What are the opening hours?

Tuesday 10:30am - 5pm Wednesday 10:30am - 5pm Thursday 10:30am - 8pm Friday 10:30am - 8pm Saturday 10am - 8pm

Franklin by Foot

Name: Franklin by Foot
Address: 100 E. Jefferson Street, Franklin, IN, 46131, US
Telephone: +13175604450
Price range: $$

Home
United States
Franklin, IN
Franklin by Foot

Call Directions Website

Educational Haunted History Walks in beautiful historic downtown Franklin, Indiana. We're part of Possibilities: Home Re-Imagined 🥰

10/29/2026

For two or three years, a mysterious white deer roamed the woods of Johnson County. And then along came Joseph Young with a r***e named “Old Crate.”

According to local historian David Demaree Banta, the unusual deer had been roaming the western and southwestern parts of the county, becoming increasingly wary of hunters.

Joseph Young, an early settler in the Nineveh area, carried a powerful, long-range r***e he called “Old Crate.”

When Young finally encountered the elusive white deer, he brought it down with a shot from a considerable distance.

Apparently, Old Crate lived up to its name.

It's a small detail from Johnson County's early history, but one that makes you wonder what other stories have disappeared along with the forests these settlers once hunted.

And here's something worth noting: White deer aren't necessarily albino. Some have a genetic condition called leucism, which reduces pigmentation without producing the characteristic pink eyes of albinism. We don't know which was the case with Young's deer.

Have you ever seen a white deer in Indiana?

Franklin by Foot | Every block has a backstory.

Source: David Demaree Banta, A Historical Sketch of Johnson County, Indiana, p. 161.

10/27/2026

Franklin, this is our LAST FULL WEEK of walking tours for the season!

If you've been meaning to explore your hometown with Franklin by Foot, now's the time.

Our Franklin After Dark tours are full of real local history, fascinating characters, mysteries, and stories hiding behind the places you pass every day.

Tours are about 90 minutes, cover half a mile, and give you a whole new perspective on downtown Franklin.

We do have a few dates beyond Halloween, but our regular season is winding down.

Grab a friend, make a date night of it, or come along solo. We'd love to show you around!

See available dates and book at FranklinByFoot.com

What's one Franklin story or landmark you've always been curious about?

10/24/2026

Three names. Nearly 200 years of history. And a story that deserves to be remembered.
In the spring of 1830, a woman named Milly Magill became a member of Franklin's First Presbyterian Church. Her name appears as number 63 on the church's membership roll, admitted by certificate.
Eight years later, in April 1838, two more women, Liza Dawson and Sophia Vestal, were admitted following examination.
Beside each of their names, the church record includes a single notation: “colored.”
These three Black women were part of Franklin's religious community decades before the local African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) church was organized.
We don't yet know much about their lives. Where they lived, what brought them to Franklin, whether they had families here, or what became of them.
The membership records don't answer those questions. They do, however, preserve something important: their names and their presence in Franklin's early history.
So much of local history focuses on the people who founded businesses, held public office, or had buildings named after them. Meanwhile, countless others helped shape this community without leaving behind nearly as much documentation.
Milly Magill. Liza Dawson. Sophia Vestal.
Three women whose names might otherwise have remained buried in an old church record.
And three stories worth continuing to investigate.
Does anyone recognize these surnames in Franklin's early family history? We'd love to uncover more about these women and their lives.
Franklin by Foot | Every block has a backstory.

10/22/2026

Imagine waiting for a deer to appear, only to realize a panther is stalking your brother.

That's what happened to Samuel Bell near the headwaters of Honey Creek in the early days of Johnson County.

According to local historian David Demaree Banta, Samuel and his brother were waiting for deer near a salt marsh at dusk when Samuel spotted a panther creeping toward his unsuspecting brother.

Samuel raised his gun, took aim, and killed the animal before it could attack.

And apparently, that wasn't the only close encounter with a panther around here.

Another early hunter, John Weiss, was at a place called Collins' Lick when he turned around and discovered a panther crouched, apparently ready to spring.

Weiss managed to shoot it, an outcome the historical account attributed more to luck than skill.

He reportedly never went hunting again.

Considering what he'd just experienced, it's hard to blame him.

It's easy to picture early Johnson County as peaceful farmland and little settlements. Stories like these remind us that the landscape was once a much wilder place.

Did you know panthers once roamed this part of Indiana?

Franklin by Foot | Every block has a backstory.

10/21/2026

Imagine traveling through Johnson County in the early 1800s and coming face-to-face with a group of men dressed in buckskins, accompanied by a pack of wolf dogs.

Not exactly the welcoming committee you’d hope for.

According to local historian David Demaree Banta, travelers near an area known as the Great Gulf encountered a party of bear hunters led by Nathaniel Bell.

The travelers were understandably startled. The hunters, however, weren’t looking for trouble. They simply gave the travelers directions and went on their way.

And the Great Gulf itself? That’s another story.

This unusual stretch of swampy land reportedly covered an area roughly a mile wide and two miles long. Banta was fascinated by its geography and wondered whether Sugar Creek might once have followed a different course through the area.

He never established that theory as fact, but it gives you an idea of just how different Johnson County’s landscape once appeared.

Bear hunters. Wolf dogs. Mysterious swamps.

And you thought Johnson County was quiet.

Have you ever heard of the Great Gulf? We’d love to know if that name has survived in any local family stories.

Franklin by Foot | Every block has a backstory.

10/20/2026

Franklin, have you explored the stories hiding in plain sight around your own hometown?

You might know the buildings. You might even know a few of the names. But Franklin has more than 200 years of fascinating history, colorful characters, mysteries, and some pretty unbelievable stories.

That's where Franklin by Foot comes in!

Our Franklin After Dark walking tours take you through downtown, sharing the real stories behind familiar places.

We're heading into the final stretch of our walking-tour season, and there are only a couple of weeks left in our regular October schedule. We do have a few tours beyond Halloween, but don't wait until next year to finally check us out!

Tours are approximately 90 minutes, cover less than a mile, and are a fun way to see Franklin from a completely different perspective.

Bring a friend, bring your curiosity, and come find out what you've been walking past all these years.

10/16/2026

Two hundred three years ago today, Johnson County held court for the very first time.

October 16, 1823. Judge William W. Wick convenes court in John Smiley's two-room log cabin on Sugar Creek. The grand jury gets the room where Mrs. Smiley is lying sick in bed. The prosecutor pulls a bottle of wh***ey from his pocket, offers it to her first, then all around to the jurors. She always said afterward she was the only one who turned it down.

One civil case on the docket. Somebody owed somebody seventy-seven dollars.

Two hundred three years later, we tell that story on the tour. Real places. Real stories.

10/15/2026

One January evening in 1847, it started raining, and it did not stop until noon the next day.

When it quit, every bridge over Young's Creek, the Hurricane, Blue River, Sugar Creek, and both forks of Stotts' Creek was destroyed or badly damaged. The Franklin Examiner called it the great freshet.

Out of the wreckage came a road meeting at the courthouse, and two years later, the Franklin and Mooresville plank road.

One bad storm. One new road. That is how infrastructure used to get built.

10/14/2026

As the story goes, Franklin is the county seat because it rained.

The commissioners were weighing two sites. One was Amos Durbin's land down at the mouth of Sugar Creek, where a whole village had already been platted on paper. The other was George King's land at the mouth of the Hurricane. Then King, who had bought forty acres on speculation, offered to show them a third tract.

A heavy rain came on and drove everybody indoors. So they put the town on the forty acres where they happened to be standing.

Your whole county seat. Picked by a rainstorm interrupting a land speculator mid-pitch.

Address

100 E. Jefferson Street
Franklin, IN
46131

Opening Hours

Tuesday	10:30am - 5pm
Wednesday	10:30am - 5pm
Thursday	10:30am - 8pm
Friday	10:30am - 8pm
Saturday	10am - 8pm

Telephone

+13175604450

Website

http://franklinbyfoot.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Franklin by Foot posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.