Knox, IN
Knox, Indiana — Starke County in the northwest part of the state. Bass Lake just east is one of Indiana's largest natural lakes.
Lake Maxinkuckee is the second-largest natural lake in Indiana — a clear, spring-fed glacial lake of about 1,800 acres in the northern Indiana lake country. On its northwest shore sits the town of Culver, and on the lakefront sits one of the most distinctive prep schools in America: the Culver Academies, founded in 1894. Culver is best known for two things. The Culver Black Horse Troop is a mounted unit of cadets that has ridden in nearly every presidential inaugural parade since 1913 — a column of matched black horses that is one of the most recognizable units in American ceremonial life. And the Culver equestrian program is one of the largest school horse operations in the country, keeping a herd well over a hundred head, with a riding hall the size of a small arena. The campus is a collection of collegiate-gothic and Georgian buildings along the water, with a chapel and a memorial to alumni lost in the world wars. Culver''s summer naval program teaches seamanship on the lake from a fleet of sailing dinghies; the sailing and crew traditions are as old as the cavalry. Lake Maxinkuckee was a Gilded Age summer-resort lake — the humorist George Ade kept a place nearby, and cottages still ring the shore. The lake is a glacial kettle, gouged and then filled when the last ice sheet retreated, and its depth and clarity are unusual for Indiana.
Fulton County is the round barn capital of the world — over 17 historic round barns survive in the county, the highest concentration anywhere. The Fulton County Museum has exhibits on round barn architecture, a unique American innovation from the late 1800s. Lake Manitou itself — a glacier-formed kettle lake — has a folk legend of a lake monster reported by the Potawatomi in the 1830s. The Round Barn Festival each June celebrates the heritage. From above, the round barns dot the farmland like coins.
Indiana's only national park (designated 2019, formerly a national lakeshore). 15 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline with dunes towering over 200 feet — Mount Baldy is the most famous, an actively migrating dune that moves up to 4 feet per year. From the air, the dunes are a stunning ribbon of golden sand against blue water. On clear days the Chicago skyline is visible 35 miles to the west — a postcard moment from the pattern at KVPZ. The park is one of the most biodiverse units in the National Park Service — over 1,100 plant species (more than the Everglades). Pair with a low-altitude lakeshore tour from Gary east to Michigan City.
Indiana's only operational lighthouse — a striking white tower at the entrance to Michigan City harbor on Lake Michigan. The current structure dates to 1904, replacing the original 1858 lighthouse. The Old Lighthouse Museum next door tells the story of Great Lakes shipping and Indiana's small but vital lakefront. From the pattern at KMGC, the lighthouse is an unmistakable landmark. Combine with a beach walk on Washington Park Beach (one of Indiana's few sand beaches) and the Indiana Dunes National Park stretching west.