Small town in Indiana famous for its annual Roach Roach Race

In Indiana we don’t just race cars, we also race Beetles!

It only makes sense that the annual International Roach Race was held in the small town of Roachdale, Indiana. Roachdale is a small town with an area of ​​just 0.51 square miles and a population of about 1,000.

The town of Roachdale was founded in 1880 and is named after Judge Roach, a railroad official. Roachdale is located in northeastern Putnam County in Franklin Township. It has a population of about 1000 people and covers an area of ​​0.51 square miles. Roachdale is home to many local businesses, a Carnegie library, churches, and an elementary school. Roachdale is also famous for its annual roach races held every summer.

But this small town is known for something even smaller: the annual roach races.

Recently, WRTV pulled up a video from the archives of the annual 1984 Roach Race. The article states that the Roach Race was held every year for nearly two decades. They say that the event began with the national anthem and then the Roach Race began.

And people took the cockroach race very seriously. In the video from WRTV’s 1984 newscast, people were training their cockroaches in hopes of winning the cockroach race. They also said that one time someone came all the way from Ireland and brought his own cockroach for the race.

Some people even had methods to win. One said he always kept his roach cool to better prepare it for the big race.

Below you can watch throwback footage of the 1984 Roach Race. I did a little research to find out if the Roach Race is still going on and according to a post on the Facebook group Roachdale Chatter they are holding races “next to the new swimming pool”. Perhaps one day the races will be as big as they were in the 80’s!