Production support for"Journey Indiana" is provided by WTIU members.

Thank you!

>> ASHLEY: Coming up.

>> BRANDON: Meet a group preserving Indiana history one photo album at a time.

>> ASHLEY: Learn to fly without leaving the ground.

>> BRANDON: And visit a store with a peculiar pachyderm past.

>> ASHLEY: That's all on this episode of -- >> TOGETHER: "Journey Indiana."

♪ >> BRANDON: Welcome to "Journey Indiana."

I'm Brandon Wentz.

>> ASHLEY: And I'm Ashley Chilla.

And we're coming to you from the Brown County Pioneer Village in Nashville.

Tucked away in this charming southern Indiana town, the Brown County Pioneer Village is a gateway into Hoosier history.

Authentic historical buildings and artifacts, along with a host of reenactors allow visitors to step back in time and experience life in Brown County in the late 19th century.

>> BRANDON: And we'll learn all about this historic place in just a bit.

But first, producer Jason Pear takes us to Steuben County to page through the Indiana Album.

♪ >> Travel to the northeast corner of Indiana, and you'll find a small community with a considerable story.

>> Mid-1920s, families started purchasing lots and building homes here at Fox Lake.

So we've been able to maintain a thriving multigenerational community now for almost 100 years.

That was a time period where Black American families were not welcomed.

Those families had to find their own places where they felt safe and they could enjoy summer recreation, just like everyone else.

>> Most Fox Lake vacationers came from Indianapolis.

Others from Toledo, Detroit, and Chicago.

Over the years, things have changed.

Cabins have been modernized and new families have moved in.

>> But it's still about 80 to 85% African American families.

The lake itself and the nature that you see looks pretty much the same.

>> It's a rich history that's worth celebrating and preserving.

>> The Indiana Album started organically I say about 2012.

I had a business for photo preservation and archives, and we just started seeing a lot of photos that people owned that we knew others would like.

>> Yeah.

That's my cousin.

>> And so I approached a lot of groups saying, hey, do you have plans?

Are you going to start digitizing collections?

Nobody was of the several groups that I talked to.

So we just felt there was a strong need, and it was time for someone to do it.

>> This is awesome.

>> We either target a community where we feel there's a need or they contact us.

We have volunteers who will then do the registration, the who, what, when, where, why.

We get as much as we can from each photo.

We have usually three scanning techs, and we scan them while they wait because we know people don't want to lose sight of their precious photos.

>> To date, the Indiana Album has gathered and cataloged over 25,000 images.

They come from scan-a-thons like the one at Fox Lake, from individuals scanning their own photos at home, from libraries, antique stores, and elsewhere.

And in the collection, you'll find just about every slice of Hoosier life imaginable.

The formal and informal.

Public and private.

Extraordinary and mundane.

All the images are available on the Indiana Album's website, but they don't stop there.

>> We then send all of our photographs to Indiana Memory, which is an online union database of the Indiana State Library.

And then beyond that, Indiana Memory sends their images to a national database.

So we try to get them out very broadly.

♪ >> I love history.

I love photography.

So it just all ties it together and, to me, it's just fun seeing what people will bring.

They don't understand the importance sometimes, but they learn, and we learn.

Every time I catalog, I learn something new.

>> You know, the history has to be preserved, you know, through storytelling, right?

So that's oral storytelling, but it's also the images and the documents that need to be preserved so that 100 years from now people will know that this was here.

I think that showcases what Black Americans have been able to do when times were unkind, you know, and not only do it, but, you know, make it into something that is sustainable and thriving, is something that we can all be proud of.

We talk a lot about American history, especially in these times when we have people trying to change history and books and things like that.

And that's why it's important for us to preserve this, so that we are telling our own story.

>> That is what makes it personal to people.

They have to have their own connection to it, and then once they tie to their family, they start seeing broader themes and broader history.

>> ASHLEY: I love this concept.

I mean, one of my favorite things is going through old family photo albums and looking at like -- you know, the photos, the wedding photos from, like, 1920.

Do you have any photos in your family that you would want to preserve?

>> BRANDON: Yeah, probably of, like, my dad at my grandma's house out on Chapman Lake when he was, you know, in his teens.

>> ASHLEY: Yeah.

There's some photos of, like, my grandmother and my great grandmother on their wedding day that I think would be great for this project.

>> BRANDON: Want to learn more?

Head to IndianaAlbum.com.

>> ASHLEY: Earlier we caught up with Pete Bullard to learn more about the Brown County Pioneer Village.

♪ >> Located in the heart of Nashville lies the Brown County Pioneer Village.

Here at this living history museum, visitors can step into the past and experience what life was like for Hoosiers in the 19th century.

>> The goal is to let people know what the pioneers went through, how they lived.

Life in the 1800s was very rough.

It was crude, because they had to provide for themselves.

They had to make their own clothing.

They had to raise their own food.

They had to be very independent and self-sufficient.

There are five structures.

The passthrough building was originally used as a barn.

It was built -- we're sure it was about 1880.

The lower two rooms, one room is a loom room that shows everything that has to do with cloth.

The other end of the building, the west end, is a tool room which shows virtually all the hand tools that were used in constructing our buildings.

The doctor's office was built about 1882.

It was built on the property of Dr. Ralphy down in Christiansburg.

He was a trained obstetrician.

His main focus was on delivery of children.

He birthed 2,040 babies in his career.

The blacksmith's shop is a recreation.

The original had burnt down somewhere here in Brown County.

We have never learned where it was originally.

His family kept all of his tools and donated those to the historical society and to the Pioneer Village.

The Owl Creek Schoolhouse is a replica of one of 92 one-room schoolhouses that we had in Brown County in the 1880s.

The other part of the village is the jail.

Our log jail is a keynote of our village.

It was originally built in 1837, and it is escape-proof.

The horizontal logs are 12-inches thick, and they are separated by a log that runs vertical.

What we have in Nashville today didn't just spring up.

It had to be created.

The village itself is a reminder that a lot of good people worked very hard to create this area, to open up this land, to make it prosperous and to survive.

And it replicates and preserves those people's memories.

>> BRANDON: You know, this place has a long history, but it also brought back some memories for us.

>> ASHLEY: It sure did.

>> BRANDON: Because this is one of the very first places we ever filmed for "Journey Indiana."

>> ASHLEY: That's true.

We were at Old Timey Photos.

>> BRANDON: Yeah.

>> ASHLEY: We had a great time.

It was a warm day.

It's a warm day today.

It's bringing back lots of memories.

>> BRANDON: Yeah, so there are all kinds of things to do here.

I highly recommend it.

>> ASHLEY: Want to learn more?

Head to the address on your screen.

Up next, producer Tyler Lake takes us to Indianapolis to learn about the head-spinning sport of drone racing.

>> This is a Tiny Whoop.

It's a fun name for what is an impressive bit of technology.

It weighs just over an ounce, or about the same as a AA battery or an old-fashioned pencil, but the Tiny Whoop is anything but old fashioned.

It has high RPM electric motors like a Tesla, and you have to strap on some fiddly goggles, a bit like the ones Mr. Zuckerberg wants us all to wear in order to fly it.

And it goes like this... With the power-to-weight ratio that would send a superbike back to the gym, and the agility to make a fighter jet look a little bit clumsy, the Tiny Whoop is the most maneuverable of all racing drones, making it one of the most agile crafts ever made!

And this is one of the best Tiny Whoop pilots in the world.

>> FPV drone racing is getting to see what the drone sees.

So it's basically like you are flying.

It's giving you the ability to have the gift of flight.

This all started actually watching a Red Bull video.

They showed footage of them flying through abandoned buildings, and I thought that was the coolest thing in the world.

I want to do that.

And then slowly, I started -- I got my first Tiny Whoop.

That's my first drone I ever got back in 2019, and after that first Whoop, it went horrible.

I flew terrible, but as I put more time into it, it's something that I grew to love.

And immediately I had to -- I had to get more of it.

>> And he got plenty more, which is a good thing, because to get this fast, you have to fly a lot!

>> When you first pick up a drone and you try to fly it, it's not something that you can pick up instinctively.

It's not something that you can just pick up and be good at immediately.

It's definitely going to take practice.

It took me thousands of hours of just flying, and even in the simulator, without even picking up a real drone, just to be able to get to where I'm at.

>> But flying is only one of the many new things you have to learn in order to get your own quadcopter in the air.

>> You need a transmitter.

You need a DVR headset, motors, frames, many different parts of the actual Tiny Whoop, but you also need to learn how to put those components together to build a functioning quadcopter.

The biggest barrier of entry for most people is simply the knowledge to be able to get a drone in the air.

Flying in the air is one of the hardest things to do because you have to learn how to solder.

You have to learn how to program.

You have to learn how to manage your softwares and gear, and program everything to be able to function correctly.

It's something that I've spent many late nights just trying to get things to work right.

There's lots of glitches and lots of issues with the hardware and the software that you have to learn how to manage, because at the end of the day, it's not easy.

>> But there are people around to help.

These guys.

>> If that was wrong, it wouldn't be working.

Oh, there it goes.

>> The Indy Whoop Racers have been meeting up every other Saturday night here at Indy Cabinetry for several months.

>> There weren't any races locally.

I really wanted to get something started, and I realized that we have the perfect space already here at Indy Cabinetry.

So talked to Robert, and I asked him, hey, what do you think about starting a chapter here?

>> Robert Gough, alias Captain Mavic.

What we try to do, normally when we are racing, we start at 6 p.m. and usually finish up around 9:00 or so.

About 7 p.m., we go live.

So we're using the OBS Software to not only take all of these video signals and get them together, along with the audio, but then we'll push out a livestream to my YouTube channel on Captain Mavic.

>> At our Whoop races, we've got pilots ranging from the beginner level, all the way to intermediate and advanced.

They know how to fly, and each time they race, they get better.

>> They get together.

They race, and they spend a fair amount of time assisting anyone who may need some help.

>> The community is absolutely awesome!

Everybody is just there to help each other.

>> This hobby definitely doesn't come with any instruction manuals, but from the very beginning, you know, there have been guys -- the professional pilots that are making YouTube videos on how to do the builds, and how to bind your radio, and how to set up beta flight to make it fly better and all that.

One of the first rules in the Facebook group, the 34,000-member Facebook group for Tiny Whoop is don't be a jerk.

>> 98% of the people are just so cool.

There's no judgment whatever.

They are just there to help each other out and have a good time.

Yes, there's competition racing, but, you know, and all your buddies, you know?

>> It's rare because even as a beginner, people who are filming with Michael Bay and David Attenborough will talk to you on Facebook, and say, hey, you are doing this wrong.

You can do this better.

Here's a tip I have.

>> And there is one pilot here going even further to make the hobby more accessible to newcomers.

>> So I'm Ian Malicoat.

My racing name is Don't Crash.

>> Ian is one of our youngest pilots racing with us, and he started a 4-H quadcopter group.

He actually helps others get into the hobby through that club.

>> A lot of people, they are very new at this.

They are just getting into this.

So we help them with any kind of technical issue they will have.

Sometimes their video is not set up right.

Sometimes they accidentally change a setting, and you just have to help them figure out how to learn how to do it on their own.

The idea is to have them know how to do it by the end of the meeting sessions.

That way they can actually be more independent and just learn how to use the gear.

>> So we start off our meeting with a brief introduction, kind of talk about what we are going to do in the meeting, and have everyboy get their channels set up so we don't have any videos overlap.

Once we finish that, get everybody started, everybody up in the air.

We had two groups today.

So we had one group go out.

We alternated to the other group and had them get some flight time.

And then Agustin or Agilis, he got to do his talk about what he does as a pilot.

I like going out and doing courses, just because it gives me a good challenge.

I get to fly against other pilots, see what they use, see what kind of gear they use, and just overall improve myself and have fun.

>> Ian is one of the pilots that has improved tremendously since the first time I've raced with him.

Every single time he comes and races, he's got a different build.

He's got more knowledge, and he takes more time into practice.

>> And while they both get their fair share of practice, Ian admits he's not put as many hours in the sticks as Agustin.

>> So I met him roughly two years ago.

Back then, he had about the exact same setup that I did in terms of quad, and we were flying together, and we were roughly the same speed.

I took a two-year break.

He didn't.

He practiced for those two years, and now he's crazy fast.

He's definitely put a lot of time and effort into that, and he's crazy fast.

>> In this group, I'm usually in the top three or four, and I usually get slotted in heats with Agilis, and I get to see him zip by me, you know.

And I just -- I just tell people it's an honor to be able to, you know, get lapped by Agilis every week.

>> And if you want to see Agilis and some of the best drone racers in the world compete, you should head to Muncie, Indiana, for the Multi GP International Open.

>> Multi GP, it's based in Florida, and what it basically is, is an organization that deals with chapters.

And chapters -- we're now a chapter, the Indy Whoop Racers here in Indianapolis.

And the top pilots from all over America come to Muncie, Indiana, and compete in the global championship.

We have tracks for beginners, for micro drones, full-scale drones, and then we have team events, and it's just unbelievable!

Thousands of pilots all compete until the final race on Saturday night.

>> We have our first ever two-time World Cup Champion.

It's BMS Thomas!

>> At IO, you will see a dizzying variety of drones.

And if you find your way to the Tiny Whoop tent, you will see a Hoosier pilot competing with, and who knows, maybe even besting the greatest drone racers in the world!

>> ASHLEY: Want to learn more?

Just head to the address on your screen.

>> BRANDON: Up next, producer John Timm takes us to Wabash to meet Modoc, the elephant who turned the town upside down.

♪ >> The saga of Modoc began November 11th, 1942.

When Terrell Jacobs, the owner of the Great American Circus, brought his circus to Wabash High School.

He brought his crew of animals, and along with that came three elephants, Empress, Judy, and Modoc.

And these three elephants were tied up outside the high school.

When Walter Schlemmer's dogs came and started barking at these three elephants, and they threw up their tethers and broke loose.

Now Empress and Judy were good girls, and they just meandered down in the front lawn of the high school, but Modoc, she had different things in mind.

And she took off for downtown.

♪ The first place she came was Mrs. H.W.

Reed's house, and she had put two apple pies out on her windowsill for cooling.

And Modoc came by -- [ slurping sound ] -- ate both of those apple pies.

And she came to downtown Wabash, and she came up to the hotel behind me here, the Indiana Hotel and standing there were two boys, Jerry McVicker and Garl Hopkins.

And Garl had just bought a bag of penny candy, and up came Modoc.

And those poor boys, their knees were banging together.

They didn't know what to do.

And Garl handed out that bag of candy, and just like those apple pies, Modoc took that bag [ slurping sound ] and bag and all, right down the old hatch.

[ Laughter ] Mrs. Chauncey Kessler had come from the telephone company, and she was going to the Bradley Brothers Drugstore where we sit here today.

Modoc followed her to the front door of the Bradley Brothers Drugstore, and when Mrs. Kessler opened up that front door, out came the aroma every elephant dreams of, the smell of roasting peanuts.

Modoc crashed through that front door, went inside, knocked over the peanut roaster, scarfed up all the peanuts, knocked over the soda fountain and made a mess of the whole store.

And then she went out the back door, crashed out the back door and knock Ezra LaSalle into the gutter of the street.

Modoc headed across the street to the Union Cigar Store, and she poked her head in the front door.

Now, the Union Cigar Store really wasn't just about cigars.

It was a tavern.

And as Modoc put her head in that front door, there were two old boys.

One old boy turned to the other and said, that's the last drink I'm ever gonna take.

♪ The story started hitting newspaper headlines, and it literally hit headlines all across the United States.

Over the next five days, she rampaged across Wabash County and Huntington County on a search for better things.

And so on Sunday afternoon, Modoc was out in a field north of Mount Etna, Indiana.

Terrell Jacobs brought out his other elephant, Empress, to try to lure Modoc.

Modoc during that five days had lost 800 pounds, and the sheriff of Huntington County brought out a truckload of bread to feed the elephant.

Modoc was out in the field.

The other elephant Empress was out there.

The loaves of bread were out there, and slowly, Modoc started to eat that bread and worked her way back to her wagon.

And when Modoc got onto that wagon, Terrell Jacobs did what any self-respecting elephant owner would do.

He fed her 30 gallons of water, and six quarts of whiskey to settle her nerves, don't you know?

[ Laughter ] ♪ My wife Angie had written a paper about Modoc.

>> Ironically, I was working on my master's thesis at Manchester University for our fourth grade class, and it was on Wabash County history.

So 30 years ago, I wrote a piece about Modoc's Market.

>> She came up with the idea of this name for this coffee store to be Modoc's Market.

>> Who would have know that that many years forward, we would have a store called Modoc's?

We weren't even coffee drinkers.

I was not a coffee drinker, and thought, well, why don't we just try that?

>> I always knew that Modoc's was here, and I knew that Modoc was an elephant, but I didn't know the details of the story until I inquired about the job here.

As I travel around, I always like, Google local coffee shop, but I have yet to find a coffee shop that's as unique as Modoc's Market.

♪ >> Our dream for the space has always been that it's a place for everyone, that we would see no strangers.

♪ >> I love the break free mantra, really.

It speaks to me.

For anybody who needs a place to change up their day or to break free from whatever is going on in their life.

>> BRANDON: Want to learn more?

Just head to the address on your screen.

And as always, we'd like to encourage you to stay connected with us.

>> ASHLEY: Just head over to JourneyIndiana.org.

There you can see full episodes.

Connect with us on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram and suggest stories from your neck of the woods.

We also have a map feature that allows you to see where we've been and to plan your own Indiana adventures.

All right, Ashley, I think it's time for us to head outside because I've got a couple of threads for us to follow.

So we will see you next time on -- >> TOGETHER: "Journey Indiana."

>> ASHLEY: All right, Brandon, are you ready?

>> BRANDON: Yeah.

>> ASHLEY: Okay.

I'm gonna start.

♪ >> BRANDON: I've got the easy job here.

>> ASHLEY: Yeah, I didn't think this through.

>> BRANDON: Only about 83 more to go, and then we'll have about half an inch of rope for you.

[ Laughter ] >> ASHLEY: This has been a lifelong dream of mine right here, making rope.

>> BRANDON: I can see you setting one of these up in your home now.

>> ASHLEY: Yeah, right.

[ Laughter ] ♪ >> BRANDON: I need a sign or something to cheer you on with.

>> ASHLEY: Go!

Go!

Go!

>> BRANDON: Only 17 more feet.

♪ >> ASHLEY: All right, Brandon, another successful episode of "Journey Indiana."

>> BRANDON: That only took about 10 minutes for you to help me get to the end of my rope.

>> Production support for "Journey Indiana" is provided by WTIU members.

Thank you!