The Van Buren Elm

Here in Plainfield once stood a famous elm, and a story Hoosiers loved to tell. In the eighteen forties, the National Road through town ran past a giant elm with a notorious mud hole at its base, where hogs liked to wallow. When former President Martin Van Buren came rolling through by stagecoach, the local driver, the story goes, deliberately steered over the elm's gnarled roots, tipping the carriage and pitching the president straight into the mud.

The supposed reason was anger over his stand on federal money for the National Road. Whether prank or accident, the tale stuck. The great elm is long gone, but a marker keeps the legend alive.