Tourism and Community Development in Madison, Indiana
SummerFall 20062004 Volume 17,16, Issue 91 Tourism and Community www.IIRA.org Development in Madison, Indiana by John Staicer1 Charles Kuralt (1972), best known for his acclaimed “On Indiana. To walk through Madison’s leafy streets is the Road” series of television “essays” and arguably to vow faithfulness to this regal lady forever. Any America’s most famous “professional tourist” (MBC 2006), city with a Federal-style house like the one Judge once wrote . Jeremiah Sullivan built at Poplar and Second in 1818 could make a claim to royalty; Madison has For me the princess of the rivers (sorry, St. Louis; dozens of other houses almost as old and fine. forgive me, Memphis) is unquestionably Madison, Background on the “Princess of the Rivers”2 Madison (pop. 13,000) is the county seat of Jefferson County from Kentucky made Madison an important gateway to (pop. 39,000) on the Ohio River in largely rural southeast the Underground Railroad for hundreds and perhaps Indiana, midway between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Louisville, thousands of enslaved African-Americans.3 Kentucky. It is the largest city within a 35-mile radius and a regional hub for commerce, industry, health care, and tourism. The historic part of the city is on a fairly level, crescent-shaped tongue of Ohio River bottomland, approximately two miles long and three quarters of a mile wide, and is encircled by heavily wooded 400-foot high bluffs (City of Madison 2006; Madisonindiana.org 2002). The city dates from 1809, but by 1824, it had been incorporated as a town. By the 1830s, it was among the most populous, and one of the wealthiest communities in the state partly because of its access to transportation, including the Michigan Road, the first state-funded highway connecting the Ohio River with Lake Michigan, and the Madison-Indianapolis Railroad, the first in the state.
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