A hazy kind of dusk falls about the place, with just a soft touch of light remaining as the warm summer sun retreats. The crickets begin to chirp in the fields surrounding Paragon Speedway, but they soon quiet as the roar of sprint cars echoes among the trees and barns nearby.
It’s been a Saturday night tradition for more than 50 years, with race cars ripping around this long, tight dirt track. Indiana is blessed with a wide variety of race tracks stretching from Haubstadt to Angola, from Lawrenceburg to Illiana, but no racing atmosphere in the state is quite like Paragon.
This great old place has lived on, through thick and thin, amid good times and bad. It has survived five decades of changing American entertainment tastes and the inevitable cycles of the economy. It has changed hands relatively few times through the years, and the current owners — Keith and Judy Ford — have been good stewards of the place for 20-some years.
But what came two weeks ago, it seems nothing could survive.

Around midnight, it seemed the heavens broke open and poured down upon Morgan County, as well as nearby Hoosier counties. The rain was like nothing anyone had ever seen around these parts; it was coming so thick you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. For hour after hour it continued. By 8 a.m. Saturday, 14 inches of rain had fallen.

It was a Friday night and it was raining. Nothing unusual, just another late-spring round of Midwestern thunderstorms, and the Fords were left wondering about their chances of getting their show in the following night.
Around midnight, it seemed the heavens broke open and poured down upon Morgan County, as well as nearby Hoosier counties. The rain was like nothing anyone had ever seen around these parts; it was coming so thick you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. For hour after hour it continued. By 8 a.m. Saturday, 14 inches of rain had fallen.
Water roared from the creeks and rivers, devouring the landscape. Water flowed even where there had not been a creek or river before. Houses on the hillside north of Paragon were literally washed down like mere driftwood. The little town of Paragon — just a mile or two from the track — seemed to be afloat, with people scrambling first, for their possessions and finally, their lives.
Martinsville, some 10 miles away, was even worse.
While others faced catastrophic loss, the Speedway was relatively lucky. Most of the seating and permanent buildings are on high ground, and were safe. But water stood three-feet deep in the pit area, completely hiding the concrete barriers used throughout the facility. The entire infield and most of the track was submerged. Small wooden structures literally began to float away, coming to rest yards away when the water receded.
The Fords had more than the race track to think of; Judy Ford’s 87-year-old mother was carried from her home by Martinsville firemen, unable to save any of her belongings. It was the last trip that night for the trucks asthe water level in the streets had reached the point where airboats were needed for the search-and-rescue operations.
For the next few days, the Fords agonized with their fellow townspeople as the muddy water lingered. Finally, the water began to recede.
Keith and Judy Ford got to work, and for a moment, they surely must have wondered if the old speedway could survive. Mud and debris littered everything within sight. One could surely look around at all that needed to be done and feel like crying. But they kept their chin up and slogged through several days of incredible effort and determination, and soon began to see real signs of progress.
The heavy equipment used to work the track surface needed service and repair and soon, that was done. The grounds were cleaned up and fences and barriers were moved back to their proper places. The pit shack and the small ticket booth were dragged back in place and pretty soon, the Fords wondered if maybe they could get back to racing sooner than they thought.
That was two weeks ago, and on Saturday night, a healthy crowd is scattered throughout the old hillside stands, chatting and enjoying a warm summer night. The place looks nice, with things looking crisp and clean. The best compliment was this: If you didn’t know what happened here just two weeks ago, you might casually observe that the old place has never looked better.
It will be a long time before people here forget that night, when a monumental rain nearly overwhelmed this place. It’s the kind of hardship that tests the mettle of people, and again reveals the amazing resiliency of the human spirit.
That brown wall of destruction tried to wipe this place off the map. But it couldn’t. It takes more than a mean ol’ flood to stop the legend of Paragon Speedway.