Mitchell Indiana

Gus Grissom's home town is Mitchell, IN, a little over an hour and a half south of Indianapolis.

The main attractions, from a 60s Space Race perspective, are the Grissom Memorial in the Spring Mill State Park, which houses the Gemini 3 spacecraft, Grissom's Gemini 3 suit, Grissom's Mercury helmet, and miscellaneous related artifacts; and the Grissom Monument, in downtown Mitchell, which is located on the site of Gus' former grade school (Google Maps coverage). A road near the monument is named after Grissom.

The interior of the Grissom Memorial underwent renovation from the end of 2008 until April 2009 and was "officially rededicated" on July 18 as part of the park's annual "Grissom Day" celebration; I have photos from both before and after the renovation. It appears to have been renovated at least once before; for a picture of Gemini 3 (aka the "Molly Brown") prior to either of the renovations of which I have pictures, see my vintage Molly Brown page.

Right now, it looks like Google Maps has some half-way decent aerial coverage of the memorial in Spring Mill State Park. The current pictures must have been taken in the fall, when there were no leaves on the trees. I remember looking for this longer ago and not being able to find it, although I don't recall if it was because it didn't have sufficiently detailed coverage at the time or if the pictures were taken when there were leaves on the trees. So, if you click the link and see nothing but trees, Google's updated their photos again.

As of now, I have not yet sorted through all of my pictures of Mitchell, but some other page references this location. Thus, this is a "place holder" version right now, with only the pictures actually referenced. Come back some time later to see if I've finished up, or drop me an email to request me to prioritize the rest of these pictures.