As a first-year student, I had no idea that a good portion of the Notre Dame student body leaves campus during Easter Break for vacation, going home or whatever. Instead, my dad opted for a weekend visit to South Bend from our hometown of Philadelphia. He’s a huge museum and history guy, so I figured we’d check out the touristy side of South Bend, which, I soon learned within one Google search, is extremely limited. Here, I’d like to give you an upfront review of our campus town’s tourism offerings from the perspective of two cynical Philly guys totally alien to the Midwest.
Our number one stop for the weekend was the Studebaker National Museum. The day we visited was rainy, and the demeanor of the building’s entrance was no different. As soon as you walk in, you’re forcefully bombarded with hallways recounting South Bend’s past since the Studebaker Museum is attached to the History Museum. Although we really only cared about Studebaker, we felt obligated to at least take a few cursory glances at South Bend’s history. We soon learned that most of South Bend’s early history is just Notre Dame. There was one little display case of “South Bend oddities” that was interesting, which held curious things like General Custer’s supposed death mask, a (genuine?) woolly mammoth tusk and a bathroom tile from Adolf Hitler’s Alps chalet. OK, weird start, but we push on to Studebaker glory.
Honestly, the Studebaker displays were really cool. They had a surprising number of cars and carriages, and I actually learned a good amount about how innovative Studebaker was throughout their entire history. Although the median age of visitors in the joint that day was probably 75, the people working there were super knowledgeable, and I can highly recommend checking it out as a student if you have a passing interest in cars.
For the rest of the trip, my dad and I saw the effects that the Studebaker plant’s closure in the 1960s has had on South Bend that still resonate today. Mainly, a ton of vacant buildings from the previous century. Don’t quote me on this, but it seemed like half the commercial space in downtown South Bend near Four Winds Field is just empty (this was semi-corroborated by an Uber driver we had).
We had already decided to hit the South Bend Cubs game later that day, so to kill time we had to find another museum. We both decided that our next stop should be the highly reputable South Bend Dinosaur Museum. Despite pricey admission, we decided to go along with a guided tour, complete with an intro voiceover by David Attenborough (no idea how they roped him into that). OK Dinosaur Museum, please don’t sue me, but my dad and I were really confused as to whether the majority of the fossils were real. There was a full Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton from Montana, but it looked sort of eerily complete, I guess? Maybe the “Jurassic Park” theme constantly blasting over the PA system during the tour made me doubt its veracity. My dad and I decided to just speed through the guided tour unguided. The majority of the crowd at this place was children, so we didn’t want to take away from their whimsical dinosaur experience with our cynical remarks. We collectively decided to never look up whether every fossil was real or not so we could feel slightly better about the $50 we spent on admission. The Dinosaur Museum will forever be our Schrodinger’s Cat (or maybe more accurately Pandora’s Box).
To round off the tourism section of the weekend, we hit the South Bend Cubs game, which immediately got delayed as the field was still far too wet. No matter, the drinks were cheap and the hot dogs were fresh, so we made the best of it and took a few laps around the newly renovated stadium. Turns out, despite the $48 million renovations, the water pumps didn’t work, the field was too saturated and the game was promptly canceled. Oh well. We felt like we got our money’s worth. Also, Four Winds Field looks like a really nice second or third date spot as there were some high-top tables set up nicely in right field.
I am still a diehard East Coaster, but I am warming up to South Bend’s Rust Belt charm. I’d wager to say it might be more fun to hang back over Easter and let some family or friends visit, but that might just be me coping with the fact that some people spent Easter in Miami or Cabo.
