Tales road FROM THE ~ howe, indiana ~

skunk and could often be seen with her favorite, “Old Rover,” perched on her shoulder. Crissy’s eccentricities started to draw attention and word eventually spread to Ripley’s Believe it or Not , which published a blurb about Crissy proclaiming her “The World’s Filthiest Woman.” She became famous and tourists drove from across the country to meet her. When cars would pull up, Crissy would come out of her shack with a skunk and do a little dance, while holding out a hat, asking for donations.

Shakespeare family members was a graduate. When I headed out of town, I drove through the grounds, past dozens of large abandoned buildings, imagining all of the activities that took place there over the years.

When I asked Margaret who was Howe’s most famous citizen, she paused for a moment and said, I guess it would have to be “Chrissy the Skunk Woman.” This certainly got my attention and after she filled me in on what she knew, mentioned that The

Skunk Woman was buried just down the road at the Riverside Cemetery. I drove to the cemetery and after wandering around a bit, found a large boulder with a plaque and a cement skunk to the right of the grave. The plaque said Christina Irene Hahn D’ Sullivan, 1845-1925. “Crissy the Skunk Woman” A True Child of Nature. Crissy I was told, lived in a shack filled with animals. She wore the same clothes everyday and had no running water. Her favorite animal was the

By the time she was 70, living on her own and juggling the hundreds of visitors and the menagerie of animals became too difficult. After a state housing inspector took a look at her shack, he immediately condemned it. Howe citizens sat down with Crissy and she agreed to leave behind her persona as the Skunk Lady. They collected funds to build her a small, modern home. Crissy moved into the house and eventually began donning clean clothes and, in an event categorized as apocalyptic, forced Crissy to bathe. Sadly, less than a year in her new home, Crissy died of unknown causes. Stories online note that she had at least two husbands. After leaving the cemetery, I stopped into the Ark Paws and Claws Bookstore and was pleasantly surprised at how large and well organized the bookstore was. Thousands of used hard and soft cover books were all shelved by specific categories. I did as I was told and purchased a few local travel books. I wanted to stop into Happiness Ice Cream next door, but was still too full from breakfast. In leaving town and heading west on 120, I crossed the Pigeon River, a tributary of the St Joseph River. Just to the south of 120 is the old “Phantom Bridge,” the last remaining steel trestle bridge in LaGrange County. It has not been used in many years and leads into thick woods. I was able to find a path to the bridge and after walking across it, I was met by a friendly Amish gentleman who pulled his boat to shore nearby and was fishing for walleye. This encounter made my day.

I plan to head back to Howe to continue exploring the area again soon!