F- 521 - 148 -VOLS- N02 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF TRUSTEES Frank A. Bracken, Indianapolis Dianne J. Canmel, Seymour Ralph D. Gray, Indianapolis Charles A. Johnson, Carmel Larry S. Landis, Indianapolis 1-1. Roll McLaughlin, Carmel Mary Jane Meeker, Carmel Edwin W Miller, Indianapolis Thomas M. Miller, Carmel Janet C. Moran, Hammond Ronald V. Morris, Lafayette Kathleen Stiso Mullins, South Bend Alan T. Nolan, Indianapolis, Chair Larry K. Pius, Indianapolis William G. Prime, Madison Robert L. Reid, Evansville £valine H. Rhodehamel, Indianapolis, Vice President john Martin Smith, Auburn, President P. R. Sweeney, Vincennes Stanley Warren, Indianapolis, Treasurer Michael L. Westfall, Fort Wayne ADMINISTRATION Peter T. Harstad, Executive Director Raymond L.Sho emaker, Administrative Director Annabellej.jackson, Conu·oller Su·an P. Brown, Human Resources DirecLOr Carolyn S. Smith, Membership Secretary DtVISION DIRECTORS Bruce L. Johnson, Library Thomas K. Krasean, Community Relations Thomas A. Mason, Publications Robert M. Taylor Jr., Education TRACES 01' INDIANA AND MIDWESTERN HISTORY Thomas A. Mason, Executive Edit.or J. Kent Calder, Managing Editor Megan L. McKee, Editor Kathleen M. Breen, Editorial Assistant George R. Hanlin, Editorial Assistant CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Ray E. Boomhower Douglas E. Clanin Paulaj. Corpuz Ruth Dorrel PHOTOGRAPHY Kim Charles Ferrill, Photographer Susan L. S. Sutton, Coordinator EDITORIAl. BOARD Richardj. M. Blackett, Indiana University, Bloomington Edward E. Breen, Fort Wayne Journal Gazelle James T. Callaghan, Indianapolis Andrew R. L. Cayton, Miami University, Ohio David E. Dawson, Indianapolis Robert L. Gildea, Indianapolis Ralph D. Gray, Indiana University, Indianapolis James 1-1. Madison, Indiana University, Bloomington Richard S. Simons, Marion DESIGN Lloyd Brooks & Company R. Lloyd Brooks, An Director PREPRESS AND PRINTING Shepard Poorman Communicalions Corp. JI-IS WORLD WtDE WEB PAGE http://www.ihsl830.org/ Traces of lnd;anu and Midwestern 1/lstory (ISSN 1040·788X) is published quanedy and disLributed as a benefitof membership by the Indiana J listor·ical Society; editorial and executi\'c orrices, 315 West Ohio Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46202 -3299. �lembcrship categories are Annual 30 , Sustaining 50. Single copies are 5. Second- class posLage paid at indianapolis, Indiana; USPS Number003-275. Litnarycontributions: A brochure cor1t.a.ining information for contributors is available upon request. 'lhuf's accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts submitted without return postage. Indiana newspaper publishers may obtain permission to reprint articles by written request to the Society.The Society will refer requests from other publishers to the author. ©19961ndiana llistorical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in . the United States of America. Poslmn.sler: Please send address changes to �fi'aces oflndian(l wulAlidwestem 1-fistory, Indiana I li�itorical Society, 315 West Ohio Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46202-3299. 'l"i-actsis a member of the Conference of llistoricaljounmls. RECEIVED The Lost Astronaut : Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom of Mitchell, Indiana RAY BOOMHOW ER Removal: An Excerpt from The Miami Indians of Indiana: 1 6 A Persistent People, 1654-:-1994 STEWA RT RAFERT Down to Earth in the Midwest: Scott Russell Sanders and Writing from 2 0 the Center DAVID HOPP E From "The Common Life," in Writing from the Center SCOTT RUSSELL SANDERS "Scraps from My Army Ll]e": The Remembrances of Private Lewis King 2 8 WILB UR D. JONE S JR. King of the Coney Men: Master Counterfeiter Peter McCartney 3 6 PETER F. STEVENS Destination Indiana: Ruth mere lf lf RAY BOOMHOW ER lf 8 Letters FRONT COVER: ASTRONAUT VIRGIL I. "Gus" GRISSOM. NASA. INSIDE FRONT COVER: MIAMI INDIANS OF INDIANA CHIEF GEORGE GODFROY HOLDS A WAR CLUB, WHICH WA S LAID ON THE TABLE DURING TRI BAL COUNCIL SE SSIONS. MIAMI COUNTY HISTORICAL SO CIETY. ABOVE: ASTRONAUTS ROGER CHAFFEE, EDWARD WHITE, AND Gus GRISSOM (LEFT TO RIGHT) PR ACTICE FOR THEIR APOLLO I MISSION, A FLIGHT THAT NE VER LEFT THE LAUNCHPA D. NATIONAL SPACE SCIENCE DATA CE NTER. BACK COVER: DETAIL, PRINTING PLATE. INDIANA STATE AR CHIVES. INDIANA SUNRISE, POLAROID TRANSFER :ro WATERCOLOR PAPER, BY DARRYL )ONES. E D I T 0 R S' P A G E CIRCLING AND ROOSTING 1:INDIANA WINTER IS ALWAYS Of course, the interaction of people and place is what this magazine is about, TOUGH ON ME, BUT THIS ONE HAD TAKEN A DIRE TOLL. SINCE LATE NOVEMBER, and as I sat in Te xas beneath a rising I HAD DRIVEN THROUGH FOG, SLEET, SNOW, RAIN, WIND, AND HAIL AND VARIOUS moon, I couldn't help but think about Ray Boomhower's cover story for this INGENIOUS COMBINATIONS THEREOF. HAD SLID OFF ROADS, FA LLEN DOWN I issue on Gus Grissom and how the astro­ naut's background was perhaps at once NUMEROUS TIMES, AND EXPERIENCED A ROTATING SERIES OF COLD AND FLU the source of his success and at least a SYMPTOMS. I THOUGHT I COULD FEEL THE SALT THAT WAS DES TROYING MY CAR part of the reason for his depiction by the popular press as a scapegoat. Never WORKING ON MY VERY BONES, AND WAS AWARE THAT THE CONSTANT DARKNESS I as comfortable in the spotlight as his astronaut colleagues, the laconic Grissom IN WHICH I THOUGHT I LIVED HAD SURFACED IN MY AT TITUDE . I HAD was not a media darling. "If you were a NO TROUBLE CONVINCING ANYBODY THAT I NEEDED TO GET OUT OF TOW N. shoe salesman," he once explained in an effort to justify his request to fly an extra I went to Te xas, where I saw what As I watched hundreds of buzzards twenty-f ive combat missions in Korea seemed to me extraordinary things. restlessly circling and roosting because when he had already flown one hundred, Redbuds and cherry trees bloomed; they had been driven out of their habitat "you'd want to be where you could sell people walked about the streets without by the grass fires that raged nearby, I shoes." Grissom's language and behav­ overcoats; diners sat outside; and con­ recalled passages from Sanders like the ior seem as familiar to Hoosiers as the vertibles cruised the freeways unhooclecl. following: "In our books,as in our hearts landscapes and people depicted by I went fishing on the upper Brazos River and minds, we need a much greater Sanders. Regardless of what they think with my father and came back with the knowledge of the earth and the human about him in Hollywood, this original pleasant sting of a sunburn on my face. past, and a deeper regard for other crea­ American astronaut will forever be a hero We saw a blue heron,wild turkeys, hawks, tures." The kind of wisdom that Sanders in Indiana. and more buzzards than I have ever seen advocates derives from studying the soil, Back in Indianapolis, I was greeted by together at one time. We watched for a creatures, weather, plants, and lore of 20-clegree temperatures.The next morn­ beaver that he had spotted a few clays our immediate surroundings and involves ing on the way to work, however, I before. putting the community before the indi­ noticed through the patches of icy fog I saw this place, where I had spent so vidual and the spiritual before the mate­ that the sw1light was a good deal brighter much time during my youth, with new rial. lt is not difficult to understand, but than it had been the week before at the eyes. My senses were heightened both by its influence is scarce in our society. "The same time. Driving south down State long absence and by my recent reading of ego is too small an enclosure and too Road 13, I looked east across a frozen Scott Russell Sanders's essay collection feeble a source for enduring art ...," he cornfield and saw an Indiana sunrise that Writing Jrorn the Center, which David writes; "unless you draw from deeper nearly took my breath away. Hope of Hoppe reviews herein.Though, as Hoppe springs, the work will be thin and spring began to rise,just like it is sup­ explains, Sanders has made a career out vaporous." Like his spiritual predeces­ posed to. I was glad to be home and of writing about the Midwest and explor­ sor, Thoreau, Sanders has reached far ready to "sell shoes." ing the subtle and not so subtle con­ below the surface to craft a work that nections between this place and its bucks the torrent of mass consumer cul­ inhabitants,his perceptions, advice, and ture. It deserves to be read and remem­ ). KENT CALDER warnings are applicable to any place. bered, if not memorized. Ma11ngi119 Editor Spri119 J 996 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I 1r-- ----- I I I I I r------I 1 I I I I I I I I I I I I I Virgil/. "Gus "Grissom OF MITCHELL, INDIANA lf_wante:d:::to:::b:e:::an::::as:tranaac::a�::-star::voy_ag:er.� Like many youngstt?rs who grew up during the 1960s, I thrilled to the adventures of the Amt?rican space program, constructed rocket models (including the giant Saturn 5), and strained to stay awake on the evening of 20 July 1969 to watch on television as Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon and to hear him uttt?r the now famous remark: "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." Space fever still gripped me a few years later when my family took a vacation to Spring·Mill State Park near Mitchell, Indiana. What impressed me on that trip wasn't the park's Pioneer Village, with its restored log cabins and working gristmill, or the blind fish swimming in Donaldson's Cave, but ratht?r a simple, low-slung structure near the gark's entrance: the Virgil I.