Long before it was Turtle Town U.S.A., Churubusco was Indian territory inhabited by the Miami tribe and their chief named — no lie — Little Turtle. A distinguished leader, Little Turtle met with U.S. presidents George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.
When white settlers came in the 1830s, one chunk of town was originally dubbed Franklin.
But after a post office permit was denied in 1847 because another Indiana locale had that name, a new moniker had to be picked.
According to contemporary accounts, this caused fierce debate between three immigrant settlers.
“The German proposed the name Brunswick and the Englishman wanted it to be Liverpool. But the furious Irishman insisted that the name should be Maloney,” according to the Tri-County Truth newspaper.
It almost came to fisticuffs when a Mrs. Jackson, in an appeal to patriotism, suggested Churubusco, after the Mexican site where U.S. forces had just won a climactic military campaign. The Irishman said he could not pronounce the name, but supported it if it was patriotic. Not knowing it was Mexican, he added: “But I’ll never permit a foreign name for my town.”
Even more tongue-twisting is the original Aztec name of the Mexican town, Huizilopochoo (named for the Aztec war god Huitzilopochtli). Sometime around 1519, when Spanish conqueror Hernando Cortez sent an underling to learn the name of the town, the puzzled scribe created the name “Churubusco.”
Surrounded by farms and lakes, Churubusco, Ind., occupies three-quarters of a square mile. The median price of a single-family home has risen to $90,000 in recent years, thanks in part to a suburban building boom spilling over from Ft. Wayne, located 15 miles to the southeast. Main Street, also known as U.S. 33, has a lone McDonald’s and a Subway, but also five other non-chain eateries (including the Magic Wand, opened in 1964 and home of the “Magic Burger”).
Turtle fondness is everywhere, from garden sculptures to the welcome signs on Indiana Route 205 bearing the town’s cartoon terrapin insignia. Yet, the high school’s mascot is an eagle.
“Turtles are a sign of slowness,” explained Viv Rosswurm, editor of the Churubusco News. “Once, a previous editor wrote an editorial about renaming them the Snappers. He was doing it in jest, but people got really angry — even though snappers are fast. Some things you just can’t mention in this town.”