Corydon is small, but it has one of Indiana's clearest origin stories. This was the state capital before Indianapolis, and the old limestone capitol still sits in the middle of town with a few blocks of 19th-century storefronts around it.
The appeal is not urban energy. Corydon is a slow southern Indiana stop: a courthouse square, a glass workshop where visitors can watch the furnaces, Civil War memory, and caves in the wooded hills nearby. It works best as a half-day or relaxed day if you are driving through the Ohio River country or using Louisville as a base.
Come for the first-capital history, then add one of the local anchors that keep the town from being only a plaque on a map. Zimmerman Art Glass gives the centre a living craft tradition, while Squire Boone Caverns makes the surrounding karst landscape feel less abstract.