The Borden Museum Mystery (Borden, Indiana) 

My pleasure! If you know Jerry C, tell him I said hello, and the video he helped me with has done well!

I was somewhat shocked that people in Borden didn’t even know about William Borden, or his amazing collection. But, it has been nearly 120 years since he died!

I’ve put in thousands of miles over the last 5 years, visiting small towns in southern Indiana. There’ll be a handful of people that care, but there isn’t any money to do anything about preserving history. Or, they’ll do a fundraiser, renovate a property, and then no one wants to pay rent. History is a hard sell.

Thank-you kindly! I’m collecting stories about large skeletons found in Indiana, with unusual burial vaults. If you haven’t already, check out my video about The Lost City of Palestine. ET Cox found two large skeletons there, and was William Borden’s boss. In their time, they could choose to give their finds to museums or keep them as souvenirs, there were no laws against it. I found it interesting that the state of Indiana was aware of Palestine’s Dodd burial mound, but had no record of what ET Cox discovered: two large skeletons, copper ear rings, war whistle and arrow heads.

@@AdventureswithRoger Oh wow. I will definitely check out the lost city video.

I believe there’s truth to them, and ET Cox, William Borden and John Collett found things that did not fit the accepted narrative.

Good guess

Way to dig deeper! This is amazing information! The giants were real and suppressed. Keep going!

I found this amazing history by accident. Through the help of so many nice people, an incredible story came to life!

why dont they teach this in the school. Literaly in the town....

Ironically. I just stepped back in the car, from photographing William Borden’s grave, when I received your comment! Mr Borden, and his friend, Edward Travlers Cox, are my Indiana heroes. Those two men uncovered so much Indiana prehistory.

@@AdventureswithRoger wow that is amazing! Thanks again for all you do! :)

Thank-you, Drew! I love the deep history dives, just wish I could speed them up! 🙂

Thank-you for your kind words! I started the channel because co-workers were always asking me, “Where’s a good place to take my family?” I thought it would take a few months, but here I am, 5 years later, still roaming the countryside with a camera! I’ve found great satisfaction with starting many road trips, for families and people that just need a little peace. I’ve helped people reminisce, and go to places they used to love, but can’t visit anymore. I’ve also retold legends that are nearly forgotten, bringing wonder to new generations, and memories to those that grew up hearing them. I’d like to think these videos honor the legacy my Parents gave me, to explore what’s in my own backyard, and come back feeling better for it. I hope that rubs off on everyone, that visits my humble RU-vid channel, and provides a blessing to their day! 🙂

Love Fort Wayne! I did some filming in Fort Wayne for a segment called, “Footsteps of the Ancestors”. I went back a month ago to tour the Allen County Museum.

@AdventureswithRoger I've watched it. The Fort has recently undergone renovations. I learned a little about the locks and canals that ran through here back in high school geography and the underground railroad. There's a house off us 24 in between Ft Wayne and Roanoak that was a station. So much more to learn. Bass manor (St. Francis College).

I did the best with what I had, but I’m sure there were things I missed. I have great gratitude for the people of Borden, that provided pictures, stories, and entry to the grand old museum. It’s one of my favorite memories! 🙂

We have several organizations in Indiana that refurbish historic structures, but I’m not sure they were around or cognizant of the impending demolition. Sometimes, places really are too gone to save. In my travels, I’ve ran across many abandoned, solid looking older buildings, particularly classically designed brick schoolhouses, and wish I could take them somewhere where they could be refurbished and appreciated.

It’s truly a story of chance encounter, how I came across the museum and gained a story. I just went for a joy ride, saw this beautiful old building, and a local man stopped by to talk. He then put me in touch with someone with the keys, and I gained a much deeper understanding of a forgotten hero, William Borden. 🙂

Sad but true story. And just like genealogy, a generation or three doesn’t care about the history. But then someone wakes up and wonders, and they have little or nothing to go on.

@@AdventureswithRoger Absolutely! As a resident of the Salem Indiana area it amazes me the amount of history that surrounds us yet it's slowly disappearing for new development. Your videos are great and very informative about this area we live in. Thank you very much for all your hard work and if you ever need a hand I would love to help you with documentation of the great history of Southern Indiana. Thanks again and have a wonderful day.

@@_Chuck You’ll be pleased to know that I recently wrapped-up filming of Salem for TWO segments. One is about Morgan’s raid, and the other about the hidden museums.

@@AdventureswithRoger Very pleased. I can't wait.

I found this just by driving around one sunny afternoon! I’d never been to the town of Borden, and decided to drive over and see if there was anything interesting to see. The museum immediately caught my eye and I got out to take pictures. A guy saw me, told me a little about its history, and provided old pictures to get me started. He got me in touch with the trustee, and she was gracious to let me view the inside. Sometimes, these stories practically tell themselves! 🙂

Not open to visitors. It was closed as a museum in 1906.

Thank-you kindly! I love Southern Indiana! So much to see

Thanks! We can only confirm that 135 fossils made it to the Chicago Field Museum. That isn’t very many, for a collection amassed over at least 70 years. He’d bought an entire fossil collection that a Louisville Dr had put together over decades, which amounted to hundreds of items, by itself. He also collected much more than just fossils, his own papers mention firearms, swords, rare books, manuscripts, coin collection and Native American artifacts. Both he and ET Cox were rumored to have found evidence of pre Colombian settlement. Remember my video about Palestine? ET Cox was said to have found two giant skeletons, in a vaulted tomb, with items to suggest they were perhaps from South America. It’s unclear what William Borden really had in total, but it was compelling enough for people to travel hundreds of miles, in a day without planes and highways. I would’ve loved to have seen it! 🙂

My pleasure, Tim! This story, like many I’ve covered, came together really odd. I was sitting at home, thought I’d drive around and look for new ideas. I ended up at Borden and saw this majestic looking building. It even said “Borden Museum” on it. I’d never heard it mentioned before, and knew it wasn’t on any of my maps. While I was doing some test shots, a local man came by to say hello. He told me that it hadn’t been a museum for a long time, but he and his wife had some great photos of it, from the 1800’s. He invited me over, I took lots of pictures of pictures, and asked who had the keys to the place. He knew just the person, got me a number, and it came full circle! It was one of those histories that would’ve been dead and gone, unknown to the world, if I hadn’t taken a joy ride. 🙂

@@timbenham516 I hadn’t ran into that one yet. Every year, I think about adding drone footage to these segments, then I don’t. The segments I tackled this season didn’t really need any, but it might happen in the new year.

Thanks Steve. Just when I think the well is dry, I find more! 🙂

You’d be surprised how often I hear things like that! Much history gets lost because people assume everyone knows it: why write it down? Over time, the people that knew it pass away, and future generations have no idea. I encourage people to record stories told by elderly relatives, and take pictures of ordinary things, like cars in a parking lot, grocery stores, town squares, things like that. Some day, all of that will be gold! 🙂

My dad also graduated from Borden High School ( class of 32 students total) back in the day lol

I love it when this happens! 🙂 My pleasure, Jackie!

For a fact!

So very unexpected! I was just driving through town, took pictures of this wonderful old building, and a local man told me some history. He ended-up putting me in contact with whom had the keys, and it was a wonderful experience!

I was wondering how you gained access. Very lucky! I belong to a group that researches and goes on ancient civilization hunts now and again.@@AdventureswithRoger

My pleasure! Really interesting place that I found by accident!

I didn’t want to bother the owners, but couldn’t help but wonder what it was like! Does anything about the mansion stand out?

So YOU’RE the one! 😆

Lol

If you ever run across old Indiana geology / archaeology books, ET Cox, William Borden and John Collett’s work are in nearly all of them. These guys were like Indiana Jones, finding all kinds of rare relics.

@@AdventureswithRoger I definitely will be looking for these,Thank you for the info.

There were definitely larger than average humans, throughout history, across the world. Sometimes the average height was five feet tall, so anyone 6 1/2 feet tall was a giant, and probably the leader. But there are also stories about humans of immense size and strength. The Jewish Torah / Christian Bible talks about half human / half Angel beings that were giants. The biggest roadblock is there are no known surviving skeletons, in the truly giant range. There are stories about huge, ancient skeletons, that have disintegrated when exposed to air, some of these found in southern Indiana along the Ohio River waterfront. There are others across the United States, supposedly unearthed and sent to the Smithsonian, never to be seen or heard of again. We continue to hear about amazing finds overseas, but none of them can be verified. While it’s somewhat difficult to estimate height by only bones, a huge skull and leg bones would tell a lot. Scientists and the scientific community are mostly conservative when describing ancient human remains. They’ve been ridiculed in the past, by identifying “new species” of humans, only to find out later that this was based on one bone, and from a pig. Once your credibility is gone, so is your career as a scientist. The evidence would have to be overwhelming and undeniable. No one wants to admit they’ve found a giant, they might as well say they’ve found the Loch Ness Monster.

I met a local man, that had great pictures of the museums exterior, but he could not find interiors. I would love to see anything people have, for clues of what was in the museum. It had to be more than just tiny fossils, that drew people from the Smithsonian.

@@AdventureswithRoger it has a lot of great stuff in it from what I remember and then they stopped letting anyone use the inside anymore. I was actually just up there a few hours ago

I spoke with members of the town board, before I published the segment. The school had possession of the museum for some time, but it was determined that they had no legal right to it, and the town re-assumed ownership. Then, it was found that the upstairs safety barrier does not meet modern code (I think it needs to be higher so no one falls over). So there’s a quandary of destroying the beautiful, historic, upstairs safety barrier, or leaving it alone. So, they’ve basically not used it.

Now that’s something I didn’t know about the place! If someone had mentioned the use for meals on wheels, I would’ve mentioned it in the video! What do you remember about being there with your Grandmother? Was it much different than now?

I am slowly pulling together some of these great legends. Dana Olsen had written a book some time ago, “Prince Madoc”, and I’ve referred to it many times as I hear new things. My favorite story is how George Rogers Clark’s men were cleaning up Corn Island, as a fort and training camp, and were literally throwing skeletons into the water by the hundreds. He was talking to a local chief, and asked why all the skeletons. The chief spoke of the giant white Indians with golden hair, and how several Indian tribes banded together to kill all of them. Fast forward to the present, and the Army Corp of Engineers have built the lock and dam such that Corn Island is totally submerged. And yet, a family in Louisville owns it and pays taxes on it every year!

@@AdventureswithRoger I read that story about Corn Island also. More rumor was that some escaped and ended going up the Missouri River. and somehow tied into the Mandan tribe who protected them. I tried to get interest to do a DNA study to see if any of the Mandan tribe had any Welsh ancestors but that all fell on deaf ears.

Bob, I’ll bet we’ve read a lot of the same things! I love this stuff. I’d read a blurb from the Lewis and Clark expedition, that mentioned the Mandan’s with blue eyes. A later account has a guy confirming Welsh and Mandan word similarities, and the use of same kind of oval boats and dwellings. He was largely panned and accused of lying. The largest theory behind all these inconvenient finds is nations trying to establish a claim to the new world, and placing the artifacts there on purpose. “We were here first, here’s proof!” That’s plausible, but that doesn’t explain everything.

@@AdventureswithRoger Yep! I heard all that too. We did read the same things. I tried to get the Mandan tribe interested in the DNA thing but they wanted no part of it.

Might not hurt to ask some individuals.

Welcome, Roman! I’m just now completing a huge Lawrence County documentary, hopefully it will be online in the next hour. I’ve done a ton of Lawrence County films, as six generations of my family have lived there.

@@AdventureswithRoger Can't wait to see it. Love history! My family is from Orange County, Lawrence and Martin. My grandfather was the first man in Orange County, 1806. Lived in a cave down by Valeen, Indiana.

Lots of great history in all those counties! Had never heard of the cave at Valeen though!

@@AdventureswithRoger My wife did the genealogy. I'll ask her for the specifics. It's interesting.

For the most part, I believe that settlers, from the old country, simply brought old family silver with them and lost it along the way. The artifact at Brandenburg, KY is a little harder to explain. It’s a rock with Welsh writing, found in a cornfield in the early 1900’s. Could it be a forgery? Always a possibility. Intriguing nonetheless.

He was a brilliant man, with vision beyond his time. I would’ve liked to have met him.

Thanks, Steve!

My pleasure, Keith!

What else can you remember? Did it look like it used to be fancy? I wish I could’ve found more than the old laboratory photo.

The different buildings that were old that I remember seeing in Borden when I lived on Daisy Hill Rd have all been torn down.

I believe you’re right! I couldn’t find a single RU-vid video, other than this one.

Me too. I was hoping to find old pictures of the collection, but exteriors were the only thing available.

For a fact, the fossil collection was second to none, and there’s good records of what the Chicago Field Museum have in their current collection. But despite Smithsonian acknowledgment of specimens sent there by Mr Borden, I couldn’t find a single catalog entry. We also have records that the Smithsonian was so interested in the collection, that representatives travelled all the way from the east coast to tiny little Borden, Indiana. The problem is that you can’t find what they were interested in, nor what they took. Combine that with Mr Borden and ET Cox’s prehistoric ruin finds at Rose Island, and there are a lot of questions, at least from me. If we only had newspapers describing what was in this collection, or catalog entries at the Smithsonian.

Hidden history is of my favorite things on earth! I have really had a lucky streak, this last year, found many great stories.

No idea on the Clarke spelling, but I suspect it’s a carry over from early English. And you won’t believe it, but I just hiked Browning Mountain (Indiana’s Stonehenge) on Sunday, and wrote the script today! Hope to have it out this week! 🙂

@@AdventureswithRoger Watched the Vid it was very well done. I'm surprised archeologist have not done an excavation.

It’s been studied by Indiana University and others, but it’s unclear what all they did. So far, I’ve not heard of any artifacts being pulled from the area.

This was a truly amazing find. I just went out driving, found a small town, and someone saw me filming the outside. We spoke about the towns history, he invited me over to see old pictures, and then put me in touch with the towns governing board! William Borden was truly like an Indiana Jones, exploring and collecting some of the most incredible items. Glad I could find even a small part of his amazing curiosities!

@@AdventureswithRoger Your doing a good job Roger! 👏 Your exposing me to some history I knew nothing about.

Hey we did not do any thing

Never noticed that before. I can’t remember touching it. I will say that they had a large ceiling fan overhead, it might’ve moved that tiny lock. Hard to say. But, I rarely get a bad vibe when other people are really spooked. 🙂

@@AdventureswithRoger 🙌 safe travels & exploring

Here in southern Indiana, the names “E.T. Cox” and “William Borden” are much like real life “Indiana Jones’s”. These two gentlemen lived in that classical period of exploration, where geology and archaeology were rolled together, and they were finding amazing things. Would’ve loved to have seen their amazing finds, in their prime!

@@AdventureswithRoger my grandfathers name is william borden and my uncle his firstborn is named william borden. we are related to the william borden who was a minister from yale who died on his way to china in cairo egypt⁵ sudddenly.. dunno if thats relevant or not.

@@AdventureswithRoger my family is supposdley from indiana. my gransparents met at a frat partyy at indiani university

@@steveborden12 I studied the story of William Borden, the evangelist to Cairo. What an incredible story of faith! My favorite story is where he kneeled and prayed with the homeless man, despite being a millionaire. William seemed like he knew his path, and money didn’t make a difference. It would honestly make a great movie, if it hasn’t already! I tried to make a connection to the two William Borden’s, and I believe the minister was a nephew. William that created the museum had rich relatives that lived in the Chicago area. They all had benefited from the silver mine claim out west.

Wherrrre do you get that?

No it really was built in 1900, they have pictures and witnesses.

On my dry erase board! Is there a local museum, landmark or other things left at Brewersville?

@@AdventureswithRoger used to be a mill there an a small settlement it's just north of the town of North Vernon. Not to much left there as far as landmarks but lots of history in this county for sure , the river lent itself to a mill in that area it was just a perfect setup. Supposedly a very high flood washed the mill an the giants skeletons away . Huge amounts of native americans in southern Indiana to I've got a very large arrowhead collection. Greats videos to I enjoy the local history you dig up. Very cool .

I’ll bet there’s a Brewersville sign. How about the river next to where the mill was: can a person find / walk near the spot? I’ll look for a Jennings County Historical Society person, maybe they’ll know something, have newspaper clippings.

@@AdventureswithRoger yes there's a sign and it's the Muskatuck river

@@rockkhound943 Very cool! I have been all around that area, but wouldn’t know where the mill was, or where the bones were found.

Just strange that they came all the way to a small Indiana town to see it, and despite receipts saying they received items, cannot be found in their catalog.