Guest commentary:
Why are we so nuts about transportation in Delphi
By Brian Stirm

With the upcoming Delphi Area Heritage Transportation Festival, June 16 and 17, maybe we should explain to all why we are so into transportation in our fair city. We consider it more than just a way to go to the store, travel back and forth to work or for shipping that manufactured good far away. You see in Delphi transportation is our heritage, the way we were, the way we are now and how we'll be viewed in the future. Our forefathers and mothers used transportation as a tool to better their lives. Passed down from them, we are doing the same and we'll instill our children with the same need to keep a keen eye on transportation to mold their future.

A little history lesson is in order because we have many reminders left in our community of how it was. These sites and remembrances are very unique because many areas of the United States have destroyed things in the name of progress and in doing so have expunged the history lesson that they afford. It has been said that to forget history is an assurance that you will repeat the mistakes made before. As a society, we have done this with armed conflicts, human achievements and even the simpler pleasures of life. These sites and remembrances are still alive in Delphi and Carroll County, so as we embark on a new chapter of transportation development (the Hoosier Heartland Highway) let's go back into history to appreciate the accomplishments of our forbearers. And while we're at it, let's have some fun too!

First, a brief history lesson of early transportation in Delphi and keep in mind that we were always at the forefront in the development of the next mode of transportation on the horizon. I can only imagine the discussions that they had in times past about looking forward. The real difference between Delphi and other communities was that we put these discussed plans into action, a trait that we continue to this day. Delphi/Carroll County is not where we just talk, talk, talk but where things get done and rather quickly I might add.

Our first settlers came to the area in the 1820s when the young State of Indiana (1816) was just opening up to settlement. Crawfordsville, a very early town, had been established as the area land office and these early pioneers had moved up the Wabash River in keel boats and across road-less land by horseback. They knew that to be successful they would have to grow the land and move their produce to distant markets. Conversely, they knew that to work the land they would need tools from the East and thus the need for transportation.

Certainly the rivers and streams would make a good route for transportation. They were already here and did not require labor to construct, but a very serious problem loomed in that they only flowed one direction, downstream. This required a creative solution. It took many weeks to walk back from New Orleans after having taken the annual harvest that way on a self constructed flatbottomed river boat. The creative solution found? A level hand dug ditch called a canal. And this was only the beginning of finding a better, faster way of transportation. We still have the canal, the Wabash and Erie, here in Delphi, and it still has water in it!

But hot on the heals of the canal was the next mode of transportation, the steam powered railroads. What! travel at 20 miles an hour instead of 4, even the medical profession of the time was against it!

And doing like we do here in Delphi, our forward-looking citizens looked into it and endorsed its development while still profiting on the canal shipments. It has been this way with every new transportation scheme down through time. This is what we are celebrating with our annual Heritage Transportation Festival. Why not join us in the fun and learn about our history!

Stirm is manager of the Delphi Airport.