Atterbury-Bakalar Air Museum
Ernie Pyle WWII Museum
Five Points Fire Museum
Fort Wayne
Firefighters Museum Freeman
Army Airfield Museum
Virgil "Gus"
Grissom Memorial
Hoosier Air Museum
Indiana Military
Museum
Indianapolis Fire Museum McClain
Military Museum
Military Honor
Park and Museum
Museum of the Soldier
National
Military History Center/Automotive and Carriage Museum National
Model Aviation Museum
Rolls-Royce Heritage Center, Allison Branch
Ropkey Armor Museum
Wayne County
Historical Museum
Indiana Museums -
Aviation, Military, Automotive and Fire
Indiana is rich with a
large collection of museums exhibiting aircraft, military vehicles,
fire apparatus, artifacts and automobiles. In eastern Indiana the Wayne County
Historical Society in Richmond contains about a
dozen automobiles that were manufactured at one time in Richmond.
Traveling west on I-70 and then north into Henry County, one can visit
the Wilbur Wright Museum which is located at the house he was born in.
Up in the northeast
portion of the state. Auburn is the museum capital of Indiana with three
automobile museums, one aviation museum, and one military museum.
The Auburn-Cord-Dusenberg Museum is probably the most well known of the
five. Located 50 feet away and right behind it is the National Automobile and
Truck Museum (Natmus), which has a large and excellent collection of
vehicles. Located two miles away along I-69 is the co-located
Kruse Automotive and Carriage Museum and the National Military History
Center, one of four military museums in the state. A ten minute
drive from any of the previously named Auburn museums takes one to the
Hoosier Air Museum. Several of these museums can be visited in one
trip if one spends a day in Auburn.
Traveling to the northwest
to Shipshewana, IN which is the home of Hostetler's Hudson Auto Museum,
which has the world's largest collection of Hudson automobiles on
display. Moving to the west the Studebaker National Museum is located in South Bend
in a brand new museum building. Traveling south down US-31 from
South Bend one comes upon the Grissom Air Museum, which is Indiana's
largest aviation museum. Traveling farther south on US-31 into
Kokomo one finds the Kokomo Automobile Museum. Continuing down
US-31 to Indianapolis there is the Indianapolis 500 Hall of Fame Museum,
the Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust Center and the Indiana War Memorial
Museum. South of Indianapolis is the Atterbury-Bakalar Air Museum
in Columbus which expanded early in 2014.
Forty minutes northeast of
Indianapolis in Anderson is the second of Indiana's military museums,
the McClain Military Museum. The third military museum, outside of
Crawfordsville at the Ropkey Armor Museum, is the original and longest
running military museum in the state . The late Fred Ropkey
spend his entire adult life collecting and restoring one of the finest
private collections of military hardware in the world. Then on the
western border of Indiana in Vincennes is the Indiana Military Museum,
which has just recently moved into a new and larger location for display
of not only military vehicles but aircraft. Then, as far south
and west as one can go in the state is Indiana's "navy", which is the
only WWII LST in operation, LST-325.
In summary Indiana has a
large and diverse collection of museums for those interested in viewing
historic cars, military items, aircraft and a ship. Photos of each
museum are not comprehensive of what is in a museum but an
overview of what one will see at the museum.
Before visiting any of the
above mentioned museums one should check the appropriate websites.
Several of the museum have winter hours or are closed during the winter.
At the Indianapolis 500 Hall of Fame Museum
one can see is car, the Marmon "Wasp" that won the very first Indy 500
in 1911. One of many cars that can be seen at several museums in
the state of Indiana.
Located at the National Military History
Center in Auburn, this is one of two replica Vietnam era gun trucks on
display. Many more military vehicles and artifacts are on display
at several museums in Indiana.
This F-14 Tomcat is one of the many outside
displays at the Grissom Air Museum, which has the largest collection of
aircraft in Indiana.
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