There's something you should know about me: I chose my bank before I had any reason to move to Indiana. Now that I'm here, there isn't a branch within 30 miles of me. Normally this isn't a problem. Between mobile deposit, online banking, direct deposit, and bank by mail, we're good 95% of the time. But when we need to talk to a teller that 5% of the time, it becomes a road trip.
So when we had to head off to the bank recently, we decided to visit the Wabash, Indiana branch, about 45 miles away. The branch itself was a nice little bank, but I was happy to find myself fascinated by Wabash!
It all started with this:
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You read that correctly. Eat it, New York!
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With a population around 10,000 people, Wabash is very aware that this claim to fame is going to be its biggest one, so they fully embrace it. Such as this informative plaque outside their city hall:
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Informative!
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But let's take a second to look at the city before getting carried away. The old city is nestled in a small river valley, with the old administrative buildings sitting on the hilltop.
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Sitting grandly, might I add.
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Like many Indiana towns, the town hall has various memorials to their veterans. And also like many Indiana towns, their veterans date back to the Civil War.
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One of the grand administrative buildings.
Complete with grandly creepy statues.
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I've got no witty comment about a war memorial.
What? I do have some class.
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The peace tree blocking the view of the cannon memorial
for the first Wabash soldier to give his life for the US.
There's a metaphor here somewhere...
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New administrative space had been built onto the old buildings, complete with entertaining confusing signage:
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Between the harsh but fair "baby shot" judicial center,
and the tiny "Wabash County Health" building there's so many comments to make...
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And on the opposite side of the city hall, local business owners decided to set up a nail salon with a title that seems to perfectly fit the class and style of government officials.
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Ba-dum CHING!!
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Seriously, this is right across from the county governmental center. And we weren't the only one perplexed and amused by the placement of this business.
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Four score and seven...
...Does that really say "Get Nailed"...?
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Heading down the hill, the citizens of Wabash are currently in the middle of a revitalization of their traditional downtown, and it shows.
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This is mural is next to the public parking lot.
Note the furniture AND undertaker shop on the righthand side!
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Remember that "art" thing we talked about?
It's coming! Seriously! We swear!
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| The downtown area... |
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...Complete with "bowl cuts" on the trees.
They must be old-school Beatles fans. |
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| There were several art galleries... |
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A few elephants...
(No idea why they picked elephants.) |
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| And more art! |
They also wanted to remind you, once again, that Wabash was the first electrically lit town, with yet another informative plaque...
...But this time they included a prop, which is pretty cool.
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Hanging from this pole is a light
that didn't ever actually hang from a pole... |
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| ...But it's still cool anyway, right? |
Even through Wabash only had four arc lamps back in 1880, they outfitted replica arc lamps along every light pole in the downtown area. Overkill? I don't know. We left before it got dark, so I can only surmise that it looks pretty awesome with the arc lamps all running.
But even juxtaposed against all of the art (more is coming!), culture, and history, there was still parts that were so quintessentially small town/city Indiana.
For example, when we stopped for lunch in a local pizza joint, we saw this on the wall:
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Yup. That's a framed notice to get extras for the movie Hoosiers.
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And right next to the antique shoppes and art galleries stood this store:
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Reminding us that geekery is also traditional.
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Overall, I was pleasantly surprised. The town is pretty, the people are nice, and next time we have to visit our friendly bank tellers we'll probably head up Wabash way.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, Wabash IS known for something other than its electric lights:
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Yes, during the Civil War the Indiana Regiments were camped right here...
...At the corner of Chestnut and Columbus.
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