Outdoor Indiana - July/August 2022

Roots with country’s oldest ally run deep

By Marty Benson, OI staff

Members of the Ouiatenon Brigade bring their canoe ashore from the Wabash. Formed in 1973, the brigade participates in the Feast every year, portraying the lives of French voyageurs. Brent Drinkut photo.

Next time you’re driving along one of the state’s major rivers, take note of the place names. Many are French in origin.

Terre Haute, Lafayette, and Vincennes are prime examples, and the first fort in the Fort Wayne area was called Fort des Miamis.

Even the name of the state river, the Wabash, has some French-ness, which an alternative spelling, Ouabache, as in the name of the state park near Bluffton, makes clearer. The Miami-Illinois tribes’ name for the waterway was waapaahšiki siipiiwi, from which the French formed their name. Even some of the straight-up English names in Indiana have French origin. South Bend and Portage are examples, referring to the way their geography influenced French navigation.

Motoring beside the major rivers of Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri provides a similar experience to Indiana’s, as does driving next to those of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

That’s because long before the British became the major European power in what would become Indiana and those other states, they were part of New France, a designation you may not have heard of before. The term obviously had a much shorter life than “New England”—despite that war for independence our ancestors fought against the Redcoats, with France as our ally.

A giant swath of today’s Midwest, from the Great Lakes to and including the state of Louisiana, with the Mississippi River as its western boundary, came to be called New France by those of European descent mainly because of its abundance of furbearing wildlife. The southern portion, in its entirety, was called Louisiana, aka Pays en Bas. The northern portion was called Canada, aka Pays en Haut. If you don’t know or haven’t thought of Indiana’s French heritage since elementary school—or ever—you’re not alone. It’s often ignored or forgotten.

The reasons are many. One is that France and its Native American allies lost the French and Indian War to the British and their Native American allies. The result of the conflict, called the Seven Years War in Europe, accounts for English eventually becoming the official tongue of the local Europeans.

Another factor is that the French came to trade with the Native people. They also intermingled culturally, including intermarriage. The British, by contrast, wanted land. Even as they took it, they encouraged the French people to stay. Many did. And the French place names, if not their French pronunciations, lived on.

A movement is afoot to kindle, rekindle, or nurture the Midwest’s inherent French-ness. Launched two years ago, the initiative has collectively dubbed the area and its group of one-per-state ambassadors the French Heritage Corridor (FHC).

Cold snack leaves its mark on the Hoosier state

By Scott Roberts, OI staff

Cathy Brown decorates a Valpo Velvet ice cream cake. (Above) Colorful ice cream cones at Valpo Velvet. Brent Drinkut photo.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream.

That rhyme, originally from a 1927 song by Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians, has stayed around for more than just its catchy phrasing. The vast majority of us really do crave the dessert, according the National Frozen and Refrigerated Foods Association. Its study concluded 98% of all U.S. households purchase ice cream, and 87% have some in their freezer at any given time.

Indiana has played a major role in fueling the country's ice cream passion. The state is second to California in ice cream production according to the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, partially thanks to large production facilities from dairy giants Edy’s and Prairie Farms in Fort Wayne. Good Humor has a facility in Huntington.

These companies locate in the Hoosier state partially because Indiana is a major dairy producer. The state is 14th in dairy production, with its approximately 750 dairy farms producing 371 million pounds of milk in 2020, which was up 9.8% from 2019.

A few factors give Indiana an edge on other states according to Christy Coon, the creamery license division manager at Purdue University. Her job is to monitor the weighing and sanitizing of Indiana milk and make sure the process runs smoothly. She also runs Round Barn Creamery with her husband and grew up on a dairy farm in the Lafayette area. She says cows are comfortable in Indiana’s climate for much of the year, and Indiana’s agricultural industry grows a lot of corn, hay, and soybeans, which cows like to feed on.

Indiana’s location also plays a part. Being in the Midwest means the ability to ship milk most places in the U.S. relatively quickly, and our many interstates mean the state has the transportation system to get it where it needs to go. Finally, Coon says Indiana receives free advertising from the Indy 500 when its winner drinks milk during the post-race celebration every year. These factors have combined to give Indiana a rich ice cream culture it still enjoys today.