Vigo County Historical Society

"Are we almost there yet?"

Surely that question has been asked in every language, in every era, and at some time by every person who ever has traveled. The excitement of arriving at some difference and unknown destination is universal.

The age of the automobile allowed almost anyone the ability to travel, but the good roads, maps and signs we now take for granted weren’t quite as available 50 years ago. Someone had to scout the locations and report back on places and how to get there. For Terre Haute, and the readers of its local newspapers, that person was Edwin W. Johnson.

Johnson researched and wrote about various parts of Indiana and the Midwest for more than 30 years. He was an early devotee of the automobile, and he loved to travel. As he traveled, he took notes on mileage, not just between towns, but often between landmarks. He also took his camera and when he stopped he photographed and researched sites and towns which caught his interest.

The museum has five photo albums compiled by Edwin Johnson. There are almost 700 photographs within the albums, each with a small typewritten narrative about the scene. The pictures range all over the State of Indiana and do not aim for any particular theme. They include trees and tombstones, architecture and roadside parks. Most of the photographs date from the mid-1930s.

It would be fun--and quite an undertaking--to follow in the footsteps (perhaps tire tracks would be more appropriate) of Johnson, visiting the locations shown in his pictures and seeing what the sites look like now. The views he shot in Vigo County are easy.

Markles Mill was still standing; it was to burn shortly afterwards. The site of Fort Harrison no longer looks the same; it is now the Elks Club. Except for the street lights, the courthouse looks much the same. Johnson took a tight shot showing just the courthouse so none of the buildings around it are visible.

In East Connserville he photographed a spectacular covered bridge. It not only had the regular covered double roadway for wheeled traffic, but each side had a covered pedestrian walkway. The roof was supported by ornate, turned columns and fancy brackets.

Johnson’s narrative under the photographs states: "Unusual covered bridge over Whitewater River at East Connersville. Erected in 1870. Demolished in 1934."

In another of the albums is a photograph of the matching bridge with Johnson’s notation that it was the last in the state and the hope that it would survive.

The birthplace of Wilbur Wright in New Castle is shown, as is the home of Francis La Fountaine, a Miami Chieftain whose home was built by the United States Government on his reservation in 1840.

Trees include the Walnut Treaty Tree under which Chief Tecumseh was supposed to have signed a treaty with Governor Harrison in 1811 and 1818, the Constitutional Elm in Corydon (at that point, according to the photograph, it was just the trunk of the original tree which had been capped with an octagonal roof to protect it from the weather0, and the "Deam Oak Tree, a natural graft of chinohopin (this is the word he used, but didn’t explain what it meant) and oak." Johnson felt this tree, located near Bluffton, probably was the only one in the world.

Other natural scenes in the books include a series on Shakamak Park. The photos start in 1928 with the lake as it originally appeared, a small natural pond. In 1933, after the state conservationists spent more than $100,000 dredging and building dams, the lake is shown in its enlarged size, complete with water lilies.

Courthouses were a popular subject for Edwin Johnson. The narrative under the picture usually doesn’t say much about the building, but talks about the county, its claim to fame, its products, and its population.

The albums include photos of the graves of notable Indians in the state’s history. There also are shots of the construction of the Lincoln Memorial Bridge and the George Rogers Clark Memorial in Vincennes.

Johnson used his notes and photographs to create guides for the automobile traveler. He worked for the Auto Club and for local newspapers, publishing accounts which described the best roads to take and what to see. This is an age when most roads were either full of dust or a bog of mud.

According to an article written by Frances Hughes in 1975, his last travel articles were on the parks of Indiana and were published each Sunday in the Terre Haute Tribune-Star. Edwin Johnson died in 1939.

The first guidebook for American travelers was offered in 1825. Titled "The American Traveler," it was about stagecoach roads in the entire country.

Johnson’s photograph albums were, in their own way, just as much of a first. They helped start the motorized Midwest tourist, and continued the ability of many, many small children to whine in the driver’s ear, "Are we almost there yet?"