Bloomington Indiana Janeway Statue
SHORT STORY
SEASON 2 · OCTOBER 2026
Photography and story by John Menzies
Bloomington has a monument to one of its famous residents.
There’s just one problem.
She won’t be born until May 20, 2336.
Along a downtown Bloomington walking and biking trail known as the B-Line, a bronze statue of Captain Kathryn Janeway stands beside the path. A nearby plaque identifies the spot as her future birthplace: Bloomington, Indiana, Earth.
Yes, Earth.
The monument marks Bloomington as the future birthplace of Captain Kathryn Janeway — on May 20, 2336.
Janeway, played by actress Kate Mulgrew, commanded the USS Voyager through seven television seasons of Star Trek: Voyager. She was also the first female captain to lead a Star Trek television series.
So how did a small town in Indiana become the hometown of a Starfleet captain born more than three centuries from now?
The answer begins with a woman named Jeri Taylor.
Taylor was an Indiana native who graduated from Indiana University in 1959. Decades later, she became a writer and producer on Star Trek: The Next Generation and one of the principal creative forces behind Star Trek: Voyager. Taylor also played a central role in developing the character of Kathryn Janeway.
The interpretive panel connects Janeway’s fictional Bloomington biography with Jeri Taylor, one of the principal creative forces behind Star Trek: Voyager.
And when Janeway was given a hometown, it was Bloomington.
For years, the town was just part of Janeway’s fictional biography. Then a group of local residents decided to make their Star Trek connection permanent.
In 2019, local residents formed the Captain Janeway Bloomington Collective and began raising money for a permanent monument. The city worked with the group to choose a location along the B-Line.
The Janeway monument sits along Bloomington’s B-Line, a downtown walking and biking trail that carries the statue into the everyday life of the city.
The finished statue was unveiled on October 24, 2020. Its limestone base added one more Bloomington connection: the stone was quarried locally — a deliberate and appropriate choice to use Indiana limestone for the project.
The site is next to WonderLab, Bloomington’s hands-on science museum, which is fitting because Kathryn Janeway was written as a scientist as well as a captain. Actress Kate Mulgrew has said that women have told her the character inspired them to pursue careers in science and engineering.
The Janeway monument stands beside the B-Line near WonderLab, Bloomington’s hands-on science museum.
That connection is now part of the city itself, in bronze, limestone and a plaque beside the B-Line.
According to the plaque, residents of Bloomington only have to wait another 310 years for her to arrive.
And that is the story behind the place.
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