Presidential Candidate William Jennings Bryan addresses the crowd at Mitchell during his 1896 campaign. The Mitchell Monon depot was constructed in 1892. Also pictured is a southbound freight of the LNA&C.

Mitchell is a railroad town, pure and simple. If you don't believe it, ask the approximately 5,000 people that have to deal with the 19 or so trains that pass through the town each day. But it is because of those railroads, and the trains that come with them, that Mitchell even exists today. In the mid-to-late 1840s railroads were expanding from the east coast and heading into the heartland of America. The Baltimore & Ohio came as far as Cincinnati, as did many other lines, but few went any further. A railroad ran from New Albany to Salem and it was decided to extend that line all the way to Chicago. That line was constructed through Lawrence County, stopping at White River in April of 1851. The first train came through the county a month later.

At the point where the New Albany and Salem Railroad crossed the proposed line for the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, a town was platted. That town was Mitchel - the second "l" was added later. John Sheeks owned the land that was to become Mitchell. On Sept. 29, 1853, he sold half interest in the land to George W. Cochran, a Cincinnati businessman and railroad supporter. They contracted Ormsby McKnight Mitchel, a West Point graduate and professor at the University of Cincinnati, to survey the town as he was completing his survey of the proposed railroad route. In exchange for his service, the town would be named after him. In 1907, Mitchell moved from an incorporated town to a city.

Lehigh Portland Cement became the major industry in Mitchell when construction began on its first mill in 1902. That title later passed to Carpenter Body Works schoolbus plant. After Carpenter's closing in the 1990s, Lehigh once again is one of the area's largest employers. Dana Corp. and Regal Beloit are also major employers in the Mitchell area. Mitchell's downtown was named a National Historic District in the late 1990s.

Left: Mainline and depot at Mitchell, looking south. Right: Southbound freight taking orders at Mitchell, circa 1965. The procedure was known as hooping or hooking, depending on your vocation on the railroad.

Left: Northbound freight passing the Mitchell depot, June 1967. Right : Local freight southbound crossing the diamonds at Michell, 1971.

Left and Right: Making a stop in Mitchell. Coach #42 is on the end of this train when it stopped July 16, 1964.

May 20, 1971. Looking along the mainline at Mitchell from the cab of a southbound freight.

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Mitchell, May 2004. Left: Looking along the old B&O, now CSX, mainline. Right. Crossing looking south along the former Monon mainline.

Looking north along the former Monon mainline. CSX no longer run between Lafayette and Louisville. The line has been severed. Trains now leave the Monon at Greencastle, travel west via the old NYC St. Louis line. South on the C&EI at Terre Haute, then east on the old B&O, regaining the old monon line at Mitchell.

Action on the former Monon. Almost out of Mitchell's city limits Q687 heads south. Train is about cross Burton Street.

CSX freight passing Gun Club road south of Mitchell, Indiana. Circa 2006.