Yellow Trail Museum and Columbus Area Visitor’s Center Annual Dinner 01/19

The Yellow Trail Museum will be hosting their annual dinner at 6 p.m. Monday, January 19 at WILLow LeaVes of Hope, located at 326 Jackson St. in downtown Hope. 

Dinner and dessert will be provided for a cost $15. 

There will be a brief business meeting, election of officers, and discussion of volunteer opportunities. Former board member Michael Cartwright will give a program on Mildred Harrod Dixon, wife of Harmon S. Dixon. He started the Hope Star Journal newspaper in 1905. His wife often assisted him and kept scrapbooks detailing the layout of each issue.

We invite everyone to attend the annual dinner. The Yellow Trail Museum Board realizes it takes many volunteers and supporters to make this museum the wonderful learning resource it has been for 50 years. Make your reservations by calling the museum at 812-546-8020 and leaving a voicemail.

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

The name was taken from the 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 as he encouraged motorists to follow the Yellow Trail to Spaugh’s Garage. 

The museum took that name, and high schools students repainted part of the Yellow Trail, and the top floor of the current museum building was set aside as a museum that would be open on Sunday afternoons for people to visit. Today, fifty years later, we take up the entire top and lower floor of that building and have expanded into the building next door with the addition of Andrew’s Annex located in Greg Spurling’s old office building. 

Our newest building opened in 2022 as the Indiana Rural Letter Carrier’s Museum and the expanded Research Center. The Research Center was launched in 2015 and under Kim Ray’s guidance and leadership has quickly outgrown its current space. 

We are now open from April through December on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and for many special occasions in Hope. Our artifacts are still donated or loaned by people with Hope connections. The museum tells the story of Hope’s past as well as other areas in the Flat Rock and Hawcreek townships that surround Hope. There has never been an admission charged for visiting the museum, and the operation of the museum takes place through donations and fund raisers throughout the year. We are richly blessed by a community that supports all our efforts to share the past with others.

The Yellow Trail Museum Board meets the fourth Tuesday of each month. You are always welcome to join us at these meetings that begin at 6:30 p.m. at the museum. We welcome suggestions, ideas for programs, and volunteers throughout the year. You can become as involved as you wish. Just let us know if you are interested in helping in any way.