Almost 40 people gathered in the Washington Street Tap Room in Valparaiso recently to attend a quarterly event called “History on Tap,” led by Kevin Pazour, executive director of the Porter County Museum. This quarter’s theme was “Show and Tell.”
The event, held quarterly, gathers local history enthusiasts from the area to talk about their memories and enrich their knowledge of the history of the area now known as Porter County. The most recent event was held Dec. 3.
Chris Pearson, the owner of Washington Street Tap Room, shared his show-and-tell item, which was a prototype lighted clock advertising Busch Bavarian beer, made by R.M. Price and Associates in Chesterton.
“At one point, they employed the most people in Porter County, just over 100 people,” said Pearson.
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“It still has the original cord on it, and I have the original bulb in the back room,” said Pearson, who estimates it could be approximately 75 years old. “It was given to me by a couple that lived in Valparaiso and I have had it here behind the bar.”
Paul Miles, who is a trustee for the Porter County Museum, brought a multi-tool souvenir that was given out at the Franklin House in Valparaiso.
“It has to be relatively old because it has a bottle opener and blade, and it was made in the U.S.A.,” said Miles. “It has the Franklin House address listed as Valparaiso, Ind.”
“My dad worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad and he stopped in the Franklin House every day,” said Miles. “I’m sure when the Franklin House had the grand opening in 1857, my family members were there,” joked Miles, who said his family has been in Porter County since about 1835.
Pazour made a presentation on the main attraction of the night, a segment of plank road.
“I kept thinking, what is something I can tote here, and did not take into consideration its weight and the fact that it would be snowing pretty heavily,” said Pazour.
In 1850, the Plank Road Company began constructing a road between Valparaiso and Michigan City, intended to transport farmers’ crops to distant markets via Lake Michigan.
“This was created initially in 1850 as the very first update to any road improvement in the history of Porter County,” said Pazour.
“What this company did was promote this idea that they could create a roadbed that would make it easy for everybody from here to get all the way to Michigan City, and all they had to do was raise a whole bunch of money to do it,” said Pazour.
“What you see built only appears on one map, a survey done in 1855 by someone by the name of Abbott,” said Pazour. “What you see (on the map) is a tiny little notation of plank road that essentially follows what we now know as Old 49.”
“The piece of plank road was obtained when there was a collapse of roadway in 2006 on a part of Meridian Road,” said Pazour. “When they got in to investigate what was going on underground, they realized that the one part of the road that didn’t collapse had the old plank road underneath.”
For more Porter County history, the museum’s Facebook page shares a daily story of something that happened a century ago.
History on Tap will meet again during the first quarter of 2026, and the discussion topic will be the history of Porter County baseball. For more information, visit the museum in person, which is located at 20 Indiana Ave. in Valparaiso, or visit pocomuse.org.
Deena Butterfield is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.