Tag Archive: salem

Becks Mill – Salem – Indiana

Becks Mill - Salem - Indiana

Beck’s Mill is a historic gristmill in Washington County, Indiana, near the city of Salem. The mill was originally built in 1808, and rebuilt in 1864. For a brief time during the Civil War it was threatened with destruction, along with the other mills in Washington County, by John Hunt Morgan, the commanding general of a group of confederate soldiers known as Morgan’s Raiders, that passed through Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio between June 11 to July 26, 1863.

Corn Field Summer Thunderstorm – Salem, Indiana

Corn Field Summer Thunderstorm – Salem, Indiana

Indiana corn field thunderstorm - Salem  - Indiana

Google Maps | Purchase Print

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.