NORTHERN INDIANA

And not just hallowed ground, but strange ground. Look around. Where else can you find a 3,000-pound egg, a skinny-dipping ghost, Munchkin handprints in cement, and Oscar the Monster Turtle? Where will you find the birthplaces of Alka-Seltzer, heavier-than-air flight, and Michael Jackson? And where can you find the remains of Johnny Appleseed and the World's First Ferris Wheel? Nowhere in the world but the top third of the Hoosier State, that's where.

* * *

Angola

Lottery Bowl

Hold on, compulsive gamblers! The Lottery Bowl isn't a new scratch-and-win game from the Indiana legislature. No, in this lottery you play for your life.

Resting in a simple cabinet on the top floor of Tri-State University's athletic facility is one of the Selective Service System's most recognizable artifacts: the Lottery Bowl. This two-foot-tall goldfish tank was purchased from a Washington, D.C., pet store at the outset of World War I. It was used to select numbers that translated into draft notices to thousands of young American men from 1917 to 1918. Following the Armistice, the draft ended and the glass bowl was mothballed in Philadelphia.

Just before the United States' entry into World War II, President Roosevelt sent a limousine to pick up the Lottery Bowl and escort it to the nation's capital. The Selective Service was reinstituted in 1940 and continued farming young men through 1970. For all but one of those years it operated under the direction of General Lewis B. Hershey, Tri-State graduate and namesake of this college's gym.

Several of Hershey's personal effects (such as his ceremonial saber) are also on display at Hershey Hall, as are other items from the history of the Selective Service — but it's the Lottery Bowl that draws the visitors. How ironic to find it just up the road from the hometown of Dan Quayle, one of history's most dubious draft avoiders.

Hershey Hall, Tri-State University, 1 University Ave., Angola, IN 46703

(260) 665–4100 or (260) 665–4141

Hours: Most days; call ahead

Cost: Free

www.tristate.edu/Athletics/sub_facilities.html

Directions: South of Rte. 20 (Maumee St.), just west of the railroad tracks at the end of Park St.

Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum

When you first step into this impressive museum, you'll know you've found "a duesy," and not just one, but more than a hundred.

The life of the Auburn Cord Duesenberg company was short but brilliant. Started by the Eckhart family in 1902, it closed in 1937. Its most remarkable models were created after E. L. Cord was hired as the company's president in 1924. The top-of-the-line Duesenbergs he designed embodied the spirit of the Roaring Twenties, with Art Deco interiors and powerful engines — why else would they be named Speedsters? These babies could max out at 130 MPH and were the cars of choice for screen stars such as Clark Gable and Gary Cooper.

You'll see more of these classic autos here, in the company's restored 1930 corporate headquarters, than anywhere else. All are in mint condition, yet nobody would think of driving them at 130 MPH anymore. The Model J, introduced in 1929, was the make's most popular high-end model; each vehicle had a unique body and was driven 500 miles on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway before delivery. At the time, the Model J had double the horsepower of every other car on the road.

The museum's six galleries feature the entire Auburn Cord Duesenberg line, as well as other Indiana-manufactured autos, like the homely 1952 Crosley. Each Labor Day the town throws an Auburn Cord Duesenberg Festival, capped off by a car auction. This isn't a repo sale at the auto pound — some of the cars sold here are worth more than $1 million.

1600 S. Wayne St., PO Box 271, Auburn, IN 46706-0271

(260) 925-1444

Hours: Daily 9 A.M.–5 P.M.

Cost: Adults $7, Seniors $6, Kids $4.50

www.acdmuseum.org

ACD Festival: www.acdfestival.org

Directions: South on Jackson St. from Rte. 8 until it bends westward, intersecting with Wayne St.

The House of Tomorrow

At the end of the 1934 Chicago "Century of Progress" World's Fair, organizers sold off most of the exhibits to the highest bidders. Several of the exhibition's futuristic model homes ended up across Lake Michigan in Beverly Shores, where folks were anxious for progress.

The House of Tomorrow, a 12-sided home with more windows than walls, still towers above its fellow Fair refugees on Lake Front Drive. Across the street, clinging to the shoreline, the pink stucco Florida Tropical House looks as if it would be more at home in Miami Beach. All the adjacent Cypress House needs, with its swampy cypress shingles and siding, is a fan boat and some alligator traps. Two additional buildings demonstrated futuristic building technologies that are now part of the past: the Rostone House was manufactured with synthetic cast stone, the Armco Ferro House with prefab steel.

Still, not everyone in Beverly Shores was interested in things to come back in the 1930s; some liked the way things were a century and a half earlier. Another developer brought six replicas of historic buildings to this dunes community: Wakefield House (the birthplace of George Washington), Boston's Old North Church, Mount Vernon, the Paul Revere House, Longfellow's Wayside Inn, and the House of Seven Gables. Only the Old North Church remains, converted to a private residence. The rest have been torn down, or burned down.

Lake Front Dr., Beverly Shores, IN 46301

(219) 926-7561

Hours: Always visible

Cost: Free

Directions: Between E. State Park Rd. and Broadway, on Lake Front Dr.

Old North Church, Eaton Ave. & Beverly Dr., Beverly Shores, IN 46301

Private phone

Hours: Always visible

Cost: Free

Directions: One block west of Broadway on Beverly Dr.

World's Fattest Man Death Site

Robert Earl Hughes was touring with the Gooding Brothers Amusement Company in the summer of...