Seymour, Indiana: Small Town, Big Sound

Seymour, Indiana was born from a deal. In eighteen fifty-two, a landowner named Meedy Shields convinced the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad to run its line across his property, and in exchange he named the new depot town after the railroad's engineer, a man named Seymour. Two rail lines crossing here made it the self-described Crossroads of Southern Indiana.

The town is probably best known today for producing one of American rock's most enduring voices: John Mellencamp was born here on October seventh, nineteen fifty-one. His nineteen eighty-five hit Small Town wasn't a generic portrait. It was Seymour, specifically, and its streets, diners, and Saturday-night rhythms that he was writing about.

The song made a small Midwest railroad junction internationally famous.