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Corn Field Summer Thunderstorm – Salem, Indiana

Corn Field Summer Thunderstorm – Salem, Indiana

Indiana corn field thunderstorm - Salem  - Indiana

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This photo comes with an interesting story. So I arrived in Indiana in the spring of 2019, and while I have lived many places including Alaska and Utah, I had never quite experienced thunderstorms like the one about to unleash in this photo. But 2019 will be remembered, particularly in parts of the Midwest, for some other crazy aspects of the weather that growing season. First came the torrential down pours on top of snow in the Upper Midwest, that led to widespread flooding and destruction in places like Iowa, and Wisconsin. I personally drove through the area in the aftermath of that, and saw widespread flooding, towns under water, and giant grain silos split open like a tornado had broken them open. That weather was followed by prolonged drought in Indiana and Kentucky, that was captured in this photo, by the stunted corn seen in this photo. While I wasn’t think about that aspect of the weather at the time, I ended up submitting this particular photo to a joint photo contest by the Indiana Corn Growers Association, and Indiana Soybean Alliance. While I submitted the photo, for the wild weather it captured, what they saw was the sharp contrast between that storm and the stunted corn that marked the growing season up to that point. And for my efforts I was awarded a thousand dollar prize.

Its definitely a storm I will never forget.

Rabbit Hash Historic General Store – Kentucky

Rabbit Hash Historic General Store – Kentucky

Rabbit Hash General Store - Boone County - Kentucky

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The Rabbit Hash General store bills itself as the best preserved country store in the state of Kentucky. Located in Boone County, it takes its name from the famous meal that the town was known for by steamboats that stopped along the shores of the Ohio River.

The Rabbit Hash Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 4, 2003. It includes the store and a number of other nearby buildings.

One amusing anecdote about the town is its recent tradition of electing dogs as the official mayor. Beginning in 1998, with the election of Goofy Borneman-Calhoun, the tradition continues to this day. More than 22,000 people voted in the most recent election in 2020.

Mail Pouch Chew Tobacco Barn – Indiana

Mail Pouch Tobacco Barn - Jasper - Indiana

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The Mail Pouch Tobacco Barn, was a product of an advertising campaign conducted by the West Virginia Mail Pouch Chewing Tobacco Company (Bloch Brothers Tobacco Company), from 1891 to 1992. While barn owners were paid a small fee for the advertisements, the most valuable aspect of the arrangement was the fresh coat of paint their barns received every few years, that helped preserve the wood most barns of the time were constructed from. Most Mail Pouch barns were painted either red or black, with white and yellow writing. At the height of the advertising campaign in the 1960s, more than 20,000 barns, spread across 22 states displayed the Mail Pouch Tobacco ad.

The majority of what remains of these painted barns can be located in Indiana and Ohio.