Where Rivers Meet, So Does Moisture
Elkhart's industrial reputation started with trailers, not RVs. In 1931, a local named Milo Miller built a travel trailer for his own business trips; when it sold quickly, he started building them commercially, and by 1948 the national press was already calling Elkhart the 'Trailer Capital of the World,' with about 100 companies building trailers in the area.
Humidity Near the Confluence
Elkhart's older railroad-era housing, much of it dating to the town's growth as a New York Central division point after 1870, sits close to the St. Joseph and Elkhart river confluence that gave the town its name -- a combination of age and river-adjacent humidity that makes moisture control a real factor in these homes' crawl spaces and basements.