Wadena ( ) is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Union Township, Benton County, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

. It is part of the

Lafayette, Indiana Lafayette ( ) is a city in and is the county seat of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, located northwest of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. According to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of Lafayette ...

Metropolitan Statistical Area.

History

Wadena was founded by John Swan in 1884 and named after

Wadena, Minnesota Wadena ( ) is a city in Otter Tail and Wadena counties in the state of Minnesota. It is about one hundred sixty miles northwest of the Minneapolis – Saint Paul metro area. The population was 4,325 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat ...

, a town Swan had recently visited and found pleasing. The name derives from an

Ojibwa The Ojibwe (; syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the northern plains, extending into the subarctic and thro ...

term meaning "little round hill". The town was situated along a north/south rail line constructed through Benton County in the 1880s, originally operated as the Chicago and Great Southern Railway and later as the Chicago and Indiana Coal Railway, the

Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad The Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad was a Class I railroad that linked Chicago, Illinois, Chicago to southern Illinois, St. Louis, Missouri, St. Louis, and Evansville, Indiana, Evansville. Founded in 1877, it grew aggressively and staye ...

, and ultimately the Chicago, Attica and Southern Railroad which maintained the line until its abandonment in the 1940s. The line was also commonly known as the Coal Road and the Dolly Varden Line. A post office was established at Wadena in 1883, and remained in operation until it was discontinued in 1919. In the early 20th century, four Wadena residents gained national repute as professional baseball players: * Doc Crandall: A utility pitcher for the New York Giants (1906-1914), he then joined St. Louis in the Federal League (1914-1918), then Los Angeles (Coast League). * Karl Crandall: Played several years for a Memphis, Tennessee, team, played three years with the Indianapolis American Association (1913-1916) and then entered the Coast League. * Arnold Crandall: Pitched for the Buffalo, New York, International League team in 1921. *

Cy Williams Frederick "Cy" Williams (December 21, 1887 – April 23, 1974) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as an outfielder for the Chicago Cubs (1912–17) and Philadelphia Phillies (1918–30). As Major Le ...

: outfielder for the Chicago Cubs (1913-1916), then joined the Philadelphia Nationals. Wadena currently consists of several private residences. A monument east of town commemorates Wadena School, which served the township's students from 1895 to 1961. On December 18, 2024, a devastating house fire in Wadena resulted in six individuals being hospitalized. The fire occurred just before midnight in the 2500 East block of 600 North, where authorities found two adults and four juveniles trapped inside the home. All six were transported to area hospitals with various injuries. Tragically, one of the juveniles later died from her injuries at IU Arnett. A GoFundMe campaign has been created to support the affected family.

Geography

Wadena is located at along Benton County Road 600 North in Union Township, midway between 200 East and 300 East. Big Pine Creek Ditch begins in the fields just west of town and flows southeast approximately six miles to

Big Pine Creek Big Pine Creek may refer to: * Big Pine Creek (California), Inyo County, California * Big Pine Creek (Indiana), west-central Indiana * Big Pine Creek (Texas) Big Pine Creek is an U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolutio ...

. Carpenter Creek, which meets the Iroquois River about 14 miles to the north, begins northeast of Wadena.

Mount Nebo Mount Nebo (; ) is an elevated ridge located in Jordan, approximately Height above sea level, above sea level. Part of the Abarim mountain range, Mount Nebo is mentioned in the Bible as the place where Moses was granted a view of the Promised L ...

, the highest point in Benton County, stands a little less than two miles to the east.

References

External links

* {{authority control Unincorporated communities in Benton County, Indiana Lafayette metropolitan area, Indiana Unincorporated communities in Indiana