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The Yellow Trail Museum began in 1975 with about 30 charter members and a plan of Merrill and Norma Clouse and J. Bill and Dorothea Heilman. 

The name was taken from an advertising gimmick of Spaugh’s Garage back in 1915. Yellow bands were painted around posts and poles along the roads from many towns that surrounded Hope as Mr. Spaugh attempted to bring business to his new filling station/garage on the south side of the Square to encourage motorists to follow the Yellow Trail to Spaugh’s Garage in Hope. 

The museum took the name, and high school students repainted part of the Yellow Trail. The top floor of the current building was set aside as a museum that would be open on Sunday afternoons for people to visit. 

Today, 50 years later, the museum takes up the entire top and lower floor of that building, with the lower floor expansion happening in 1984. It also has expanded into the building next door with the addition of the Andrew’s Annex located in Greg Spurling’s old office building in 2009. 

A new agricultural exhibit has just opened in this space. The museum’s fourth building opened in October 2022. It holds the Indiana Rural Letter Carrier’s Museum and the expanded Research Center, which opened in 2015 and quickly outgrew its space. 

The museum’s mission is to collect, preserve, research, interpret, and exhibit the genealogy, history, and artifacts of the communities within the Flat Rock/Hawcreek Townships in order to foster a deeper understanding and an appreciation of our unique history and how we fit into the larger historical narrative of Bartholomew County, the state of Indiana, and our nation.

The Museum will be hosting a cupcake celebration from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, September 27, to commemorate their 50th anniversary. A ticket will be required for a cupcake. Tickets will be available inside the shelter house and at the museum. Cupcakes are first come, first serve in the in the Rural Letter Carrier’s area to the first 500 visitors with a ticket.

The museum board is also honored to be named Grand Marshall of Hope Heritage Days this year as we pay tribute to Hope’s history and all those who came before us, working so hard to preserve it. Watch for our float in the parade. 

We will be open Heritage Days weekend and serving ice cream floats for a free will donation. The museum will have special hours for

Heritage Days of 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. Saturday and 12 – 4 p.m. Sunday.