Plan your Saturday visit between 10am-2pm to explore two historical structures - the Stagecoach Inn and Panhandle Depot. Learn more about the history of Hebron and south Porter County thanks to our partnership with Hebron Parks and Recreation.

The fur trade could be a rough-and tumble business. The disorderly nature of the enterprise is evident in the volume of Bailly’s account book held by the Porter County Museum, as well as in other volumes of Bailly’s records in the Indiana State Library. Valparaiso University Professor Randa Duvick will present the results of her study of Joseph Bailly’s existing business records dating from the turn of the nineteenth century.

Plan your Saturday visit between 10am-2pm to explore two historical structures - the Stagecoach Inn and Panhandle Depot. Learn more about the history of Hebron and south Porter County thanks to our partnership with Hebron Parks and Recreation.

Plan your Saturday visit between 10am-2pm to explore two historical structures - the Stagecoach Inn and Panhandle Depot. Learn more about the history of Hebron and south Porter County thanks to our partnership with Hebron Parks and Recreation.

Plan your Saturday visit between 10am-2pm to explore two historical structures - the Stagecoach Inn and Panhandle Depot. Learn more about the history of Hebron and south Porter County thanks to our partnership with Hebron Parks and Recreation.

Plan your Saturday visit between 10am-2pm to explore two historical structures - the Stagecoach Inn and Panhandle Depot. Learn more about the history of Hebron and south Porter County thanks to our partnership with Hebron Parks and Recreation.

Porter County Historian Serena Ard will present about the history and impact of the women of the family of Joseph Bailly, Porter County’s first European settler. The event will be held at Pines Village Retirement Communities, 3303 Pines Village Circle, Valparaiso, on Thursday, March 26, at 1pm. It is free of charge and open to the public.

“We are delighted to sponsor this event as part of our celebration of the Bailly family which is featured in the current PoCo Muse exhibit From a Bailly Point of View,” said museum Executive Director Kevin Matthew Pazour. “Serena Ard has spent years researching the Bailly family while serving as Curator of Westchester Township History Museum in Chesterton. Her investigations have uncovered a treasure trove of information about the role played by the women of this pioneer family. Serena’s research inspired our current exhibit and served as the basis for a recent article in PoCo Muse Magazine.”

“Joseph Bailly looms large in the history of Porter County,” said Ard. “When he established a trading post on the Little Calumet River around 1822, he became the first non-native settler living in this area, but both his wives were of mixed European and Indigenous heritage. While Joseph may have been the patriarch, it was three generations of mixed-race Bailly women – his wife Marie, her daughters and granddaughters – who truly shaped the family legacy. Their fascinating story is full of gritty truths and romantic mythmaking.”

Plan your Saturday visit between 10am-2pm to explore two historical structures - the Stagecoach Inn and Panhandle Depot. Learn more about the history of Hebron and south Porter County thanks to our partnership with Hebron Parks and Recreation.

We are thrilled to partner with Hebron Parks & Recreation to offer regular public hours at the Stagecoach Inn and Panhandle Depot on Saturdays between 10a-2p.

The Stagecoach Inn was constructed in 1849 by James McCune for use as a way station along the stagecoach route between Detroit and St. Louis.

We are thrilled to partner with Hebron Parks & Recreation to offer regular public hours at the Stagecoach Inn and Panhandle Depot on Saturdays between 10a-2p.

The Stagecoach Inn was constructed in 1849 by James McCune for use as a way station along the stagecoach route between Detroit and St. Louis.

Talk local history over a drink with friends, history professionals, and amateur historians before and after a  short presentation at 6p. 21 and older; drinks not included.

We are thrilled to partner with Hebron Parks & Recreation to offer regular public hours at the Stagecoach Inn and Panhandle Depot on Saturdays between 10a-2p.

The Stagecoach Inn was constructed in 1849 by James McCune for use as a way station along the stagecoach route between Detroit and St. Louis.

We are thrilled to partner with Hebron Parks & Recreation to offer regular public hours at the Stagecoach Inn and Panhandle Depot on Saturdays between 10a-2p.

The Stagecoach Inn was constructed in 1849 by James McCune for use as a way station along the stagecoach route between Detroit and St. Louis.

Join our band of living-history interpreters, dressed in period attire, as they describe and demonstrate techniques used by both European settlers and Indigenous peoples in our region during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This interactive, family-friendly program is free of charge, and visitors are welcome to drop in at any time during event hours.

The showcase will feature demonstrations of maple sap collection and syrup production - once a vital mid-winter industry in Porter County - as well as traditional leatherworking and candle making, trades typically undertaken indoors after the agricultural season ended. Artifacts representing the tools of these historic trades will be on display, and guests are encouraged to ask questions and engage with the interpreters.

We are thrilled to partner with Hebron Parks & Recreation to offer regular public hours at the Stagecoach Inn and Panhandle Depot on Saturdays between 10am-2pm.

The Stagecoach Inn was constructed in 1849 by James McCune for use as a way station along the stagecoach route between Detroit and St. Louis.

We are thrilled to partner with Hebron Parks & Recreation to offer regular public hours at the Stagecoach Inn and Panhandle Depot on Saturdays between 10a-2p.

The Stagecoach Inn was constructed in 1849 by James McCune for use as a way station along the stagecoach route between Detroit and St. Louis.

We are thrilled to partner with Hebron Parks & Recreation to offer regular public hours at the Stagecoach Inn and Panhandle Depot on Saturdays between 10a-2p.

The Stagecoach Inn was constructed in 1849 by James McCune for use as a way station along the stagecoach route between Detroit and St. Louis.