Though it’s a bit out of the way (20 miles south of US-20 via the I-69 freeway), lovers of vintage American cars will want to make the effort to visit the elegant Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Museum (daily; $8; 260/925-1444), in a lovely art deco showroom at 1600 S. Wayne Street in the town of Auburn. Considered by most aficionados the finest, most innovative, and most all-around gorgeous automobiles ever produced in America, these instant classics were the brainchild of Auburn industrialist Errett Cord. During the 1920s and 1930s, Cord’s company designed and produced the covetable cruisers right here in Indiana—Auburns and the front-wheel-drive Cords were produced in Auburn, while the “Dusies” were made in Indianapolis—and they’re now on display inside the original showroom, built in 1930 and immaculately preserved.
The collection includes beautifully restored examples of all these classic makes, plus representatives of other classic roadsters—Packards, Cadillacs, even a Rolls-Royce or two—numbering around 150 altogether, and making this one of the top auto museums in the world. It also hosts an annual classic car festival every Labor Day weekend, attended by as many as 200,000 people.
Another lost American industry is remembered near Auburn in Kendallville, along US-6: the Mid-American Windmill Museum (closed Mon; $3; 260/347-2334), where 40 acres of grounds display over 100 whirring Aermotors—the largest collection in the country.
