Memory Spiral will offer a stroll through local history at Heekin Park

MUNCIE, Ind. − Our past is returning to us, artfully so.

Very soon, just around a curve on a concrete path in the sunshine at Heekin Park, will be the discovery of natural gas in rock underneath Muncie. And nearby, along the same pathway, arises the founding of Indiana State Normal School Eastern Division, which grew into Ball State University.

And moving forward, eight state basketball championships by the Muncie Central Bearcats appear, as does the birth, rise and eventual decline of the auto industry that so changed the nature of the city and its population.

It's Muncie, told in a brief but contemplative walk in the park via the Muncie Memory Spiral. The new feature is set to be ready this spring at Memorial Drive and Hackley Street, across from the city's No. 2 Fire Station in the park.

The landscaped excursion through local history will offer benches for rest and reflection. Panels with photos, artwork and words explaining how life on the patch of ground that became Muncie evolved, starting with Native Americans who lived along the White River thousands of years before Europeans arrived and running on through community life in 21st century Muncie.

It is the latest major project developed by the Sherman and Marjorie Zeigler Foundation through its Community Enhancement Projects effort. Foundation President Rick Zeigler said the Memory Spiral represents the largest venture by CEP since the creation and expansion of the White River Greenway Trail and overlooks along the river in west central Muncie.

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"I wanted CEP to do a project on the south side," Zeigler emphasized.

His parents were the late Sherman and Marjorie Zeigler, whose foundation continues to generously contribute to quality of life in Muncie, especially by providing and focusing on beautiful things.

And the first thing understood is CEP doesn't create projects and then walk away, Zeigler said. The organization takes care of the things it creates as well as some things it didn't create. The nonprofit oversees planters and street median flower plantings. It maintains pocket parks, including Cornerstone Park at Main and Madison streets, featuring a colorful abstract sculpture, and nearby Fireman's Park at Madison and Jackson streets with its statue of late civic leader Hurley C. Goodall.

CEP takes care of the downtown flower pots and Riverbend Park near the Fallen Heroes Memorial Bridge, and many other pretty scenes of charm in Muncie. But most of the projects had wound up being in and near downtown, including the stage at Canan Commons, with a few efforts scattered to the north.

Zeigler said he wanted to develop a project for the southside that could be embraced by the neighborhoods there. The venerable Heekin Park seemed a natural choice.

"It is the city's history park," said Ziegler, who noted its memorials to veterans and America's wars. While CEP did not create the memorial, it maintains the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Heekin. The park also keeps pioneer cabins available for rent to the public and hosts the African-American Walk of Fame. It is also the place where Five Points Fountain rests.

While the city maintains the parks and many of its features, Zeigler emphasizes that the cost for creating the Memory Spiral is overwhelmingly private. The price tag for the project is more than $900,000, but the cost to taxpayers is about 8% of that, with one grant out of the city's Economic Development Income Tax funds. The rest of the money came from local foundations and businesses.

Originally, Zeigler thought of a history circle but said his wife, Jeanne, who is an artist, recommended a spiral instead because spirals are a part of life, beginning with DNA − the spiral of hereditary material across living things.

Twenty-three interpretive panels, measuring 15'' x 28'' and designed to withstand the wind, rain, snow and sun, highlight the way as visitors spiral back in time, noting significant events, trends and people in the life of what would become Muncie of the 21st century.

The landscaping along the path will provide color and beauty while being in line with plants common to the area during the time period explored along the walk. The 800-foot spiral walkway will start out encountering shrubs, flowers and bushes common to the area. The deeper one travels into the spiral the plantings change to those common to the time when Native Americans were the primary residents.

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Also included is a shade structure for the walkway, which was largely designed by students from the Ball State University Department of Landscape Architecture.

Local historian Chris Flook, a senior lecturer of media at BSU, was enlisted to head up a committee to develop the content of the signs. Other committee members included representatives from the Delaware County Historical Society, Ball State Department of Telecommunications, Minnetrista Museum and Gardens and leaders from the city's African-American community and other business and community.

The work started in 2017 and about 40 signs outlining Muncie history were developed, Flook said. That number was pared in half, to the most important subjects that would be used.

Each history panel includes a QR code that can be scanned by a smart phone and takes the spiral visitor to a website that maintained by the Delaware County Historical Society and hosted by Braken Library Archives and Special Collections.

The site will offer more detailed information about the subjects in Muncie history, allowing for deep dives into subjects like migrations to Muncie in the 19th and 20th century or Muncie's suffragists.

Other subjects include "The Other Side of Middletown: Black Resistance and Persistence in Muncie," "Sports in Muncie," and "The American Civil War." As time moves on, Flook will update the signs as needed.

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The spiral is still undergoing preparation under the watchful eye of the nearby fire station. The interpretive panels are completed and will be installed in coming weeks with a ribbon cutting expected in the springtime.

The list of people and organization providing funds for the spiral include: Sherman and Marjorie Zeigler Foundation, Ball Brothers Foundation, George and Frances Ball Foundation, Community Foundation of Muncie and Delaware County, City of Muncie, Land Conservation Trust at Community Foundation, Community Enhancement Projects, Hamer D. & Phyllis C. Shafer Foundation, Mutual Bank Foundation, Old National Bank Foundation, American Lawnmower/Robert Kersey, Boyce Systems, Meeks Mortuary, First Merchants Corporation Charitable Fund, Magna Powertrain, IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital Foundation, Versatile Metal Works (in-kind), Jay-Crew Landscaping (in-kind) and the Delaware County Historical Society (in-kind for website).

This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Memory Spiral will offer a stroll through local history at Heekin Park