The 99th THS Alumni Banquet in May 2012 will have a Railroad (RR) theme for this year’s banquet.  We hope to share information about how important the RR was to Thorntown’s development since it started service in 1852—160 years ago and help promote our local Thorntown Keewasakee Trail as part of the Farm Heritage Trail which will soon connect Lafayette to Zionsville via Thorntown.

Most of us are probably more familiar with more recent railroad history.  This might be the 1980’s when the RR tracks were removed.  Or in the 1990’s the Lions Club took built a Lions Park on Main Street.  In 2008 the Thorntown Keewasakee Trail was dedicated by Indiana Governor Daniels.  In 2010 the 10 mile section from Sugar Creek Bridge to Lebanon became the Farm Heritage Trail, a part of Indiana’s Rails to Trails program.  In 2012 our rail-trail may extend north to Colfax and south around Whitestown.

But there must be a wealth of information about this RR line during the 120 years that it operated as a real RR through Thorntown.  We plan to compile this information for the educational component of this rails-to-trails project but we need personal stories from local people.

Would any of you be willing to share any stories you might have about the RR that you have picked up through the years?  Or, would you know of other people around Thorntown who could be contacted about stories or information about Thorntown’s bygone RR days? 

As food for thought, we have added some Thorntown Railroad photos from the Thorntown Library web site.  Enjoy them by clicking on Phtotos to Share at the left then click on the 99th Banquet Railroad album.

A few collected stories already are as follow: 

1.  Harold Clouser has shared the tragic story about the day his young brother Danny was killed by the train in 1971. 

2. Jewel Fairfield Moody told about her dad removing the carcass of a horse hit by the train behind their house.