Wilbur Wright Birthplace & Museum

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Sometimes on a road trip, a sign for a museum or scenic attraction catches your eye and seduces you into pulling off the highway and taking a side detour. Sometimes this can be good thing, where you discover a fascinating museum or a beautiful waterfall, and sometimes it can turn into a total dud which eats up precious time from your plan for the day, and makes you curse the damn sign that forced your exit.

That's exactly what happened to me on the way home. As I was speeding east along I-70, a brown highway sign (the color brown is used for parks and recreation signs) announced the "Wilbur Wright Birthplace & Museum." (I saw the same sign on the first day of the road trip while traveling west on I-70 and promptly ignored it and went right on driving west!).

The day was packed with a drive of 632 miles to home and I got a somewhat late start leaving Indianapolis at about 9 am, so I really couldn't afford any lost time or any unnecessary detours. Nevertheless, something about the sign intrigued me, and I stupidly pulled off onto the exit ramp and headed towards the museum which turned out to be about at least 20-minute detour.

I arrived to the birthplace and museum, located in Millville, Indiana, just when it opened at 10 am. I was greeted by Destiny, the museum keeper, who handed me a laminated plan of the museum with descriptions of the museum grounds and sent me on my way. I quickly realized the error of my exit from the highway and so I speed toured the museum in order to get back on the highway as fast as I could.

The museum consisted of Wilbur Wright's restored home (he only lived there for the first 18 months of his life, so I suppose the historical significance of the birthplace is a bit fleeting), and a larger museum building that housed exhibits on Wright's life, a "Main Street" exhibit as in 1903, and a replica of the Kitty Hawk campsite. In addition, the building housed a life-size replica of the "Wright Flyer," which was for me was the highlight of the museum. 

There is an intriguing backstory to the creation of the museum and restoration of the birthplace that is somewhat sordid and complicated. Apparently, the home was in some disrepair for years and was the scene of teenage rowdiness and drinking in the 1950s before it was restored and turned into a museum. If you google it you might be able to read more about the backstory.

All in all, having been to Kitty Hawk and to other Wright museums, and having read David McCullough's book on the Wright Brothers, I probably could have and should have kept on driving and avoided the museum at all costs. But I didn't, and so now you have to read all about it and have the pleasure of reliving my experience and seeing what I saw.





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