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

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>> BRANDON: Coming up, visit a museum of model behavior.

Forget the table and go farm-to-bottle.

And join the pack of wolves, literally.

That's all on this episode of "Journey Indiana."

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

I'm Brandon Wentz, and we're coming to you from the Prophetstown State Park in Tippecanoe County.

The park is situated on the site of the early 19th century Village of Prophetstown.

Here in 1811, American forces led by Indiana Governor William Henry Harrison, routed a band of native warriors at the Battle of Tippecanoe, breaking a fledgling alliance of North American tribes.

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

But first, producer Saddam Abbas takes us to Delaware County to take flight at the National Model Aviation Museum.

♪ >> I actually started with modeling when I was 7 or 8 years old.

I started building Testors and Revell plastic models.

Something that has been with me since I was a little kid.

So it's a neat opportunity to be able to be here and be surrounded by these airplanes.

♪ >> The National Model Aviation Museum is located in Muncie, Indiana.

And we're on the Academy of Model Aeronautics International Aeromodeling Center.

It's an 1100-acre field for flying model airplanes from.

The mission of the National Model Aviation Museum is to preserve for future generations the history of flying modeling aviation.

We do that through working with a variety of special interest groups that are involved in model aviation, and all the different disciplines, and looking at how each one of those, the airplanes themselves have evolved.

And the museum kind of came to fruition in the early '80s, when the headquarters was in Reston, Virginia.

The museum and the AMA moved out here to Muncie, Indiana, in the early 1990s.

And the museum itself, what we look at is the history of flying model aviation.

And over the years, we've acquired some really amazing pieces.

Our oldest original airplane in the collection is the Bing Autoplane.

It was manufactured by the Bing Toy Company in 1914.

As I said, it's compressed air powered airplane.

Very unique.

And in the early days of aviation for modeling, everything was rubber band powered.

So for people to purchase a compressed air engine, even though the performance wasn't as good as a rubber band powered airplane, it was seen as you were actually operating an airplane with an engine.

So that's our oldest, as I said, but we've also got some other unique and different ones from all the different categories.

From the first airplane that competed in scale aerobatics, and the Knight Twister.

It's an airplane that kind of evolved into what today is the largest model airplanes that are flown at the contest, that can be as big as 30%.

So very big airplanes.

The three categories that we have for model aviation are free flight, which is the oldest, which is basically once you launch the airplane, you have no control over it.

Control line, where you fly the airplane, and it's connected to a couple wires and it flies in the hemisphere around you.

And then we have radio control.

And then the different contests or events that are flown within each one of those disciplines.

For the museum, one of the key components for visitors when they come in is our 1950s hobby shop.

That is really a big attraction.

As soon as people come in, they see that right away.

And for older modelers, it really takes them back.

They step back into the hobby shop, and oftentimes they'll say, oh, my gosh, this is exactly like X hobby shop that I used to go to when I was a kid.

So everything in there is circa the 1950s.

We've got everything that you would have found walking into the hobby shop.

So there's kits.

There's a few finished airplanes.

There's engines.

There's wheels, covering, all that kind of stuff.

♪ This year, we will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of the very first model airplane contest that an individual could win.

And the museum is very fortunate in that we actually have that trophy.

>> The Mulvihill trophy is actually a very important award in aeromodeling, but full-scale modeling as well.

It is the oldest trophy awarded continuously since 1923.

It's only not been awarded three years.

The first two were interrupted by World War II, and the third time was interrupted by COVID.

So it is a very prestigious award within our world of aeromodeling, and there are people on this field today that have worked their entire life to win that trophy.

The Mulvihill contest is different than all of our other events, in that there is such a rich tradition over the years.

The rules of the event have changed a little bit, but, again, it has been continuously awarded.

The person's name who won it in 1923 is on that trophy today.

And it is a physical embodiment of the history of our sport.

And that makes it very special to everybody.

So the Mulvihill event has very few regulations, actually.

It, one, has to be rubber powered; and two, has to have a maximum wing area of 300 square inches.

Other than that, the design of the airplane is totally at the modeler's discretion.

We have seen twin pusher models that have two propellers pushing the airplane.

That tends to be a little efficient than the standard tractor, one propeller in the front, but the design of the airplane is completely at the modeler's discretion which is really cool.

You don't see a lot of the exact same airplane.

They are all very different.

People are trying out new ideas.

Every year, we see new ideas coming out of the sport.

So the winner of the Mulvihill contest is determined by a series of progressive rounds.

That means their first flight of the day, they have to make a maximum time of two minutes.

Once they've made their two-minute flight, they move on to making a three-minute flight, and then a four-minute flight, five minute.

This contest is usually determined somewhere in the six- to ten-minute mark.

All of the other flyers will drop out after they didn't make their max time, and one guy is left standing, and he gets to hold the trophy over his head at the end of the day.

I just encourage anybody that's interested in model airplanes or airplanes generally, please reach out to us at the Free Flight Society.

We'd love to help you get started, and explore whatever your passion in aeromodeling is.

Whether it's free flight, whether it's remote control or control line, it doesn't matter.

This hobby, this sport, prepares young people for careers and prepares retirees for enjoying a lot of days out in the sunshine and keeping their mental health tiptop.

♪ >> BRANDON: I remember as a kid getting a model set like that, where you could twist up the rubber bands and try to get it to fly.

And I could never get it to go nearly as far as any of those folks seem to be able to do, especially all of those with their name on the trophy, but it's fun to try.

Want to learn more?

Head to modelaircraft.org.

Earlier, we spoke with some folks here to learn a little more about Prophetstown.

>> Known as Indiana's prairie park, Prophetstown State Park contains hundreds of acres of rolling, tall grass meadows; however, this peaceful refuge between the Tippecanoe and Wabash Rivers has a complicated history.

>> Prophetstown State Park gets its name from the Prophetstown settlement, which was a Native American settlement that was here between 1808 and 1811, and consisted of about 3,000 people from at least 14 different Native American tribes.

At that time, in 1808, Indiana wasn't a state yet.

It was a territory, trying to become a state.

And in order to do that, the thought process at the time was to make sure there was plenty of land open for European settlement.

And so many of the native people who had traditionally lived throughout this area were being forcibly removed or pushed out by the groups that were settling here.

So many of the people who gathered at Prophetstown banded together to stand up against that forced removal, and they gathered to reconnect with their culture and their way of life.

The then Governor of Indiana, William Henry Harrison, moved his military in almost next door to the Prophetstown settlement, which pushed the people of Prophetstown to engage in what we know today as the Battle of Tippecanoe.

After the Battle of Tippecanoe, the people of Prophetstown left this area, and the next day William Henry Harrison and his men burned Prophetstown to the ground.

The end of Prophetstown really opened this region up to a lot of European settlement.

Prairies make for great, fertile land for farming.

So much of the prairie was plowed under and turned into cropland.

>> Visitors to Prophetstown State Park can see a working example of the culture that grew out of this transformation.

The farm at Prophetstown strives to recreate life on a typical 1920s era farmstead.

>> It's an interactive farm.

We try not to be a petting zoo, but an actual working farm that you can interact with.

So you are going to see the animals, which we call heritage breeds, that would have been on the farms in the 1920s from our Berkshire pigs to our Hereford cows to the chicken breeds that we have on the farm.

And it's good for me to see young families and the children come in and interact with the farm and see the animals and have a new appreciation when they go home of where their food comes from.

>> While the farm in Prophetstown is firmly planted in the 1920s, over the rest of this state park, the hands of time are being turned back even further.

>> Historically, prior to European settlement, this area was predominantly prairie habitat.

Indiana had about 13% prairie coverage in the state, and we are right now at the eastern extent of the tall grass prairie region.

So most of this area would have been prairie grasses and wildflowers.

We want Prophetstown State Park to look like what it might have looked like prior to European settlement.

So we're trying to restore those native prairies, those wetlands and some of our riparian forest areas.

Prophetstown State Park holds an area of great significance to many different Native American tribes still today.

Our habitats here are also extremely unique for the state of Indiana.

So we get to tell the story not only of the native people and of the land, but also how people have changed this landscape.

>> BRANDON: Want to learn more?

Head to the address on your screen.

>> Up next, producer Tyler Lake takes us to Clark County to get us in the spirit at the Starlight Distillery.

♪ Lives in the house with the rising sun ♪ >> There's a great little live performance venue here in Clark County.

Of course, if you are hungry, you can always grab something from the restaurant or food truck.

Maybe you'd rather take a scenic tractor ride or go on a guided tour of the grounds.

There's something for everyone here at Huber Orchard and Starlight Distillery, but don't think that distracts the family that owns it all from doing what they do best.

>> When we wake up every morning, we're farmers first, before we open the door to the distillery.

When you come visit Starlight, you'll see everything happening right in front of you.

You can walk over and watch the grain being milled.

You can walk out through the fields and touch the corn and touch the rye in the springtime.

You can go in the stillhouse and smell the cooking and the mashing.

And come out here to the rickhouses, and you can walk through the different rickhouses and see the barrels and smell the smell that's in here.

>> Huber wines are well-known across the state.

But what you may not know about is the world-class brandy and whiskey they make right here from ingredients they can be certain are of the highest quality.

>> 100% of our corn actually comes from our own property in proper rotation of fruits and vegetables and other crops that we actually grow here.

>> For Huber wines, folks could come to the farm and see it all for themselves, but for spirits, it was a different story.

>> The one thing that we wanted was to be able to bring folks here to the farm and show them how it's made.

But we couldn't bring people into a stillhouse like this, show 'em around, let them taste whiskey from the barrel, let them have cocktails, take them on tours, let them be able to buy bottles and have that whole experience like we did in the winery.

>> That's because Indiana law didn't treat distilleries the same as wineries, something Huber wanted to change.

>> We're artists.

We want to craft and make something, and we're proud of it.

So we want to be able to show it off to our friends and family and customers and show 'em, hey, we made this great whiskey.

You've got to come here and taste it.

And oh, by the way, this is where we grew the corn.

This is the still it came out of.

These are the barrels it was aged in.

Isn't it really a great product?

We just didn't want to open a distillery like a factory, produce a product, and sell it on the shelf somewhere else.

That was never the goal of Starlight, never the goal of the Huber family.

>> So they started lobbying Indiana lawmakers to create an artisanal distillery designation so folks could see and sample what they were making up close.

It was something that Huber's grandmother had wanted to see happen.

And in 2001, he helped make it a reality.

>> My grandmother always pushed me and said, hey, you need to really think about getting the brandy back.

You know, we had as much history, if not more history in making brandy than we did wine here on this farm.

>> And, of course, his grandmother was right.

>> We were winning not just awards, but international awards for being the best brandy in the world.

>> They built on that reputation to tackle the next objective, whiskey.

>> You know, we kept knocking on the door for about, you know, 10 plus years with legislators saying, hey, you know, what's the difference between brandy and whiskey?

Why is it -- why is it one and not the other?

>> For all practical purposes, we just -- you know, the brandy is distilled wine.

And, you know, whiskey is distilled beer.

>> Did you catch that?

Brandy is basically distilled wine.

And whiskey is more or less distilled beer.

Remember that the next time you take a sip.

By 2013, they worked with other would-be distillers in the state to get the artisanal distiller law passed, and they haven't looked back.

>> We run both stills.

Both stills run almost every day, 365 days a year.

We're producing somewhere a little shy of 2,000 barrels of whiskey a year, and then with our vodka production, rum production and brandy production, tying everything into there.

>> And now there are several dozen artisanal distillers operating in the state.

>> If you look through the different Indiana distillers, and we're one of them, and the amount of awards hanging on our walls and hanging on our bottles, and you start watching some of the stuff, you will start seeing Indiana there everywhere, as far as what we're doing, making world-class spirits.

The awards are there.

>> And even though he's an ambassador for all Hoosier spirits, Ted says it's the experience that makes Starlight special.

>> I think the one thing that sets Starlight apart, not only here in Indiana, but around the world, is our dedication to be a true farmer all the way to the bottler.

So when you come here on property, you will see vineyards.

You will see fruits.

You will see things that we are distilling into brandy.

You will see rye fields in the springtime.

You will see cornfields in the fall time.

Go out and enjoy a cocktail on the patio.

And it's just a take in for everything that we do here.

>> And all it took was 20-some odd years of convincing Indiana lawmakers of the value of homegrown spirits.

All it should take you is one glass.

>> BRANDON: It's really interesting to see how legislation gets changed and to see a moment like this where something changes, and suddenly you have a beautiful thriving new business.

Want to learn more?

Head to starlightdistillery.com.

Up next, producer Brian Johnson takes us to Franklin County to meet some surprisingly cuddly pals at the Wolf Creek Habitat and Sanctuary.

[ Howling ] >> Well, there's a stigma about the middle child, and I'm proof of that.

It seemed like I was the one that got in trouble all the time.

So I treat the wolves like they're a middle child.

>> In the small town of Brookville, Indiana, lies Wolf Creek Habitat and Sanctuary.

Owner and operator Kathy Baudendistile has dedicated her life to the preservation of wolves.

♪ >> My name is Kathy Baudendistile, and I'm a/k/a mama wolf.

>> Aren't you gonna talk to momma?

[ Howling ] Oh, I love yous.

>> Our story began back in 2001.

We rescued an Arctic pack.

The guy had a heart attack and he couldn't take care of them anymore.

So he gave us all this fencing.

We went up and got the boys and girls.

As the guys were up there, they found a den of babies.

So we ended up with -- there were five adults and six babies.

Some of our wolves here are descendants from them.

♪ >> I had a lady one time bring her husband for her birthday.

And I says, aren't you going to go out?

And she says, no, I'm scared to death.

And I says, do you trust me?

And she says, yes.

And I took her out, and I set her on the tank.

And they all came up to her, and they were so gentle with her.

They -- they gave her kisses, and when I brought her out, she was crying.

I says, now you can go back and tell everybody you set with a pack of wolves.

The people that come consider this a very spiritual place.

They come because they know.

Our wolves know when you're sick.

They will come up to your mouth, and they'll -- they'll smell your breath.

We had a lady here one time that Arrow did that, and he wouldn't leave her alone.

He'd just come up and smell her mouth.

And I says, do you mind if I ask you a personal question?

And she says, sure.

I said, are you sick?

She says, yes, I've got leukemia.

So they know that.

And she just passed away a few weeks ago, and her husband sent me a card to tell me, thank you for making that the last thing on her bucket list.

>> We operate on donations.

There's people that will sponsor a wolf.

That helps a whole lot.

We sell a lot of stuff out of the gift shop, and all of that goes back to the wolves.

There's a lot of maintenance to take care of this place.

We don't charge anything to come and see them because we have the nice observation deck.

If you want to interact with a wolf, it's $50 a person.

We have very wonderful hunters around here.

They bring us everything that's left over after they take the meat that they want.

We have processors that do the same thing.

If they ever have anything extra, they will -- they will bring it out.

We have -- one of our sponsors, he's amazing.

He brings stuff from the food bank down in Cincinnati.

Our wolves eat better than we do.

This place, we're hoping, will be here for a lot of years.

The last time we bred was seven years ago.

So we don't do it just because.

We do it to keep this place going.

And most of these wolves out here, unfortunately, are going to not be here in five years because of their ages.

They live to be about -- in our place, because they are so big, they tend to pass away anywhere between 10 and 12 years.

Average out in the wild is 5 to 6 years.

If you ever hear them growl, they are never growling at us.

They are growling at each other because they're jealous of each other.

All of them have a different personality.

They'll either kiss you to death, or they're going to just be nervous because we're out there.

What we see that is so special about our wolves is they're unconditional.

No matter how you feel, if you walk out there and you're depressed, they take all that away, and it makes you feel so good.

I can't imagine not doing this.

We've been doing this for 26 years.

So they are my middle children.

Yeah.

They're my middle child, every one of them.

>> BRANDON: Between now and the next time you see me, I will have been there, and I will have petted these wolves.

I guarantee.

Want to learn more?

Just head to wolfcreekhabitat.org.

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

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.

Well, now that we've gotten a chance to look around this beautiful place, it's time to get down to some choring.

We'll see you next time on "Journey Indiana."

♪ Oh, come here.

Yeah.

I've got something for you.

Yeah.

Ow.

Yeah, that's fair.

I don't like to eat on camera either.

We'll see you next time on "Journey Indiana."

[ Tractor engine starts ] ♪ >> Production support for "Journey Indiana" is provided by WTIU members.

Thank you!