Nancy is the current President of the Griffith Historical Society.
Tell us a bit about yourself! Iโve been married to Mike Stout for 47 years. Iโve got 3 children: Mike Jr, Angela, and Adam, and 9 grandchildren! I worked at the License Bureau, Griffith Senior High Schoolโs Attendance Secretary, Strack & Van Til, and at American Trans Air (ATA) airports in FL and Midway. I have served on the Police Commission, as a UFCU Board Member, on the Griffith Educational Foundation, and as a Precinct Committeeperson.
What is your favorite memory about living in Griffith? My favorite memory of Griffith is ice skating at Central Park, summer recreation St Maryโs for grade school, and going to Griffith High School (I had a blast!)
What drew you to the GHS? I have always loved Griffith, so when I saw they had a Historical Society, I knew it was for me.
What do you like most about being a GHS member and officer? Finding out the history of Griffith. Barrel train at the Market with all the children. Elmer J Project with the 3rd graders. They get so excited when theyโre learning about the history of Griffith. Santa in the Caboose โ the children are so excited to see Santa. I love working with the people of the Historical Society. Everyone supports each other.
Where DOES one put a depot?Written by Karen Kulinski
When last we were together, it was the late 1970โs. A small band of Griffith townsfolk had decided to save the Grand Trunk Depot from demolition, the last of three train stations that once stood near the Broad Street railroad crossing.
One of the first things they did was ask other town organizations to join them. Two major ones, Griffith Community Spirit and the Griffith Junior Womanโs Club, heeded the call.
They also approached the Town Board for help, and Trustee Merle Colby became the man on point.
Of major concern to the group was raising the funds to move the Depot, and the group approached local business for contributions or for in-kind items or services.
But equally concerning was, if the group was able to save the Depot, where would they put it?
Martha Gatlin recalled, โWe felt it was important to keep the Depot visible to drivers who were stopped for one of the many trains that came through Griffith on the then-eleven tracks. And to keep the building close to the townโs operational rail lines.โ
Many years later, this decision ended up being a major factor in the Societyโs favor when we applied for the Depot to be put on the National Register Of Historic Places and the Indiana Register of Historic Sites and Structures.
But finding such a site back then wasnโt easy for the group. Finally, Howard Anderson discovered a small patch of vacant land on the corner of Avenue A and Broad Street.
Further investigation at the courthouse revealed no one had a claim on the land, nor did anyone have a deed to it.
โWe immediately claimed it!โ Martha stated, โAnd the stage was set to move the Depot onto it.โ
Some years later, it was discovered that the property was once part of a street named Travis Avenue. For some unknown reason, the street ended up going in a different direction, leaving the open space behind. The street also ended up with a different name โ Avenue A.
Whatever the reason for this happening, it sure was a bit of serendipity working for us early on.
In January, 1980, the last remaining Griffith depot was safely moved to that empty spot of land right next to the railroad tracks.
The original use for the Depot was as a storage place for Community Spiritโs Christmas decorations. Before long, a more noble use for the Depot would be decided on.
And so would begin a new history for that heretofore unwanted Depot and the abandoned patch of land.
Also part of the group dedicated to saving the Depot but not mentioned in this article were Kathy Anderson, Donna Gonzalez and Ray Anderson (no relation to Kathy.)
Join us as we go back in time to tell the stories of Griffith, from before our town was even thought of and onward. Written by Karen Kulinski
So, in our last Tale, I left you standing up to your waist in the marsh water that one day would be the site of Griffith, Indiana.
By 1850 the Native Americans had been โtreaty-edโ out of Indiana, and the U.S. government decided to rid themselves of the uninhabitable marshlands they still owned at the top of our state, but had no use for.
So was passed The Swampland Act of 1850.
Our state โ really, all states that bordered the Great Lakes โ were given these lands to encourage settlement. The idea was for Indiana to sell the land cheap to Americans and immigrants alike at $1.25 an acre ($51.92 today.)
There was a bit of a catch, though. The land was mostly underwater, and the buyers would have to drain it before the land could be used to plant crops or build homes on. But there was an incentive, too.
It had been discovered that all that land under all that water for all that time was prime farmland once it was drained, fertile beyond belief. By 1859, the total amount of land sold in Indiana under the Swampland Act was 1,257,588 acres.
The first settlers to come to Griffith, Mathias and Anna Miller, along with Mathiasโ brother, arrived in 1853 and settled on land in the area where the trains eventually crossed on Broad Street.
The Millers lived in a sand dune dugout for their first year in Indiana until Mathias and his brother drained the water off their land and could build a log dwelling.
In 1853, draining land was done by picking up a shovel and digging a ditch to hold back the water or divert it. I once put forth the question: How do you dig a ditch when the land is under water? The answer, you wait to do the digging until late summer, early fall when the water recedes and dries up.
Fun Fact: some 70 years later, a descendent of Mathias and Anna โ Leo Miller โ caught a mighty fine fish in a Griffith ditch.
In later years, a man by the name of Noah Hart, operated a profitable business digging a massive ditch, with large teams of mules, which opened up more land for farming. Mr. Hart called his creation Cady Ditch after Jack Cady, an innkeeper in the area.
Those early farms grew crops and raised cows and pigs mainly for their own consumption rather than to sell. Among these farm families were many of German descent like Mathias and Anna Miller โ the Hoffmans, the Helfens, and the Redars.
But things were destined to change for the farm folks. At the same time that settlement was beginning in Northwest Indiana, the first railroad was built on the east coast, the Baltimore and Ohio.
Some 34 years later, the first railroad line would come through what would become Griffith โ the Joliet & Northern Indiana, later acquired by the Michigan Central. This rail line was heading to the big city of Chicago, Illinois. Chicago was, and is still, the railroad capital of the United States.
Toward the end of the 1800โs, three more railroads came through Griffith, and the Erie Railroad had built a depot in the area that would become Broad Street.
Those four railroads attracted the attention of two entrepreneurs from Rensselaer, Indiana, who dreamed of creating a city to rival Chicago in Northwest Indiana.
Take a sleigh ride with me back in time when I first encountered Christmas in Griffith, some 50 years ago. Written by Karen Kulinski
On an early date with my husband, Alan, he took me for a ride down Broad Street, then the major shopping center of the town, to see the Christmas lights. I thought it a sweet gesture, never imaging what a show this little town put on in December.
Holiday garlands of greenery, interspersed with oversized Christmas lights and huge ornaments and bows, were strung over Broad Street, one after the other for almost two blocks. Plus special light-up holiday messages โ SEASONS GREETINGS, HO HO HO and NOEL.
Below the lights, every shop on those Broad Street blocks were lit up, too. It was a sight right out of the movies โ Itโs A Wonderful Life โ only way prettier because it was in color.
My first Christmas in Griffith, I discovered who made that holiday magic happen. An organization called Community Spirit. And a whole lot of townspeople.
To find more information, I turned to a 2004 publication โ a young peopleโs history of Griffith, written by Griffith young people. My thanks go out to Beiriger 4th-graders, Jill Fitzgerald and Rebecca Frank, whose article on Community Spirit provided a treasure trove of information.
Community Spirit was organized about 1969 by Griffith resident Gale Riggle and the Griffith Junior Chamber of Commerce (Jaycees.) The reason, say the girls in their article, was โthe group felt that downtown Griffith should be more festive at Christmas time.โ
Festivity takes money, so the group immediately went to work raising funds to purchase a nativity scene. It was put up in front of Franklin School for many years, eventually finding a second home on St. Maryโs Church property.
The Christmas garlands came next, purchased piece meal over the years. Summer and fall, Community Spirit members spent hours making sure all the lights worked and the bows and ornaments were sparkly and tightly attached to the garland.
All had to be ready for Thanksgiving Saturday when Griffith got festive.
The day began with the volunteers enjoying a traditional early breakfast together at a local restaurant. Then they set about hanging the decorations, with the help of the Griffith Fire Department and their cherry-picker truck.
By that evening, with lights all aglow, Griffith was exceedingly merry and bright!
Community Spirit did more than just light up the holiday for Griffith, the girls wrote in their article. โCommunity Spirit also put up flags along Broad Street for the 4th of July and helped with the parade. In the spring, they hung flower baskets downtown.โ
And, most importantly, the girls wrote one more thing Community Spirit did. โIn the late 1970โs, they worked with other town organizations to save the last remaining depot in Griffith. And over the following two years, helped renovate the depot for use as a town museum.โ
Unfortunately, the holiday light extravaganza did not continue to today. Rumor has it that as traffic increased on Broad Street, drivers found the lights a distraction, especially nearing stoplights. And taller trucks often hit and damaged the garlands as they barreled through town. But the memories live on in those who saw those amazing decorations. And now I get to tell a new generations of Griffith folks the story of when Griffith got festive in a very big way!
๐Happy Holidays and a very Merry Christmas from the Griffith Historical Society! ๐ Thank you to everyone who braved the cold and came out to Santa in the Caboose!! From our volunteers to those of you who visited and left a donation, we couldn’t do it without you! ๐As a non-profit, volunteer-run organization, all of your donations go directly to the upkeep of the Train & Depot Museums and the Town History Museum at the Franklin Center. We appreciate you and your support!
Mark your calendars for this year’s ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐! ๐ โ ๐บ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐, ๐ซ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ 13: 10 ๐.๐. ๐๐ 3 ๐.๐. โ ๐บ๐๐๐ ๐๐, ๐ซ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ 14: ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ 3 ๐.๐. ๐ธ Give a donation to see Santa (our 28th annual!) and support the upkeep (and heating!) of the Historical Park! ๐ธ Take as many personal photos & videos as youโd like! ๐ช Be sure to shop our Holiday Bake Sale and holiday stocking stuffers as well! *๐๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ธ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด๐ฆ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ, ๐ธ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ฎ๐ช๐ป๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ช๐ป๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ค๐ณ๐ฆ๐ธ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฎ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ค๐ข๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฆ. ๐๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ฏโ๐ต ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ข๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฐ๐ด, ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ด๐ฎ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ค๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ค๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด!
๐๐๐ผ๐ป๐ฎ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐ผ๐น๐ฑ ๐๐ฎ๐น๐น๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ป ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป๐ ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ ๐๐ฝ๐ผ๐ผ๐ธ๐ ๐๐๐๐ณ๐ณ ๐๐ผ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐ณ๐ณ๐ถ๐๐ต ๐๐ถ๐๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ฒ๐๐บ๐! โ ๏ธWe are planning something spooky and fun for 2026 and we could use your help! ๐ปCan’t fit all those Halloween items into the garage? Consider donating them to us! ๐ฆEmail [email protected]!
The monarch butterflies fluttering about arenโt just casual flutterers. They are the last to be born in 2025, and they are โsuper monarchs.โ
Right now, they are busy sipping up nectar they, so as to build up fat reserves in their bodies. You see, these particular butterflies were born to do a seemly impossible job.
They, and millions of other super monarchs, fly 1200 miles to a fir treeย forest in central Mexico between August and November. And the continuation of their existence in theย northeastern states depends upon their safe arrival.ย
These butterflies do have some โsuper powersโ to help them accomplish their task.
– Because of this journey, a super monarch will live far longer than the 2 toย 5 weeks normal monarch butterflies do.ย ย – These butterflies are born with larger wings and are capable of flying 50 toย 100 miles in a single day, weather permitting.ย ย – It is believed they were born with an internal sun compass or magnetic ย compass to guide them to Central America.ย – They can fly at speeds of 5 to 25 miles an hour for 4-6 hours a day, glidingย on currents of warm air called thermals, to conserve energy when possible.ย ย
At the end of each day of their journey, the butterflies will seek out nectar from the flowers to fuel their next-day trip. Once that is accomplished, they will spend the night in trees, clustered together for protection.
It will take the monarchs who leave from Indiana 5 to 7 weeks to make the trip to that Mexican forest Oyamel fir tree forest.
Once there, they, and millions of other super monarchs, will blanket the fir trees for warmth and to conserve energy. Thereafter, they will enter a state of dormancy, allowing them to survive the winter.
We wish all these spectacular insects a safe trip.
๐ฆJoin us in May 2026 to celebrate these incredible creatures at our 2nd Annual Butterfly Day at the Griffith Historical Park, featuring our Monarch Waystation, the Griffith Junction Butterfly Stop.
(If you come visit our Monarch Waystation at the Depot, we ask that you do so respectfully. Please don’t touch the plants, insects, or disturb the habitat in any way. Thank you!)
It’s a busy weekend for the Historical Society!! ๐Friday – LAST Barrel Train at Central Market for the Season! ๐Saturday – Barrel Train at Safety Day at Central Park! ๐๏ธSaturday – The TOWN HISTORY Museum at the Franklin Center will be open! ๐ค๏ธSunday – Visit the Depot and Train Museums! Tour guides will be available. Parents of Beiriger 3rd Graders – come see what your kids learned this week!
It was 25 years ago, and we are still grateful to everyone who donated time and money to help us preserve the Tower and save it from demolition.
Thanks to the businesses and banks that allowed us to put donation jars on their counters, and thanks to all the Griffith residents who put money in the jars! Thanks to all the Historical Society members, who volunteered every step of the way, and of course, thank you to all the people and businesses who donated money towards this gigantic project!
It was really a town-wide effort, and is a monument to the spirit of Griffith!
Griffith History Museums 