Gardens fall sm

High­lights

High­lights

  • Mar­i­on is the birth­place of the late Hol­ly­wood icon, James Dean, whose spir­it res­onates across the globe. You may vis­it his birth site memo­r­i­al at 4th and McClure St., and vis­it many his­tor­i­cal sites in his home­town of Fair­mount, also in Grant County.
  • Through­out Mar­i­on, you will find three of the twelve famous Garfield stat­ues mak­ing up the Grant Coun­ty Garfield Trail. The Garfield com­ic strip char­ac­ter was cre­at­ed by Fair­mount native, Jim Davis. 
  • Indi­ana Wes­leyan University’s ini­tial and main cam­pus is in Mar­i­on. IWU is the largest pri­vate uni­ver­si­ty in the entire state, and one of Marion’s biggest employ­ers and eco­nom­ic boosters.
  • Mar­i­on is home to an award-win­ning pri­vate not-for-prof­it hos­pi­tal. Mar­i­on Health has been known for its Mag­net sta­tus in nurs­ing (achieved by only 7% in the U.S.), and in 2017 was nation­al­ly named a Top 100 Rur­al & Com­mu­ni­ty Hospital.
  • The Mar­i­on Munic­i­pal Air­port is a pris­tine region­al air­port, hav­ing received ​“Air­port of the Year” by the Avi­a­tion Asso­ci­a­tion of Indi­ana in 2015, and offers excel­lent avi­a­tion instruc­tion in part­ner­ship with the Grant Region­al Career Center.
  • Mar­i­on is rec­og­nized by mil­lions across the world for its Walk­way of Lights, a mag­i­cal fam­i­ly dri­ve-through attrac­tion in Mat­ter Park dis­play­ing over 2 mil­lion lights, span­ning two and a half miles.
  • The Gar­dens of Mat­ter Park are one of the most beau­ti­ful pub­lic sites in the Mid­west, hav­ing won sev­er­al Proven Win­ners® Sig­na­ture Gar­den des­ig­na­tions, giv­en only to a hand­ful of pro­fes­sion­al gar­dens in the coun­try each year.
  • In Mar­i­on, you’ll dis­cov­er the inter­na­tion­al­ly known Quil­ters Hall of Fame, pre­serv­ing the home of the famous quilt design­er and break­through entre­pre­neur, Marie Webster.
  • The his­tor­i­cal col­i­se­um in Down­town Mar­i­on was ren­o­vat­ed into a state-of-the-art YMCA and event cen­ter, while restor­ing its orig­i­nal character.
  • Mar­i­on res­i­dents take much pride in the pub­lic school sys­tem. The Mar­i­on High School boys’ bas­ket­ball team has won eight state championships.
  • Mar­i­on is the home­town of NBA star, Zach Ran­dolph, who grad­u­at­ed from Mar­i­on High School. 
  • Ivy Tech Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege has a state-of-the-art cam­pus in Marion.
  • May­or Ronald Mor­rell, Jr. made his­to­ry in 2024 as Mar­i­on’s first black may­or, and the state of Indi­ana’s first black repub­li­can mayor.
  • In 2024, as part of estab­lish­ing May­or Mor­rel­l’s Clean City 2.0 ini­tia­tive, Mar­i­on intro­duced a city flower — the white daisy — stem­ming from local his­tor­i­cal icon Marie Web­ster’s famous quilt patterns.