VanderVolgen Farm

Side trip - Follow Towpath Road to County Road 700 W, then turn right and go up the very steep and high hill. (This is not the actual route of the 1838 trek but it takes you to two more Trail of Death historical markers. In 1838 the Potawatomi stayed next to the river.) Go about a mile to CR 800 N, turn left. This takes you to the Lawrence VanderVolgen farm. Now deceased, he was a blacksmith and was president of the Carroll County Historical Society in 1988 so he erected a wooden sign to commemorate the removals of the Potawatomi in 1838 and the Miami in 1846.

Lawrence VanderVolgen farm in rural Carroll County, Indiana - GPS N-4039481 W-8640307.

In 1988 for the first Trail of Death Commemorative Caravan, Lawrence VanderVolgen placed this wooden sign in his front yard next to the road. He said when he was a boy, his grandfather told him about the Indians marching by the farm along the river across the road from his present house. VanderVolgen was the president of the Carroll County Historical Society.

Pictured above is the dedication of the metal sign (at right) on July 12, 1998. From left is Shirley Willard, Chief White Eagle, Bobbie Bear, all of Rochester, Indiana; Scoutmaster J. Harold Stayer, Flora, Indiana; and Boy Scout Matt Trapp, Bringhurst, Indiana, who erected the sign for his Eagle award. (Photo by Bill Willard, Rochester, Indiana, 1998.)

VanderVolgen’s farm in rural Carroll County, Indiana - GPS N-4039481 W-8640307.

Sister Virginia Pearl stands by the metal sign was placed by Boy Scout Matt Trapp to earn his Eagle award. (Photo by Mike Dodson, Shawnee, Oklahoma, on Trail of Death caravan, 2003.)

To continue on the Trail of Death, leave VanderVolgen’s farm, go west and then turn south on CR 800 W. Follow it as it jogs to the west (CR 550 N) and then turn south again on 900 W. About 2 miles takes you to the next Trail of Death camp site at Pleasant Run, a huge boulder with a metal sign. This is before you get to Pittsburg.