By Nicole Thomas

Madison County honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with a statue of the civil rights leader. Midwestern sculptor Kenneth Ryden designed the 8-foot-tall bronze figure. King’s son, Martin Luther King III, attended the statue’s dedication ceremony in 1988.

A colorful Indiana icon

Alexandria, Indiana, is home to the World’s Largest Ball of Paint. On Jan. 1, 1997, Michael Carmichael and his son dipped a baseball in baby blue paint and kept adding layers. Over the years, the ball has grown to weigh more than 11,600 pounds with over 30,000 coats in a variety of colors. After reaching 1,000 layers, it was displayed at the Knightstown Children’s Home before returning to Carmichael in 2003. Today, the paintball is housed in the Carmichaels’ “Ball House,” where visitors from across the country and around the world — including Ukraine, Japan, and New Zealand — come to see it. Guests can choose a paint color to add their own layer and sign the surrounding walls with their name and date.

Indiana’s ancient earthworks

Each year, around 400,000 people visit Mounds State Park near Anderson, Indiana, to see its 10 ceremonial earthworks built by the prehistoric Adena and Hopewell cultures. The park’s largest earthwork, the Great Mound, measures nearly 400 feet in diameter and is believed to have been constructed around 160 B.C. These mounds served as sacred spaces dedicated to the Sun God and Earth Mother, where people gathered for rituals, ceremonies, and astronomical observations to mark the changing seasons. Today, visitors can also explore the park’s six hiking trails and fish along the White River. 

Home of the Little 500

Originally constructed in 1947, the Anderson Speedway is a high-banked oval track with 17-degree turns — nearly double the 9.2-degree banking of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Since 1949, it has held the annual Little 500 sprint car race on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. Known as one of the premier wingless asphalt sprint car races, the Little 500 mimics the Indianapolis 500’s setup with 11 rows of three cars. Drivers complete 500 laps totaling 125 miles, which is an unusually long distance compared to most sprint car races that typically range from 10 to 50 miles.

County facts

Founded: 1823

Named For: James Madison, the fourth president of the United States

Population:  130,129

County seat: Anderson

Indiana county number: 48