Lake Webster the home of The Dixie is a small lake in northeastern Indiana.
It was created in 1837 out of several deep ponds and lakes, when the dam for Boydston's mill was built. This created a beautiful lake with a 9-mile shoreline.
The lake was called Boydston's Lake at first.
In 1906 Joseph Breeck a professional steamboat captain on the Ohio River was on vacation in North Webster. He enjoyed riding an earlier excursion boat on Lake Webster so much that he took residence in North Webster.

In 1908 he built a 30-foot sternwheeler "City of Webster".
The City of Webster was not so much a tourist boat as a floating blacksmith and a lumber ferry for all the new homes being built around Lake Webster. She also had a small grocery store on board as well as she was carrying mail and transporting residents of Webster Lake in to town.
The City of Webster was retired in 1912. The following year work was started on a new 58-foot sternwheeler. It was christened The Dixie, and launched in 1914.
The new boat was a beauty. The Dixie was double decked and had swayed back. A design style carried over from the steamship era. The stern mounted paddlewheel was powered at different times by a tractor engine and a model T engine. She still had the grocery store onboard and she still did most of the same duties as the City of Webster. To preserve The Dixie's wooden hull she was pulled out of the water every winter onto Dixie Island.
In the winter of 1928 Captain Breeck bought a 65 foot steel hull at the Barbour boat works in St Louis.
In the spring of 1929 the 4 sections was riveted together and the decks were built.
The boat was christened The New Dixie and launched. But soon she was just called The Dixie. The first power plant was a Fordson Tractor Engine. In 1939 The Dixie was bought buy Jay Knapp. In  1949 Earl Ungeright bought The Dixie.
Also in 1949 a new power plant was installed, a Waukesha diesel electric generator powering a 15 horsepower electric motor. A "steam whistle" was also installed. Which brought the Webster Lake Residents out of their cottages to wave at The Dixie.
In 1959 Ernest "Tag" Huffman bought The Dixie after 2 years of apprenticeship.
During Tag's reign the tradition with "blinking the lights" started. The Webster lake residents blink their lights and The Dixie blinks back at night. The story is that the first mate in The Dixie had a night of but at the last minute he had to work. His girlfriend with whom he had a date didn't believe him, so said he would have the captain blink the lights when they passed her house. And everybody loved it and people have been blinking at The Dixie ever since.
In 1980 Walter Nellessen bought The Dixie. And in 1987 Sherry and Greg van Pelt bought The Dixie.
In 1992 the Thystrup Family owners of Adventureland Amusement Park purchased The Dixie.

Presently The Dixie is operated by:

Dan Thystrup with his wife Pia and Children Nicklas and Jacob

Bo Thystrup with his wife Mona and Children Jennifer and Thomas