{"id":37603,"date":"2026-06-26T17:49:03","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T21:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=37603"},"modified":"2026-06-26T17:49:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T21:49:05","slug":"back-40-contents-going-up-for-auction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/26\/back-40-contents-going-up-for-auction\/","title":{"rendered":"Back 40 contents going up for auction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like to have an 1894 train car in your back yard? A wooden Indian for your man cave?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity to own all sorts of memorabilia from the Back 40 Junction in Decatur will be coming up soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wiegmann Auctioneers of Decatur is currently putting together and numbering the enormous amount of contents in the now-closed restaurant for an online auction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The HiBid process will be used and a Wiegmann spokesman said probably two and maybe three online auctions will be needed to clear out all of the building’s contents, as many as 300 items.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first auction will go live on Friday, July 10, according to Wiegmann spokesman Trace Melching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cDown the road\u201d the restaurant equipment may be sold, he noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to GIS information, Azar Inc. of Fort Wayne owns the land on which the building and other contents are situated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shawn Heffern of Mid Atlantic Properties in Indianapolis told WZBD.com that \u201ca buyer is under contract to purchase the property.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The iconic Back 40 closed after last New Year’s Eve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Owner\/operator John Ferrise told WZBD.com at that time that health issues were forcing him to shut down operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ferrise said he had worked at the Back 40 for 27 years, having been initially employed by Azar’s, a longtime corporate owner who purchased the business from founder Clete Miller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ferrise said he bought the business in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SOME HISTORY: The restaurant has been situated on the southwest corner of 13th St. and Washington St.\/Archbold Road since 1974 and has attracted thousands of visitors from numerous states to eat and to view the myriad of unique additions inside and out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early 1950’s Clete Miller leased a building on the corner off Nuttman and 13th Street (now McDonald’s) which was then called Swearingen Dairy Ice Cream and Malt Shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He named it the Fairway Restaurant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miller moved the restaurant to its present location, opening in 1974 as the Back 40 Junction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com Like to have an 1894 train car in your back yard? A wooden Indian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":37604,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[14,15,21],"class_list":["post-37603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-decatur","tag-featured","tag-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Lincoln-Indian.jpg?fit=697%2C785&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37603"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37611,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37603\/revisions\/37611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}