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

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>> PAYTON: Coming up... >> BRANDON: Step back in time at the home of the Hoosier President.

>> PAYTON: Make a beeline to a local honey farm.

>> BRANDON: And take a moment to stop and smell the quilt gardens.

>> PAYTON: That's all on this episode of... >> TOGETHER: "Journey Indiana"!

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

I'm Payton Whaley.

>> BRANDON: And I'm Brandon Wentz.

And we're coming to you from Mounds State Park in Madison County.

This 290-acre park just outside of Anderson is home to ten earthworks built by prehistoric native peoples dating as far back as 200 BCE.

The mounds are believed to have been used as religious or ceremonial sites, and are among the best preserved earthworks in the state.

>> PAYTON: And we'll learn all about this historic park in just a bit, but first, producer Nick Deel takes us to Marion County, to visit the home of Benjamin Harrison, the Hoosier President.

♪ >> In the 200 plus years since Indiana's statehood, Benjamin Harrison is the only Hoosier to ascend to the American presidency.

And fortunately for us, his memory and legacy are preserved right here in Indianapolis.

>> The Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site is a museum that's dedicated to the life and legacy of the 23rd President of the United States.

So we're situated on about two and a half acres.

And the house itself is a 10,000 square foot Italianate brick home that was built by Benjamin Harrison and his wife Caroline Harrison started in 1874.

They completed it in 1875.

When Benjamin Harrison built this house, he was a prominent attorney here in Indianapolis.

He was known at a statewide level because he was well-respected as an orator and had increasingly prominent roles through his political interests and interacting on a national level with other prominent political figures of the era.

>> Remarkably, Harrison conducted much of his successful 1888 presidential campaign from this very home.

>> So Harrison was especially notable for his front porch campaign.

This is one of the iconic front porch campaigns in that he conducted that entire campaign literally from the front stoop.

So those limestone steps that are coming out of what now consists of that front porch on the front of this house.

So he gave over 80 speeches to more than 300,000 people from this house on Delaware Street in what is now downtown Indianapolis.

♪ >> Harrison may have stepped into the presidency in the late 19th century, but his administration's agenda feels remarkably modern.

During his four-year term, he set aside some 13 million acres of land for public use and created three national parks.

He pushed for Civil Rights legislation aimed at ensuring Black Americans could vote freely, and the Sherman Anti-Trust Act signed into law by Harrison is still used today to combat monopolies.

>> Clearly, he had a vision for what he could accomplish.

He was able to do much during that administration.

I think it would be a fair characterization to describe Harrison as anticipating the modern presidency.

♪ >> After Harrison lost his bid for reelection in 1892, he returned to Indianapolis and resumed his law practice.

He died here in March of 1901.

The home has been open to the public since the early 1950s, serving a role akin to modern presidential libraries.

And now, a recently completed capital campaign has refreshed the Harrison story for a new generation.

>> One of our aims was to serve the larger community.

And so we announced the $6 million capital campaign.

We were able to exceed that goal.

That allowed us to invest nearly $2 million in the historic structure itself, and then to make substantial additional infrastructure improvements across our grounds.

>> Visitors to the site are now welcomed by newly revitalized public spaces.

Presidential scholars will find a refreshed library where they can handle original documents.

A new third-floor gallery gives staff an opportunity to highlight Harrison's legacy.

And much of the home has been restored to its near original state.

♪ >> So 75 to 80% of what you will see is actually original to the Harrisons themselves.

You know, you will see the original oriental rug as you walk past the front parlor from the 1870s.

You will see family portraits of family members, you know, whether it's his grandfather William Henry Harrison, his great grandfather, Benjamin Harrison V who was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

You will see gifts that were given to him as president.

We have examples of the Harrison china which was informed by Caroline Harrison's own artistic sensibilities.

We have many examples of the hand-painted china that she herself painted.

So we have really extraordinary collection that we're able to draw from that really speaks to the authenticity of this place, and gives you a better sense of the personalities of the people who inhabited this house.

♪ >> Even though it's been well over a century since Benjamin Harrison inhabited this grand home, there's still much to be learned inside these walls.

>> Since the founding of our country, there have been over 500 million citizens, but only 45 presidents and 46 administrations out of those half billion people have been President of the United States.

So there's something exceptional about those 45 individuals.

It may be good.

It may be bad.

More likely it's somewhere in between.

But to be able to see the spaces that they inhabited, to understand better perhaps their mindset, and how they sought to shape the world around them.

What better place to start than their very own homes?

♪ >> PAYTON: I still can't get over how they said how in olden presidential campaigns they would have these rallies on the steps of a person's house.

Can you imagine doing that today?

>> BRANDON: Do you want to try that now?

>> PAYTON: Yeah, a few thousand people in the hallway of apartment 8E.

Vote for me.

Want to learn more?

Head to bhpsite.org.

>> BRANDON: Earlier, we spoke with Kelley Morgan, interpretive naturalist here at the Mounds State Park to learn more about this historic place.

♪ >> Mounds State Park became the ninth Indiana state park in October 7th of 1930.

It is the second smallest Indiana state park, with only 290 acres; however, we do have 10 prehistoric Native American earthworks on property, a pioneer era 1840s home that tells the early history of Madison County.

And we also have a side story about an amusement park that was here from 1897 until 1929.

We have ten prehistoric Native American earthworks that are different than a lot of mounds that are found anywhere else in the country.

They were created by ancient peoples who took dirt from the area right next to where they then built up earthworks, and most of our earthworks are of a geometric nature.

The earthworks here at Mounds State Park are over 2,000 years old.

The original earthwork, which we believe was the great mound, which you see directly behind me, began construction in roughly 250 BC.

And then was worked on continuously for about 200 years.

We figured that they probably began with simple ropes.

And those ropes were used to help delineate the area of the circular earthwork locations.

And then they took time -- and when I say time, I mean a lot of time -- to watch the skies.

They were able to align these earthworks with celestial events by watching.

They then took digging sticks, baskets, and manpower to move thousands of tons of earth.

These low-lying geometric earthworks were primarily used as areas for people to come together, to celebrate, to have religious gatherings, and then also to watch the skies.

The earthworks here were primarily saved by a family known as the Bronnenberg family.

They arrived here in 1821, and they did settle on this property.

When they saw the earthworks, they knew that they were fairly unique, and instead of digging into them, they decided to preserve them.

The Bronnenberg family, along with their legacy, left a home that was built in the 1850s by the son of the original settler, Frederick, Sr.

It was his son Frederick, Jr., that built a home here on property.

It was originally a five-room structure, and that home still exists here in pretty much its natural state.

Even though the Bronnenbergs did help preserve this land, they also did something that most preservationists might think a little strange.

They allowed the Union Traction Company to come and create an amusement park here.

They began the amusement park in 1897 until 1929, with a three-story tall roller coaster, a merry-go-round and shooting rink, a hamburger stand, dance hall.

This was the place to come in the early 1900s.

Unfortunately, the Interurban went bankrupt in 1929, and at that time, they owed quite a bit of money.

Luckily, the Madison County Historical Society and members of the Madison County populous came together and were able to raise roughly $75,000 to pay off the debts so that this park could be preserved.

The Madison County Historical Society worked with the then Department of Conservation, which later became the Department of Natural Resources, to ensure that this place was preserved in perpetuity by becoming Indiana's ninth state park.

Earthworks, like you see behind me, there used to be thousands upon thousands of them in this area.

What we have left to us is roughly only 20% of the original amount of earthworks in the area.

Not only are you preserving the modern park, not only are you preserving early Madison County history, but you are preserving the story of the peoples that have lived here for ages.

It's a location that has something special.

♪ >> BRANDON: You can see one of these mounds just behind us.

Can you imagine trying to build that 2,000 years ago, you know, some sticks, some buckets, maybe a crude shovel?

>> PAYTON: I can't imagine building that with a backhoe.

I do not have the planning for that.

>> BRANDON: Yeah.

Want to learn more?

Head to the address on your screen.

>> PAYTON: Up next, producer Jake Lindsay takes us to Morgan County to hear what all the buzz is about at Hunter's Honey Farm.

♪ >> I got my first hive when I was 14, and I've had bees ever since.

And I didn't decide to be a commercial beekeeper until I was in college.

We have been keeping bees in Indiana for 113 years.

My great grandfather had an orchard in southern Indiana.

And then my grandfather, when he was in high school, he got his first hive to put in the orchard to pollenate it.

And then he became a school teacher and a commercial beekeeper.

And then my mother, she became a school teacher and a beekeeper in Mooresville, Indiana.

And then I taught school for 30-some years, and we are currently running about 1,000 hives.

♪ Most Americans would say, well, they make honey, and that is true.

But here at Hunter's Honey Farm, we can actually harvest seven different products out of the beehive, and all of them but one can be beneficial to the human body.

Not only do we harvest honey, we also harvest the wax.

So the bees eat the honey and digest it, and then they have glands on their abdomen that they secrete scales of wax from, and they take those wax scales and they construct the honeycomb that we see in the hive.

The beekeeper will take that honeycomb, melt it down to a liquid, and pour it into a mold and that is your beeswax candle.

So beeswax is melted honeycomb which is digested honey.

Therefore, honeycomb is safe to eat.

You can chew the honeycomb.

You could spit it out if you wanted to, but if you choose to swallow it, it will act as a roughage.

It's very good for your digestive system.

♪ Each flower that the bee visits can produce a different color and flavor of honey.

In the United States, there are over 400 different types of honeys.

As the season changes, we are able to produce many different varieties of honey, and they all taste different, and that's the thrill.

And as you are traveling around to different parts of the state or the country or the world, look up a local beekeeper and try different types of honey.

When I was in Africa, I was able to taste avocado honey.

Texas, you can taste cotton honey.

So there's 4,000 flavors of honey in the world.

So the honeybee basically has two foods.

It eats honey for its carbohydrates, and it eats pollen for its protein source.

But just like with human food, you know, one apple could be -- have a different nutrition than another apple depending on its variety and depending on how it was produced and how it's processed.

So the same is true for the honeybee's diet.

So each flower produces its own flavor and color of honey, and can have different nutritional value.

So as a rule of thumb, the darker the honey, the more vitamins, the more minerals, the more enzymes, the more antioxidants, and even the pH of the soil can change that honey and change that pollen.

[ Buzzing ] We all know how important the honeybees are to our food production.

In fact, honeybees are responsible for every third bite of food that you take today.

The honeybee is in a decline, and that is true.

So honeybees have natural predators, such as birds and skunks and raccoons and bears, and these play a small problem for the bees.

However, our biggest threats are two mites, the varroa mite and the tracheal mite.

The first problem with the mites started in 1986 here in Indiana.

And since then, the honeybees have gotten worse.

Their populations have gone down.

Wild colonies have decreased possibly up to 50%.

Beekeepers have probably lost over 50% of their hives.

And I believe honeybees would be worse off if it wasn't for the beekeepers replacing their dead hives.

The problems are just as real and just as major, but the beekeepers are trying to keep the bees going.

There are new treatments for these diseases, for these pests, but nothing is surefire.

And so the beekeeper is still struggling.

The bees are still dying off.

[ Buzzing ] There are 4,000 species of bees in North America.

Honeybees, that you see in Indiana, in Morgan County, Monroe County, are going to be the Apis mellifera, and they are going to be fairly docile, fairly gentle, unless you are in the beehive.

If you just see a bee on the flower or in your yard, it's probably not going to attack you.

Now, obviously, if you step on it, if you squish it, then it's more likely to sting you.

Even a beehive, you can usually approach cautiously, quietly, slowly, and you should be okay.

It's only when you swat at a bee, when you disturb them, then they are going to sting you.

Respect the bee, but don't fear it.

[ Buzzing ] We are using a bee that is hardy to our winter, that is gentle and easy to work with, but yet produces a lot of honey.

In a typical beehive, there are three castes, the queen, the drone and the worker.

The queen has a misconception that she is in charge of the hive, but that is not the truth.

Truth is, she is simply their egg machine.

She is the only female that they have picked to reproduce.

And she will produce up to 2,000 eggs per day.

She doesn't go to the flower.

She doesn't produce honey.

She doesn't sting and protect the hive.

All she does is produce eggs for her lifespan of three to five years.

The males are called drones.

And they are similar to the queen, except they are going to mate with the queen for reproduction.

And a drone will live until it mates or until the fall and then the other worker bees will kick the drones out.

And in the hive there will be approximately 300 to 600 drones.

All of the other bees that you have seen, the bee on a flower, a bee that stings you, the bees that make the honey, those are the worker bees, the infertile females, and there could be anywhere from 50,000 to 80,000 workers in a hive, and they do everything except the reproduction.

You know, bees are so fascinating.

I have been around them all my life, and I never get tired of studying them.

Somebody took a macroscopic photograph of a bee's face up close.

Just amazing the intricacy.

We don't realize that there is hair all over the honeybee's body, on their wings, on their legs, on their chest, on their back, on their stomach, even on their eyeballs.

All parts of their eyeballs contain hair on them.

So I never get tired of learning about the honeybees.

Every year, I learn something new.

>> PAYTON: Now, Brandon, I cannot get over how he was talking about of all the varieties of honey, the darker honeys are the ones with more nutritional value.

Now, how much nutritional value do you think is in the $2.99 plastic bear that I'm buying at Kroger?

>> BRANDON: The one that you are microwaving?

Probably not nearly as much as the honey that comes from these bees.

>> PAYTON: Want to learn more?

Head to huntershoneyfarm.com.

>> BRANDON: Up next, producer Jason Pear takes us to Elkhart County to marvel at the quilt gardens on the county's Heritage Trail.

♪ >> So we have some very creative people in Elkhart County and we sat around a table just brainstorming way back in 2006.

And they said, how could we bring something to life that not only our residents would enjoy but would connect with our stories, who our people and who our places are, that would communicate and welcome visitors as well?

And so the idea was, like, hey, we have a lot of gardening here.

We're an agricultural-based community.

We also have a lot of quilters.

Quilting heritage among our communities and cities and towns is deep here.

So we said, could we combine them together?

We didn't know if we could.

So we tested.

We gave plants to two different sites and said, go play.

Within a month, they called, not only do people like this, we love it!

You need to do more of this and that's how a quilt garden got started.

♪ Quilt gardens are giant gardens planted in the shape of quilt patterns.

They range in size from 800 square feet all the way up to 3500 square feet.

We have over 1 million blooms in six different cities and towns throughout this amazing area.

It's the only place in the nation they exist, right here in Elkhart County.

We have 16 different garden sites overall plus 21 mural sites.

Each business and location can either be a nonprofit, a park, a business, a for-profit business a large or small activity.

One garden is located at our courthouse.

So it's connected with our county government.

Each site manages it based upon either their own personal staff or volunteers.

So there's everything from the master gardeners involved.

One year, we had Girl Scouts helping.

There are Friends of the Parks involved.

Variety of individuals who just love their community and love to quilt or garden.

They really do do a great job.

They monitor each other, and we set up this program and project where everybody had an equal playing field initially but allowed each garden to express their creativity and they do notice.

Everybody notices what everyone does because the next year when they apply then you will always see different things that they add to their application, taken from their friends.

>> We enjoy the town that we live in and that we work in.

And we enjoy having the visitors come in and it's -- >> It's really fun to meet people.

They come in to see it, and they are so appreciative of the work that we do and the beauty of the garden.

>> I think that is probably the biggest enjoyment is to see people drive up, stop, take photographs and give you comments about the area.

>> Basically, it's just really giving back to the community and that's our way of giving it back a little bit to the community that we live and work in.

>> So the Heritage Trail, is a 90-mile scenic driving route.

It was designated by "Time Life Magazine" as one of the top 40 scenic drives in the nation.

You can have an audio tour.

It's like having your own personal tour guide and as you travel along -- here at the historical museum for example, up pops a beautiful quilt garden and you have just heard all of the history of this great place before.

So it really enhances and entices you to come inside and explore.

So the quilt garden project would not happen without 200 plus volunteers, businesses, merchants, who are investing personally, professionally, out of their line items and out of their pockets, whether it be buying a can of Miracle-Gro or a sprinkler head or investing time of digging and weeding and planting.

They are hard-working people and embody what Elkhart County represents.

So I hope when people come and visit they get a chance to meet our residents and learn all the stories and have a great time.

>> BRANDON: So seeing all these, it made me wonder, if you were to make a quilt garden, what colors would you put in it?

>> PAYTON: I got this.

Brown and probably knowing how I garden, reddish brown, and then maybe a more of like an orange-brown and then some more darker browns to go with that.

I think that kind of ties the picture all together.

>> BRANDON: Just as they decompose?

>> PAYTON: Absolutely.

>> BRANDON: Want to learn more?

Just head to the address on your screen.

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

>> BRANDON: 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.

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

>> BRANDON: All right.

So while we're here, I think we're actually going to take a step back in time, a couple thousand years, and see if we can hunt down our dinner.

>> PAYTON: I'm so down!

Let's go do it.

>> BRANDON: We'll see you next time on... >> TOGETHER: "Journey Indiana."

♪ >> This is something known as an atlatl.

The people who built our mounds very likely were hunting with tools like this.

Aim, hmm, at the buffalo, slightly above, and then throw.

>> BRANDON: I am sure that I can master this ancient technology.

>> Hey, not bad for your first throw.

Good job.

>> Okay.

That's a really good throw.

♪ >> PAYTON: Oh, so close!

>> BRANDON: We've come dangerously close.

>> PAYTON: Oh, we've been killing it.

They just haven't seen it.

>> BRANDON: All right.

We haven't hit yet, but a little wager to see who hits?

>> PAYTON: I'm down to lose something today.

>> BRANDON: The loser has got to do the long memorized intro next episode.

>> PAYTON: I'm down for that.

>> PAYTON: Yes!

>> BRANDON: I'm getting there.

>> PAYTON: Yes!

>> BRANDON: One shot.

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

Thank you!