Map of Interurban Lines in Southwestern Indiana

Today, we take for granted the convenience of traveling on modern roads that connect us to communities throughout the Tri-State. Did you know that in the horse and buggy age and in the early days of the automobile in the late 19th and early 20th centuries there was another form of transportation linking our area? This was an interurban and streetcar rail system that made it possible to travel across Evansville and to parts of southwestern Indiana and into Kentucky. With Evansville as the hub, a person could go as far north as Patoka, as far west as Mt. Vernon, as far east as Grandview, and as far south as Henderson, Kentucky. Perhaps not surprisingly, much of Indiana was connected by a vast interurban system that did not include the southwestern section of the state.

In Evansville, streetcar lines connected the city. From the humble beginnings of a mule-drawn service in 1867, by the early 20th century electric streetcars crisscrossed the city on miles of track.

Though the continued advancement of the internal combustion engine and improved highways ended this era, streetcars and interurbans once connected the Tri-State.

Explore the rest of this exhibition in person at the Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science!