Editorial

Soak up the history while you can

Thursday, September 15, 2016

The official bicentennial of the State of Indiana is still nearly three months away on Sunday, Dec. 11, 2016.

Planning for bicentennial celebrations has been going on since 2011 at the state level and since 2013 here in the county.

Lost in those dates, though, is that next Thursday, Sept. 22, might just be the best time to take in the bicentennial experience here in Putnam County.

As most readers of this paper should know by now, on that evening, over the course of three hours from 5 to 8 p.m., the Indiana Bicentennial Torch Relay will pass through Putnam County.

Twenty-one torchbearers ranging from a high schooler to at least two octogenarians will carry the torch from downtown Putnamville to Baker’s Camp Covered Bridge, with a number of stops along the way.

It’s a unique bit of state history that we all should feel honored to partake in.

Check out the route, see where it passes closest to your house and try to be there at the given time. It may even pass right in front of your house.

The relay itself won’t be the only chance to take in a bit of history that evening.

The Indiana Bicentennial Experience will be parked on the north side of courthouse square, providing citizens with a high-tech mobile museum of state history.

James H. Madison, emeritus professor of history at Indiana University will give a 7:30 p.m. talk on two-hundred years of Indiana history at Gobin United Methodist Church.

No big deal, you think? OK, but there’s not going to be another chance like this for another 100 years (or 50 at a minimum).

Those among us who can clearly recall the nation’s bicentennial may find this hard to believe, but more than half of the current population either wasn’t born in 1976 or isn’t old enough to remember.

The bottom line is, celebrations like this only come along once a generation or so.

So get out, learn some history and enjoy the first day of autumn with a nice celebration of Hoosier history.

You aren’t getting another chance like this anytime soon.