Exploring the Wild West: The Motorcycle Legacy of John Binkerd
Inspired by tales of American ranchers and cowboys, John Binkerd, born in March 1904 on a farm in Butler Township, Miami County, Indiana, was captivated by the allure of the Wild West from an early age.
Venturing West
After a brief stint at Purdue University, John realized that college wasn’t his path. Drawn by his fascination with the West, he embarked on adventures to explore America – particularly the vast expanses of the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains. Traveling by freight train (and occasionally hitchhiking or on foot when necessary), he ventured to farmlands out West whenever he could break from the duties on his father’s farm. His grandson Chuck Binkerd fondly recalls, “I learned how to safely hop on trains and protect my money while sleeping from my grandpa.”
John often followed the seasonal wheat harvest northward, making friends with ranchers and farmers along the way. Binkerd continued to journey West by rail for years, working on farms and serving as a thresher, separating grain from wheat plants. As Chuck Binkerd shared, they even discovered a ledger from a bank in El Paso that proves John spent enough time there to need a local bank account.
Motorcycle Adventures
In 1927, John fulfilled his dream of owning an Indian motorcycle with a purchase from Carter’s Motorcycle Shop (the same shop where a young James Dean later made his first bike purchase). At last, he could chase the western horizon on two wheels. From the rumble of passing trains to the wind in his hair as he rode freely, John became the first in his family to own a motorcycle, sparking a tradition that would span generations of Binkerds.
Despite encountering his first wreck on a solo ride to Delphi, he pressed on. That year, he embarked on an ambitious trip out West on his new Indian. He traveled as far as the Yowaka River bridge in Colorado, where he paused for a memorable photo with a hitchhiker he met along the way.
John’s travels during the 1920s took him across the Great Plains and into the mountains of the American West. He worked and wandered through states like Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and Montana, embracing a nomadic farmhand lifestyle. By the summer of 1927, he had traversed thousands of miles on his Indian. However, a tragic accident that year in Pocatello, Idaho nearly ended his adventures. John collided with an automobile on a highway south of Pocatello and suffered a severe skull fracture. Local newspapers reported that he had already visited South Dakota, Colorado, and Utah and was heading further west when fate intervened. After emergency surgery at the Lynn Brothers Hospital in Pocatello, John spent about three weeks recuperating before he was well enough to travel again. The accident jolted John’s system and mental state. He wrote, “For a long time after this accident occurred, I had little concern whether life was prolonged or not.” And then: “Forward spring, in 1928, the old pep came back, ambition began stirring, and the spirit of unrest in the mind was becoming prevalent.” John returned to following the wheat and became a legendary family story—one of survival against the odds and an inspiring spirit of wanderlust.
Family and Legacy
After recovering from his injuries, John retired from long-distance travels and eventually returned to Indiana to settle down. He married a neighboring farmer’s daughter and had a son and a daughter. His son, Charles, inherited John’s love for motorcycles, while his daughter, Shirley, preferred to keep her feet on the ground. Chuck Binkerd – Charles’s son – fondly remembers the late-1940s Indian motorcycle that his dad rode (similar to his father’s old bike) and the spirited rides and races that Charles would have with friends and family on the rural roads of Indiana. In fact, one such high-speed ride on State Road 124 nearly proved fatal for Charles: he lost control at over 100 mph on a sharp bend, an accident so severe that it split his helmet in half and broke his leg. Fortunately, he survived – a testament to both the value of a good helmet and the daredevil spirit that ran in the family!
Today, Chuck continues the two-wheeled tradition. He and his brother Mike ride modern Yamaha Venture motorcycles. They cherish the stories passed down from their grandfather and father – stories of wide-open plains, roaring engines, close calls, and lifelong friendships forged on the road.
Following in His Tire Tracks (and the Wheat)
In recent years, the Binkerd brothers decided to pay the ultimate tribute to their grandfather: retracing John Binkerd’s legendary journey out West. Armed with John’s 1920s travel journal and vintage photographs, Chuck and Mike set off on their own cross-country ride nearly a century after John’s exploits. Their goal was to literally follow in their grandpa’s tire tracks – or as Chuck put it, to “follow the wheat” – referencing how John chased the wheat harvest each season.
Their journey began in Indiana and led them south and west through Missouri and into the Ozark Mountains. As they cruised through the Ozarks, the brothers recalled John’s amused account of how the rumble of his 1920s Indian motorcycle once spooked a team of mules on an Arkansas road, sending the animals kicking up their heels in surprise. The roads and scenery may have changed since John’s time, but Chuck and Mike experienced the same sense of wonder at the rolling hills and natural beauty that their grandfather described so many years ago.
The first major destination was Enid, Oklahoma – the very place where John had secured his first harvest job out West. Enid held special significance: it was John’s starting point each summer, and he would return there year after year. In the 1920s, John befriended a local farming family, the Ridenours, who gave him room and board in exchange for help bringing in the wheat. He grew so close to the Ridenour family that he wrote to them each spring to ensure they needed his help, and they always replied that work (and a warm welcome) awaited him.
Finding the old Ridenour homestead was a high point for Chuck and Mike. With some detective work – and the help of a friendly bed-and-breakfast owner, Cammy Kasper, of Southard House Bed and Breakfast, who was captivated by their quest – the brothers pinpointed the exact location of the farm. They discovered that the Ridenour farmstead still largely exists, complete with expansive wheat fields and even a windmill that harkens back to the 1920s. Standing on that soil, the Binkerd brothers could vividly imagine their grandpa John pitching hay and fixing machinery under the hot Oklahoma sun. They rode down the same dusty red-dirt roads that John would have traveled on his Indian and took photos by the fields, marveling at how life can come full circle. Nearly 100 years ago, John Binkerd had roamed these very plains on an early Indian motorcycle; now his grandsons were here on their Yamaha motorcycles, keeping his memory alive with every mile.
After finishing in Oklahoma, Chuck and Mike continued westward through the Great Plains, tracing as close to John’s original route as time and modern roads allowed. They even made a stop at the historic Eklund Hotel in Clayton, New Mexico – an old frontier hotel and saloon established in the 1890s on the Santa Fe Trail. The brothers couldn’t help but feel that John’s spirit was with them as they soaked in the Old West atmosphere of places like that, which hadn’t changed all that much since his era.
Eventually, the Binkerds’ journey brought them to the Rocky Mountains and onward to Idaho. Visiting Pocatello, Idaho was a poignant moment: this was the site of John’s life-changing crash in 1927. Chuck and Mike located the building that had once been the Lynn Brothers Hospital where their grandfather lay gravely injured.
Standing in front of the old brick building in Pocatello (now repurposed but marked with a plaque as a historic hospital), the brothers imagined the scene from August 1927 – their great-grandmother hurrying in after a long train ride from Indiana, finding her son bandaged and unconscious, not knowing if he would survive. For Chuck and Mike, seeing the actual place where John fought for his life made his stories more real than ever. It was a stark reminder of how close John came to not making it home to start the family whose members were now on this very pilgrimage.
From Idaho, the two riders turned their wheels north to Montana – another state that featured in John’s wanderings and one that held personal significance for the family. In southern Montana, near the Little Bighorn Battlefield, Chuck and Mike located the ranch where their maternal grandmother had grown up in the 1920s. (Their grandmother’s family were homesteaders and, much like John, had built a life on the frontier.) The brothers even found the old one-room schoolhouse where their grandma rode her horse as a child – amazingly, the building still stands. This detour into family history, while not directly part of John’s motorcycle story, added a touching completeness to the journey. It underscored how both sides of their family shared a connection to the American West – one side through a young adventurer, the other through settlers living off the land.
After reaching Montana, the Binkerd brothers began the long ride back to Indiana. They had traveled roughly 5,000 miles by the trip’s end. Along the way they encountered modern challenges – from torrential rainstorms in the plains to a minor breakdown in rural Montana – but also experienced incredible hospitality echoing the kindness John often described. Strangers and fellow travelers would approach when they saw the Indiana license plates and heard the story of John’s 1927 ride. Everywhere they went, people were captivated by the idea of two grandsons following their grandfather’s nearly century-old route across America. Chuck and Mike even garnered a bit of local fame on their journey: in one instance, the enthusiastic owner of the Enid B&B phoned a local reporter, insisting that the brothers’ story be told in the newspaper (it was a holiday weekend, so the article had to wait). It seemed that John Binkerd’s adventurous legacy was inspiring folks all over again, as if 1927 were just yesterday.
By the time they rolled back into Indiana, Chuck and Mike knew that they had accomplished something truly special. Not only had they honored their grandfather in the most direct way imaginable, but they also created their own new chapter in the family’s story. “We really did follow our grandfather’s tire tracks,” Chuck said. “Nearly 100 years later, we saw what he saw – the golden wheat fields, the purple mountains – and met the kind of good people he would have met. It felt like riding with him the whole way.” The journey gave them a deeper appreciation for John’s grit and love of adventure. It also provided plenty of great stories to share with their own children and grandchildren, ensuring that the legend of John Binkerd will live on around many future campfires.
Preserving the Legacy
John Binkerd’s story is a testament to the spirit of adventure and the enduring legacy of motorcycle enthusiasts. By preserving stories like his, we ensure that the rich history of motorcycling lives on, inspiring future generations of riders. Chuck and Mike’s retracing of their grandfather’s route shows how alive and powerful such histories can be. It’s a reminder that the past is not so distant – in fact, you can sometimes reach out and touch it, whether it’s an old farmhouse in Oklahoma or an antique bridge in Colorado, and feel the connection across time.
Preserving Indiana’s Motorcycle History
Stories like this remind us of the importance of preserving motorcycle history and the journeys of those who came before us. The Indiana Motorcycle Preservation Society is dedicated to keeping these memories alive. By preserving images, memorabilia, and personal narratives, we ensure that the legacy of Indiana’s motorcycling pioneers lives on, continuing to inspire future generations of motorcyclists.
Share Your Story
As a historical society, we also focus on research and storytelling. Do you have a story to share about motorcycling or motorcycle racing in Indiana? We are collecting motorcycle photos, memorabilia, and stories from throughout the state of Indiana to share on our website, social media, and at our annual events. If you have a piece of history to share, please email us at info@indianamps.org. Your story could be the next one we help keep alive for future generations.
Call for Support
Preserving history is a group effort. Donations to support our mission can be made online through PayPal or to our endowment through the Community Foundation of Grant County. Every contribution helps us continue to honor stories like John Binkerd’s and many others from Indiana’s rich motorcycling heritage.
Thank You!
Thank you for being part of the effort to remember and celebrate Indiana’s motorcycling legacy.