Through The Eye of My Camera
Scenes from Elkhart County, Indiana, 1976-1986

Photography by Michael Kube-McDowell

When I first visited Elkhart County in August of 1976, I found it both alien and familiar. While Goshen was smaller than the college I'd just graduated from, and Middlebury smaller than the "urban village" I grew up in, both were part of the same kind of rural, small-town, hard-working, God-fearing, county-courthouse, two-lane-road reality from which my own family sprang. In the absence of a working time machine, my ten years there were a proxy for a visit to Otter Tail County, Minnesota, or Greene County, Pennsylvania, in the 1920s, when my grandparents called those places home. Here is a sampling of what I saw.

(click thumbnail for larger image)

Grandson and grandfather on Memorial Day (published 5/31/83)	Bob Miller in his garden (published 9/16/82)		Bristol volunteer firefighters
Delivering the milk for snack time	Fishing on the Little Elkhart (published 5/2/83)	Watching the memorial Day parade (published 5/31/83)	Pancake breakfast
Tony Hurst, at the Northridge Talent Show	Last days of the Pumpkin Vine Railroad	Horseshoes is a serious game	In the town park, next to the library
Junior Miss rehearsal	A not-so-mobile home.		A first-class T-P job.
Dr. Pam Mitchell encamped with the voyageurs near Bristol	Semi-Precious Stones danced at...	...the Middlebury Summer Festival
1920, 1950, or 1980?	Politicians and Junior Miss queens	Main Street

If you can help identify people, places, events, or locations, please drop me a line at heritage@alternities.com

For more Elkhart County memories, visit my Flickr album.

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Created: 12 March 2005
Last Revised: 24 May 2009 02:43 PM