, Cindy, was able to give me the Section and Lot number of their location, which I will have to save for a future visit.
Last stop, was to see the summer home of Gene Stratton Porter on Sylvan Lake, famous Indiana author. This is an Indiana Historic site located at 1205 Pleasant Point, Rome City. We didn't think we had enough time for the one hour tour, but we were able to walk around the grounds and peak in the windows.