The Mint Fields

Mint fields outside Winesburg, Indiana. Varieties produced included peppermint, spearmint, penny royal, and chocolate mint.

One of the many paint test beds erected after the mint fields were plowed under.

At one point the vast flat fields outside the city of Winesburg, Indiana, were planted with various kinds of mint plants, the essences and oils of their leaves were used to flavor the products of the Wrigley Chewing Gum Company and the now defunct floss of the Winesburg Dental Floss Company. It was said that one could smell the refreshing odor of the town when you were still miles away.

As the use of the aromatic plant declined and with closure of the dental floss factory, the fields were converted into various testing and proving grounds. There were acres of paint testing sheds and the tracks and simulated urban streets where marching musical bands field-tested the lyres used to hold sheet music on their instruments when mobile.

A brave (?) test pilot.

Also, for a brief time, a local start-up company, The Butler Ejection Seat Company, used a forty acre parcel to test their product then in great demand as the world's air forces converted from prop-driven craft to jets. For a while it was said you knew when you were approaching Winesburg when you saw the forest of dissipating vertical contrails hovering in the distance.