Churubusco, IN

Churubusco, often shortened to Busco, is a Whitley County town near the headwaters of the Eel River, about 16 miles northwest of Fort Wayne. It began as two railroad-side settlements, Franklin and Union, divided by the tracks; the town took its present name in 1847 after a Mexican-American War battle. That history is only half the local shorthand. Churubusco is also Turtle Town, U.S.A., thanks to Oscar, the giant snapping turtle said to have lived in nearby Fulk’s Lake. Turtle Days, held since 1950, is billed as Indiana’s oldest continuously held festival, keeping the legend in the calendar with a parade and turtle races. Churubusco is an Indiana town where a railroad split, a river headwater, and one impossible turtle share the same map.