Corydon Capitol State Historic Site

In 1816, the Indiana Territory was ready to seek statehood, and delegates from across the region convened in Corydon to draft a constitution. The building they used, a two-story structure of local blue limestone, had been raised only a few years earlier to serve the territory's courts and government. That summer, the delegates hammered out the framework of a new state, and by the end of the year Indiana had joined the Union.

Corydon then served as the capital of the new state until the government moved north to the more central location of Indianapolis in the mid-1820s. During those years the little limestone building was the seat of Indiana's legislature and the heart of its public life. That such a consequential chapter played out in so modest a structure is exactly what makes the site memorable, a reminder that great beginnings often start small.

One of the most beloved stories of Corydon concerns a huge elm tree that once stood near the capitol. As the tale goes, the summer of 1816 was so hot that the delegates sometimes left the stuffy building and worked in the cool shade of the great elm, and the tree became known ever after as the Constitution Elm. It grew into a cherished local symbol of the state's founding.

The original tree eventually died of disease, but its memory was preserved in a fitting way. The trunk was protected within a stone shelter that still stands as a monument, keeping the story alive for visitors. The Constitution Elm remains one of Indiana's founding legends, and a stop at its monument is a natural companion to touring the capitol building itself.

Long before delegates met in Corydon, this hill and river country was part of the homelands of Native nations. Indiana is the homeland of the Miami, who call themselves Myaamia, along with the Shawnee, the Lenape or Delaware, the Potawatomi, and the Wea, Piankeshaw, and Kickapoo. They lived, hunted, and traveled through the Ohio Valley for generations before the treaties and settlement that opened the region to statehood.

The state's founding was bound up with the pressure and displacement of these nations, whose lands were taken through a series of treaties in the early 1800s. In the following decades, the Potawatomi were forced west on the deadly march remembered as the Trail of Death. These are living peoples with continuing communities today, and their long presence is an essential part of the fuller story of how Indiana came to be.

Corydon itself rewards a wander. The historic town square around the capitol still carries the character of an early Indiana settlement, with old buildings, shops, and a courthouse that keep the past close. It is an easy, pleasant place to walk, and its small-town charm makes the founding history feel human and near at hand.

On the edge of town lies a Civil War battlefield, the site of a brief clash during a Confederate raid into the North, one of the few times the war reached Indiana soil. Together with the nearby cave country of southern Indiana, the battlefield gives visitors reasons to linger. A trip to Corydon can easily fill a day, weaving together the state's birth, the Civil War, and the karst landscape all around.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.