Town officials say some two million people visit Shipshewana each year for its flea market and Amish tourist attractions. A new project aims to tell visitors the story of how the little town got its name.
The town is named for Potawatomi Chief Shipshewana. The first European settlers forced him and his people out of the area in 1838, marching them along what’s been called the Trail of Death to the Osage River in Kansas.
Visitors can already see a monument to the chief and his tribe at the corner of LaGrange County Roads 900 West and N905 West where Chief Shipshewana lived. Soon they’ll also be able to hear the story.
This week the LaGrange County Tourism Foundation announced it’s won a $5,000 state grant to add an audio history to the monument. Visitors will be able to take a picture of a QR code that will link to a website that plays the recording.
Sonya Nash, the foundation’s CEO, says they’re writing the script now and hope to have it all finished this fall, for the many tourists who ask about the Shipshewana name.
“Part of it is telling the relationship of the chief and that’s how the town name came about," Nash says. "It was named Sumnee Town, Davis Town, and those early settlers wanted to honor that heritage and so we’re just wanting to elevate and share that story.”
