69 antique car enthusiasts tour Dubois County from nine states

69 antique car enthusiasts from nine states gathered Wednesday morning in front of the Clarion Point in Jasper before setting out on a multi-day tour that put Dubois County in front of a traveling crowd of Model T and Model A drivers.

Before the cars rolled out, the group paused to pray for safety and fun, then headed toward Saint Meinrad Archabbey as part of an outing that will take them around the county over the next several days. The stop matters because it was not a quick photo op. It brought a sizable out-of-state group into Jasper, with spending likely to land in local hotel rooms, breakfast tables, dinner checks and fuel pumps.

Saint Meinrad Archabbey gives that route much of its pull. Founded in 1854 by monks from Einsiedeln Abbey in Switzerland, the archabbey came to southern Indiana at the request of a local priest looking for help serving the area’s growing German-speaking Catholic population. Today, the institution operates a seminary and school of theology, and its history museum opened July 1, 2024, adding another stop for visitors drawn to the area’s religious and cultural history.

For Dubois County, the visit fit the kind of heritage travel Visit Dubois County promotes: scenic roads, historic attractions, lodging, dining and group-friendly trips built around Jasper, Ferdinand and Saint Meinrad. The county’s tourism materials also emphasize the rolling landscape and the mix of small-town scenery and rural driving routes that antique-car clubs often seek out. A convoy of vintage cars moving through those roads turns that pitch into a visible, on-the-ground example of tourism dollars moving through the local economy.

The Dubois County Visitors Center says it offers complimentary visitor assistance and is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern time. For a county that markets itself around road trips and group travel, a 69-person club stop from nine states showed how those visits arrive in practice: one base hotel, a historic destination, and a trail of local businesses that benefit when travelers choose Jasper as the starting point.