Dubois County Museum: Largest County museum in Indiana!

Inside this unassuming, deceptively small building in Jasper, Indiana, is the largest county museum in Indiana. How big, you ask? It has 50,000 square feet of displays, which is 2,000 square feet larger than a football field. It is massive. Be prepared to spend several hours walking and even longer if you like to stop and read. Without even trying, I spent over three hours here.

There are two floors of collections ranging from prehistory to pioneers to modern times.

And below ground, there’s even a recreated town. The basement is so large that they could fit a two-story cabin. If you love history, this is the Smithsonian of county museums – the DuBois County Museum.

On the first floor, you are greeted by a buffalo. I did not ask if he had a name. The area now DuBois County was once part of an ancient trail for migrating buffalo, now known as the Buffalo Trace. It was so flattened by thousands of these fat, healthy buffalo that Native Americans used it as a road, as did pioneers that came later. These trails were later made into highways, so you can thank a fat buffalo when cruising along these roads.

The Native Americans that followed the buffalo left many artifacts. Resident Thomas J. Fromey has collected this fantastic assortment of arrowheads for over 73 years. There’s also a section about DuBois County archaeology and ancient items found by an Indiana University study at Portersville.

You might wonder who this handsome guy is and why his face is plastered on the wall. This is Twisant DuBois. This is why DuBois County is called DuBois County. People might have messed up his name a little. Born in Montreal, Canada, he fought in the American Revolutionary War and the War 1812. He was pretty hardcore, and why not name your county after someone hardcore like that?

There is a lot of information to consume here; you will have to pace yourself. If you’re not from DuBois County, you may not know that DuBois County has deep and early German roots. In the 1800s, so many German people settled in DuBois County that it was said they came flying in like snowflakes. They traveled from Europe on ships, spending three weeks in tiny accommodations. Can you imagine doing three weeks in something like this? Some people can’t spend three hours in a minivan with their kids. They wore wooden shoes like these. They don’t seem all that comfy; they’re not exactly a pair of Keds.

You can view a variety of items related to early German settlement. You can see what kind of clothes they would have worn. These kids need to loosen up; they look a little tightly wound. You can see renowned German craftsmanship.

Not only can you research your DuBois County family tree, but you can also find where your ancestors lived, courtesy of this enormous map. Names of early property owners are located on tiny grids. I can’t even imagine the hours and patience it took to make this.

The following section is entirely different; it celebrates DuBois County athletes, from local heroes to those who went on to national fame.

There is a beautiful cobalt-blue room honoring DuBois County women who have demonstrated exemplary leadership. There is also a tiny section about Ida. Ida was a fantastic woman. She graduated from Huntingburg High School in only one year. She was the first African-American to graduate from a DuBois County school. She became a licensed pharmacist at just 20 years old, making her the youngest in U.S. history. She and her husband opened two drug stores in Indianapolis. She also became the first female postmaster in U.S. history, and by 1965, she became part of the civil rights movement. She never sat on her accomplishments and continued breaking barriers for women and African Americans. This display tells the remarkable story of Clara Byrne. Her husband was the sheriff of DuBois County; when he died unexpectedly, she took his place as sheriff. When the term was over, she ran for sheriff in 1955 and won, serving five years as DuBois County sheriff. She paved the way for other women who want careers in law enforcement.

The following gallery is a retro look at items made around DuBois County that provided jobs and income to local people.

Check out this TV; it was a very long time before flat-screen TVs, and these were heavy. While the artificial heart was not invented in DuBois County, one of the first models, the Jarvik 7, was transplanted into Jasper, Indiana native William Schrader. He lived a year and 255 days, the longest of any artificial heart recipient. His tombstone at Fairview Cemetery displays a picture of the Jarvik 7.

If you love military history, you are lucky; the museum has an impressive collection of uniforms and other relics from the Civil War.

Have you ever heard of a war horse? War horses were used in World War I when non-armored cavalry was still a thing. And no, I did not ask if he had a name.

This is an extraordinary flag; it was used by Indiana Regiment Company K during one of the Civil War’s bloodiest battles, Gettysburg. The battle was immortalized by Abraham Lincoln’s speech, the Gettysburg Address.

Believe it or not, we’re halfway through this gigantic museum, and an even more extensive section is downstairs – an entire city.

Underground is a small city, Main Street DuBois County. Walking the streets and looking inside the buildings show how things used to be.

Inside this enormous museum is a cabin built in the 1860s, and you can tour the inside. Around the cabin are items that DuBois County pioneers would have used in their everyday lives. Check this out – this machine used the family dog to make butter, unlike you think. The dog would walk on the treadmill, and the machine would do the rest – these dogs made butter. Your dog won’t even roll over to impress guests. At different times of the year, demonstrations are given about the skills used by DuBois County pioneers, from woodworking to processing meat and so much more. There’s a blacksmith shop, silversmithing equipment, and even an apple press where you can put defenseless apples in and squeeze the apple juice right out of them. And lastly, stone cutting is used to build bridges, homes, and businesses.

Unless you’re trying hard to be contrary, you will learn something here.

One section of the museum is dedicated to fishing, hunting, and expeditions, with a large part donated by the Frank Fromey Junior Estate. This gigantic polar bear was killed by Frank in 1969. And here’s a fun fact – polar bears are the largest land predator in North America, and underneath all that fluffy fur, their skin is entirely black. Frank spent a lot of time in Africa on game expeditions.