>> Support for "Journey Indiana: From Above" is provided by WTIU members.

Thank you.

>> BRANDON: Welcome to "Journey Indiana: From Above."

I'm Brandon Wentz.

>> ASHLEY: And I'm Ashley Chilla.

And we'll be your hosts for the next hour as we experience the Hoosier state from a different point of view.

♪ >> BRANDON: That's right.

And our journey begins in Vincennes, located along the Wabash River.

Originally, a French trading post, it's Indiana's oldest city.

♪ On May 7th, 1800, the Indiana Territory was formed, and Vincennes became its capital.

William Henry Harrison, who would later become the ninth president of the United States, was named the territory's first governor, and the home he built named Grouseland still stands in Vincennes today.

♪ In fact, there are several buildings in Vincennes that are associated with the early history of the territory, two with a direct connection to the state's early government.

>> ASHLEY: The first of these is the capitol building itself, known as the Red House.

Originally constructed as a tailor shop in 1805, it is considered the oldest government building in the Midwest.

The second is a replica of the Elihu Stout Print Shop, where in 1804 the laws of this newly formed territory were printed.

Even Vincennes University, now home to more than 16,000 students from around the world, can trace its history to the state's earliest days.

Formed in 1801 and originally known as the Jefferson Academy, it's one of the oldest institutions of higher education in the country.

♪ Today, Vincennes is the county seat of Knox County, but certainly no longer the center of the state's government.

In fact, Vincennes wasn't the last territorial capital because that was moved to Corydon in 1813.

♪ >> Corydon was a fairly small town.

It had been founded in 1808, was actually founded by William Henry Harrison, who was our first territorial governor.

So it was just a small town with maybe about 600 families living here.

We became the territorial capital in 1813.

It was moved from Vincennes to Corydon, because Corydon was more centrally located, given where the population was at that time.

And so after 1813, they worked towards statehood, and that's how in 1816, when Indiana became a state, Corydon was the natural choice to be the capital.

♪ The building itself was constructed between 1814 and 1816.

It was originally intended to be the Harrison County Courthouse, but, of course, when Corydon became the new state capital in 1816, it was the perfect location to use as the government building.

The 1816 constitution actually stipulated that Corydon would stay the capital until 1825 or until it was moved by law, and this is because the lawmakers at that time knew that the population wouldn't stay centered down here in the southern portion of the state.

It would start to move towards the middle and towards the northern part.

So they wanted to continue to keep the capital in the center of the population, and that's why they founded the town of Indianapolis to become the new state capital.

Today, it's a state historic site.

It's part of the Indiana Museum and state historic site system.

And it's a historic site where people and families and students can come and learn how Indiana got started and see these important buildings that had such an important lasting impact on the state that we know today.

♪ >> BRANDON: In the early 1800s, Indianapolis was a frontier site, nearly 60 miles from the nearest settlement of any significance.

Today, it's home to more than 850,000 Hoosiers.

It's also home to countless destinations for visitors and locals alike.

♪ On the south side, you'll find Indy's oldest city park.

♪ >> Garfield Park is a 128-acre park right on the south side of Indianapolis, and we were established in the late 1800s.

In the early 1900s, the city hired George Kessler to design a whole park and boulevard system, and the sunken garden and conservatory were both part of that system that he designed.

They were built and constructed in 1915 and '16.

And his idea here was to bring some of the European style and also have some contrast, some formal, some informal, modern and classic.

So we have the formally planted Victorian-style beds, surrounded by the more park-like setting.

Lots of people think of the park as kind of their extended yards, their extended backyard.

Lots of dog walking.

Lots of really active neighbors just out enjoying the park.

♪ >> ASHLEY: Travel north, past the Indiana Statehouse, and you'll reach the canal walk, on most days filled with walkers, runners, bikers and sightseers.

♪ On the north end of the canal walk, sits the USS Indianapolis, CA-35 Memorial.

Created in the shape of the cruiser itself, this gray and black granite memorial features the story of the ship's sinking on one side, and the names of those lost on the other.

♪ >> BRANDON: To the east stands the Indiana War Memorial, formally dedicated on November 11th, 1933.

This 210-foot tall structure, clad in Indiana limestone, is the centerpiece of the World War Memorial Plaza.

A decade's long effort by the city of Indianapolis to lure the newly formed American Legion from its temporary home in New York City.

♪ On the south side of the memorial, in the center of the grand stairs, stands Pro Patria, a bronze by American sculptor Henry Hering.

Standing 24 feet high, and weighing 7 tons, it was, at the time of its casting, the largest bronze sculpture in the United States.

Near the top of the memorial and repeated on all four sides, are six figures, again by Hering, courage, memory, peace, victory, liberty, and patriotism.

>> ASHLEY: The plaza is a sequel of sorts to Indy's best known memorial, The Soldiers and Sailors Monument.

It was designed by German architect Bruno Schmitz and was the first monument in the United States to honor the common soldier.

♪ At its peak stands Lady Victory, designed by George Thomas Brewster.

Dedicated in 1902, and rising nearly 300 feet above Monument Circle, it has become a lasting and iconic symbol of Indianapolis.

♪ >> BRANDON: Travel around Indiana, from the state capital, to most of the 92 county courthouses, to the campus of Indiana University, and you'll find they have something in common, something formed about 300 million years ago.

♪ >> Salem Limestone, it's unique and special because it's durable.

There's buildings that were put up, you know, hundreds of years ago and still look phenomenal, but it's also soft enough to work with.

Indiana, you know, the belt which runs from basically Stinesville down to Bedford, that's kind of the main limestone belt.

There's limestone throughout the world, but this particular type of limestone, it's really prevalent throughout here, and it's the most accessible, because it's closer to the surface.

So it's easier to get to.

It doesn't mean it's easy to get to.

It's just closer to the surface.

You still got to go through -- you know, some areas the overburden can be, you know, 80 feet deep of waste, essentially, to get down to the usable dimensional stone.

>> BRANDON: The earliest known Indiana limestone quarry was opened southeast of Stinesville, around 1827.

Nearly half a century later, John William Hoadley established a mill in the same area, known as the J. Hoadley & Sons Stone Company.

>> Their specialty was, you know, turning these big columns for, like, courthouses and stuff around the country.

That was, like, their forte.

>> ASHLEY: In 1926, the Indiana Limestone Company formed, merging several smaller companies, including J. Hoadley & Sons.

The following year, members of the Hoadley and Fell families, who were dissatisfied with the merger, formed B.G.

Hoadley, Incorporated, a quarry and mill near Bloomington.

>> The limestone industry has changed quite a bit.

There's been some mergers and buyouts, and it's kind of neat to say that we are a small family-owned and operated quarrier and fabricator.

We fabricate windowsills, treads, patio stone.

We do mainly standard products.

None of the fancy carving and CNC machines or anything like that.

We're pretty simple.

>> ASHLEY: The limestone that feeds the Hoadley mill no longer comes from the original quarry.

That closed when the Indiana 46 Bypass was built.

Today, they manage a leased quarry on the south side of town.

But one thing hasn't changed, even with modern machinery.

Getting limestone from the ground is hard, physical work.

>> Down the bottom of a quarry hole, it's the coldest place in the wintertime, and the hottest place in the summertime.

Especially when you are down, you know, four floors, essentially there's no breeze down there.

And the stone basically acts as, like -- almost like big mirrors, you know?

It's just -- it's hot.

>> ASHLEY: It's clearly not the job for everyone, but for a small number of Hoosiers who carry on the tradition, it may just be the best one.

>> That's one of the coolest parts of my job, seeing and knowing the history of the Indiana limestone industry and being a part of that.

And it's really neat that here in Indiana we have this type of stone that's so sought after globally.

I mean, it's world renowned.

That's really neat to me.

And just being able to carry on that, you know, legacy and tradition, and that's probably one of the coolest parts of the job.

♪ >> BRANDON: Follow the limestone belt north, and you will arrive in Greencastle, the county seat of Putnam County, and home to DePauw University.

Established in 1837, this small liberal arts university enrolls just over 2,000 students.

At the heart of campus stands East College, one of the Midwest's oldest educational buildings still in use.

It's an ornate structure covered in cast iron, slate, brick, and, yes, Indiana limestone.

♪ >> ASHLEY: Just a few miles to the southwest is the DePauw Nature Park, the former site of an active limestone quarry.

The quarry ceased operations in 1977, after the New York Central Rail Line was discontinued.

Dormant for decades, development of the park began in 2004.

Today, these 520 acres are home to outdoor classrooms, an amphitheater, and an activity center.

Along with a 9-mile loop trail featuring a lake, wildlife, and birdwatching.

♪ >> Columbus, it's a city of about 48,000 people that in the circles of architecture and design has been punching way above its weight for many years.

It's a city that not only collected a number of modern buildings.

It's a city that engages the human spirit in a very unusual way.

And it's not hard to feel when you walk across the plaza, designed by I.M.

Pei with Henry Moore's sculpture across from the first modern church in the United States designed by Eliel Saarinen, your heart skips a beat.

You think, how did this even happen?

♪ >> The city began doing experiments with design in the '50s, when J. Irwin Miller thought to help improve the quality of the life of the city by addressing the school system.

This is post-World War II, and struck upon the idea of doing a one off opportunity to put architects before the school board.

And it went so well, the school board came back to Mr. Miller and said, can we do it again?

And that's when the foundation was developed.

And then any public building in this town can appeal to the foundation for -- to become part of this program.

This inspired enough of the city that other buildings that were not public buildings, churches, private homes, residences, were built, inspired by this example.

The city is salted with 60 to 70 of these buildings, and that's one of the big success stories of Columbus, is that they stood the test of time, and they inspire us to this day.

♪ >> ASHLEY: Fall in the Midwest can be a magical time, as the weather and the leaves begin to change.

And one of the best places to experience it all is in Brown County.

Brown County is home to just over 15,000 Hoosiers, but nearly 3 million visit the area each year.

Many come to Nashville, the county seat.

In the early 20th century, a number of artists settled in the area.

Most notably, T.C.

Steele, the impressionist painter.

♪ And this time of year, it's not hard to see why.

♪ Today, Nashville is still home to artists, along with musicians, shops, and restaurants.

♪ Just outside of town is one of the area's biggest draws, Brown County State Park.

♪ >> BRANDON: The park opened in 1929, and was Indiana's seventh state park, nicknamed the Little Smokies due to the area's resemblance to the Great Smoky Mountains, Brown County State Park is Indiana's largest, covering nearly 16,000 acres of lakes, ♪ native hardwood forests, ♪ and awe-inspiring vistas.

♪ More than a million people visit this park each year to fish, camp, hike, ride horses, and much more.

♪ And in 2021, Brown County State Park was added to the National Register of Historic Places, joining Pokagon, Mounds, Shakamak, Turkey Run and Fort Harrison State Parks.

♪ [ Bluegrass music ] >> ASHLEY: Travel just a few miles north of Nashville on State Road 135, and you'll find yourself in the tiny town of Beanblossom, home of Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Festival.

♪ Well, the days are long and the nights are lonely ♪ ♪ Since you left -- >> ASHLEY: This multi-day event began in 1967, and by the mid-1970s, more than 30,000 music lovers were arriving in Brown County annually, from around the United States and the world.

♪ Big heart of mine, ain't you heard me callin' ♪ ♪ How many times I loved you best ♪ ♪ I mistreated you, well then I'm sorry ♪ ♪ Come back to me is my request ♪ >> Today, the numbers are a bit smaller, but these 55 acres in southern Indiana remain a destination every fall.

♪ [ Applause ] ♪ >> BRANDON: In many other parts of the state, the fall is synonymous with farming.

These windmills in Tipton County tower high above acre after acre of cornfields, a common sight in Indiana.

♪ Travel a bit further north, and you'll encounter something a bit less traditional.

♪ >> We are a little bit different.

Now, we are firmly rooted in row crop agriculture.

We still raise corn, soybeans and wheat, but in an effort to add diversity to our crop rotation a few years ago, we started looking at oil crops.

2013 was the first time we grew sunflowers just in a very small plot.

We were at least successful enough that we thought that we could expand on this and grow up to scale.

It was never our intention to be an agritourist destination.

That was never in the plan whatsoever, but we came to realize very quickly that people were very interested in sunflowers and enjoyed taking pictures and sometimes just walking in the sunflowers, and being close to this unique crop here in Indiana.

Early on, we just kind of opened our fields to the public.

We were raising them anyway.

So why not have people come enjoy them?

And that part of this project has been really enjoyable to our family.

It's been fun to raise a crop that seems to bring people joy.

And that makes me really happy that we're able to do that.

♪ >> ASHLEY: In Greene County, just south of Bloomfield, the farming's a built more conventional.

Chris Cornelius and the rest of his crew, pull into the fields early most October days eager to get the last of their soybeans to market.

♪ It's a familiar scene in the Hoosier state, which according to the USDA is home to more than 94,000 farmers.

♪ Chris farms thousands of acres of corn and beans each year, but the average farm in Indiana is just a bit over 250 acres.

All told, Indiana ranks as the tenth largest farming state in the nation, from corn to livestock, popcorn to hardwoods.

♪ >> BRANDON: In Monroe County, along with dozens of other counties around the state, you'll have to add grapes to that list.

♪ >> This morning, we are doing our Vidal blanc harvest.

We've got about three and a quarter acres, and we're expecting about 24 tons.

♪ We normally come out early so that the guys at the production have a chance to get it all processed in a timely manner.

And one of the main things that we really like is the grapes out here at this time are about 60, 64 degrees, and that really makes some quality juice when they are getting processed back at the winery.

♪ This is basically, you know, the culmination of the whole year that we have done, from the wintertime when we are pruning, and then all the work that we put into it throughout the growing season.

And over the past 21 years, it's been, you know -- that's what makes it special.

♪ >> BRANDON: Most of the grapes leaving Oliver Winery's Creekbend Vineyard will cross this bridge on their way to the production facility, just north of Bloomington.

Built by the Kennedy Brothers, this burr arch structure spanned the Little Blue River in Shelby County for decades.

In 2019, it was moved and rebuilt to span Beanblossom Creek.

Prior to that, Monroe County had been without a covered bridge for more than 40 years.

♪ >> ASHLEY: Parke County, near the Indiana/Illinois border has no such shortage.

The self-proclaimed Covered Bridge Capital of the World is home to 31 historic covered bridges, and each year, nearly a million visitors travel to Rockville and the surrounding area for the covered bridge festival.

One of the more popular stops during the festival and throughout the year is Bridgeton, home to the Bridgeton Grist Mill and covered bridge.

The mill is the oldest continually operating mill in Indiana.

Open every year for nearly two centuries, and just a few feet away is one of the state's newest covered bridges.

The bridge that spans the Big Raccoon Creek today was completely rebuilt in 2006 after the previous structure, built in 1868, was destroyed by arson.

♪ >> BRANDON: Scenes like this have inspired generations of Hoosiers, including Arthur Franklin Mapes, who authored Indiana's official state poem in 1963, and was designated an Indiana poet laureate in 1977.

Mapes authored countless poems in his lifetime on a variety of subjects, including the covered bridge.

♪ >> I came upon a covered bridge, weather beaten and old, where deep blue stream and wooded ridge were framed in twilight gold.

It was wonderful to see a scene so old and quaint, a rustic masterpiece that only God could paint.

♪ I stood by that old bridge and watched the stream flow by, while gentle winds caressed the trees that touched the Hoosier sky.

In that enchanted hour, my heart was deeply stirred.

Would God grant me the power to paint that scene with words?

♪ Could I, a humble poet, pass through the bridge of time and learn its treasured secrets, then put them into rhyme?

Could I, with words, portray the sky, the stream, the ridge?

Would I with words betray the secrets of the bridge?

The colors slowly faded as the shadows crossed the stream.

Then at last, the velvet darkness changed it all into a dream.

♪ But God gave me a picture to keep within my heart, with all its rustic splendor, a priceless work of art.

♪ Yes, God gave me a picture that can't be bought or sold, a picture of a covered bridge framed in twilight gold.

♪ ♪ >> ASHLEY: Another way -- some might say the best way -- to see many of Indiana's covered bridges and unique natural attractions is from the water.

♪ >> So this is Sugar Creek.

We do stretches up from Shades State Park down to Turkey Run State Park, and then we go downstream to Turkey Run to Jackson Bridge.

So there's about, I would say, total 22 miles that we run on Sugar Creek, but there's different lengths of trips for different types of people.

Short ones, long ones, medium.

So whatever you need, we kind of provide that.

♪ The covered bridges are a big draw, us being the covered bridge capital of the country.

♪ But Turkey Run and Shades are unique with the rock formations, the sandstone bluffs that you just don't get anywhere in the Midwest.

♪ People want to get out and get away from work and different things, and come out and just enjoy themselves, and what better way to do it is on the creek?

My dad started the company back in '83.

It's a family business.

So I grew up here.

I have a sister that helps out with it now.

So we kind of -- the next generation has taken over.

I just loved, as a kid, just being outside, being on the creek, catching fish, skipping rocks.

And I went away for a while, and found out that there's nothing out there that I enjoy more than this place.

So I kind of came back and been doing it now.

♪ It's a pretty user friendly creek where novice people can enjoy it that have never done anything like this before, or people that's been kayaking their whole life.

You know, it fits kind of a variety of different people.

♪ So our goal is to provide fun, outdoor recreation for a variety of ages and people to get out and have some fun and see the outdoors and get a unique perspective of kind of one of the prettiest areas in Indiana.

♪ >> ASHLEY: Travel just east of Mitchell, in Lawrence County, and you'll see Spring Mill, one of Indiana's oldest state parks.

Established in 1927, just a decade after Turkey Run, Spring Mill is home to camping, boating, caves, and more than 10 miles of trails.

>> And each has something unique and special, but my favorite is Donaldson Cave hike.

♪ So that's Trail 4, and it's a great hike.

It's about a mile and a half, two miles.

What's nice about it too is it not only leads you to Donaldson Cave, which is a fantastic site, just a view, but also it takes you to the village.

♪ So this a wonderful, rich history here at Spring Mill State Park.

Our village was -- it started in 1814, with a very small gristmill.

1817, we get the three-story limestone gristmill that we still use and run today.

So you can purchase cornmeal that we are making right here.

>> BRANDON: In addition to the mill, visitors to the Pioneer Village will find a school, a variety of homes, a distillery, a meeting house, and much more.

Travel past Mill Creek, toward Hamer Cave, and you'll find a small dam.

Built in the early 1800s by the Bullitt Brothers, the dam and wooden flume continue to provide power to the mill today.

>> When they created the park, the first feature was Donaldson Woods, which is old growth forest.

But then Lehigh Portland Cement Company, who owned this land, said, we're going to give you the Pioneer Village too, and that really helped compliment the development of the park.

♪ >> On the weekends, we're really busy, and you can stop in and visit the buildings, visit people who are dressed in period clothing, and they can explain what they are doing.

And it's just a really great place to come and hear a little bit of the history of this Pioneer Village.

♪ >> This is probably the most popular stop, but we like to think that the park offers so many different options, the Grissom Memorial, the Donaldson Woods, the caves and the village.

So you have really a number of things that you can see while you are here.

>> BRANDON: Another popular spot at the park is Spring Mill Lake.

♪ >> 2016, we got it dredged, got it a lot deeper, trying to bring back some of the recreational aspects, and we brought the boat rental back.

And the last couple of years, we started stocking trout, and that is real popular in the spring.

♪ >> ASHLEY: While Spring Mill is one of Indiana's oldest state parks, Prophetstown, established in 2004, is Indiana's newest.

Located at the confluence of the Tippecanoe and Wabash Rivers, Prophetstown, much like Spring Mill, features a living history museum that celebrates Indiana's past.

The farm at Prophetstown is a 1920s era farmstead, featuring a Sears & Roebuck Catalog farmhouse, a tenant house that was relocated from Lafayette, a classic red barn, and a number of other historic structures.

>> BRANDON: More than just a tourist attraction, this is a working farm, where local farmers help to plant, grow, and harvest a variety of crops.

The farm is also home to numerous animals, including breeds common to the early 1900s.

In addition to the farm, visitors to Prophetstown will find a Woodland Indian settlement, with replicas of a Shawnee council house and other structures, miles of hiking and bike trails, an aquatics center, and hundreds of acres of restored prairie.

♪ Travel an hour or so north of Prophetstown, and you will find even more restored prairies and wetlands.

>> Kankakee Sands is a large mosaic of prairie, wetland, and savanna restoration on what used to be Beaver Lake, which was Indiana's largest freshwater lake at the time.

This area was once a significant piece for wildlife.

They say, Everglades of the north, you know, one of the largest wetland complexes in North America.

In the mid-1800s, it started to be drained.

>> BRANDON: For decades, this part of Newton County was farmland.

In the late 1990s, the Nature Conservancy began purchasing and converting thousands of acres into an area known as Kankakee Sands.

>> I'm hopeful that when people come here, they feel like they are stepping in -- a little bit to the past, but just a little bit into just a different world, and that they can experience with all their senses, really, something that brings about curiosity and peace that, you know, you just can't really get many other places these days.

♪ >> This area in the early 1800s was absolutely nothing.

It was tracts of land.

You had the Woodland Indians that had been in here, like, 2,000 years earlier.

In 1814, there was a group called the Harmonists, and the Harmonists had been living in Pennsylvania for the last ten years.

And so they were following a Biblical prophecy that talked about a woman running into the wilderness.

So they had followed down the Ohio, picked up the Wabash and then landed at the end of what is our current Main Street.

♪ Ten years, the Harmonists were here.

They were here from 1814 to 1824.

They built 180 buildings.

Incredibly industrious people.

Part of their unusual theology is that they did not have children, and so they had a lot of time to build buildings and structures.

1824, the Harmonists decided to go back to Pennsylvania.

When they left, they sold the entire town, all the buildings, to a Scottish philanthropist by the name of Robert Owen, and his business partner Ian Maclure.

Robert Owen had this vision of Utopia that was going to be secular, that was going to be built on learning and knowledge and growth and advocacy.

And he was able to recruit, like, really truly brilliant minds from all over the world, really, and he shipped them down in what he called his boatload of knowledge.

And they were here, and they were living this socialist utopian experiment for really two years before they closed the socialist experiment down, but a lot of them stayed, remained and did their work here in New Harmony.

♪ Robert Owen's descendants, one of them married a woman by the name of Jane Blaffer, and Jane was able to use her resources and brilliancy to really develop the town into what it is today.

♪ >> So we have two labyrinths here in New Harmony.

One of them is right across from Athenaeum, and it is one of Jane Owen's brain children, who was an incredibly spiritual woman.

She wanted it to be modeled off of the cathedral in France.

The one that's probably a little more famous is on the north side of town, and that is a hedge labyrinth.

And the Harmonists used a hedge labyrinth as a way of meditating and praying in their own society, and that labyrinth was eventually torn out, and then this one was installed in 1940s on the north side of town as kind of a nod to their spirituality and the way that they did things.

There's a joke in town that you don't choose New Harmony.

New Harmony chooses you.

There are some people that will come in and connect to this town and love to come back year after year after year.

♪ >> ASHLEY: Travel a bit further down the Wabash River and east on the Ohio, and you'll arrive in Evansville.

It's home to more than 100,000 Hoosiers and one significant ship.

♪ >> LST is a Landing Ship Tank.

There was 1,051 of these built during World War II.

Their main job was to get tanks and heavy stuff to enemy beaches where there's no port facilities, because the enemy already owns the ports, like in France at D-Day.

So this opened up the whole Atlantic wall.

And we talk a lot about Normandy on here, because this particular ship was there at D-Day in North Africa.

We remind folks that there's 60 some odd landings to do in the Pacific after D-Day and the LST was critical to all of that.

♪ This is the only one out of 1,051 that's still in its original World War II configuration and sails on its own power.

There was 229 LSTs at D-Day, for example, and only one of them is still floating, and you are on it today here in Evansville.

♪ Evansville, the shipyard, which is less than a mile from where we're sitting, built the most LSTs of any shipyard in the country.

So Indiana is the LST capital of the world because Jeffersonville built them too.

167 was the record here in Evansville.

♪ It's a flat bottom ship with a big hole in the front.

Duh!

Who would have ever thought of that?

Actually the British did.

♪ The original concept was British, but America made them all.

This ship goes up on the beach, and it can unload 20 Sherman tanks, 30 trucks and 200 troops.

When I say a flat bottom, it's got a slight slope to it, which is engineered to be the average grade of your average beach in the world.

♪ >> We're good to try the props, cap.

>> All right.

Here goes.

>> They are going to cast off here in a little bit at 10:00.

They are heading on their annual trip.

This is our main fundraiser.

We usually make two to three stops.

One major stop, which will be Charleston, West Virginia, and two lesser stops, the first one being in Brandenburg, Kentucky, and then Ashland, Kentucky.

>> You are clear to come ahead, captain.

>> And they will do tours like we do here in Evansville all year.

Only in that three and a half weeks they are gone, they will take in more people than we get all year here at Evansville.

♪ The crew on here today will be about 40 people, average age 69 or 70.

And they come from all over the country, really all over the eastern U.S. with a few coming from as far out, you know, in the far west.

So they look forward to this.

And then they are ready to get off the ship in three and a half weeks and go home.

It's hot, hard work, but it's a labor of love.

>> Smooth sailing, LST 325.

>> Thank you, Mr. Donahue, and thank you for all you do.

>> A lot of them bring their grandpas, their dads here who are in their 90s.

They come from wherever in the country because grandpa hasn't seen an LST or Evansville, Indiana, since 1943.

So that's the most gratifying thing that I see here.

♪ >> ASHLEY: Continue up the Ohio, and you'll arrive in New Albany, the county seat of Floyd County.

From 1816 to 1860, it was Indiana's largest city.

Today, New Albany is home to just over 36,000, along with unique shops, restaurants, and museums.

>> BRANDON: Another 50 miles or so to the northeast is Madison, Indiana.

Located right along the Ohio River, Madison, the county seat of Jefferson County, is a picturesque community with a rich history.

In 2006, much of Madison's downtown was named a National Historic Landmark.

Just a few blocks away, you will find another important landmark, the Lanier Mansion.

♪ >> ASHLEY: And just a few miles to the north is one of Indiana's original state parks, Clifty Falls.

As its name would suggest, this 1400-acre park is home to several impressive waterfalls, including the 60-foot tall Big Clifty Falls.

♪ >> BRANDON: McCormick's Creek State Park in Owen County is Indiana's oldest, dedicated in 1916.

Much of the park's infrastructure was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, a major element of President Roosevelt's New Deal.

Today, guests enjoy hiking, climbing the recently restored fire tower, and the park's main attraction, the falls on McCormick's Creek.

♪ >> ASHLEY: While not the tallest, the largest waterfall in Indiana by volume, is located in northern Owen County.

♪ Cataract Falls is technically two sets of falls, upper and lower, separated by about a mile of Mill Creek.

♪ >> While you may not find any significant waterfalls in Orange County, you will find an area with a deep connection to water.

♪ Travel west out of Paoli on State Road 56, and you will soon arrive in the small towns of West Baden and French Lick, in an area known as Springs Valley.

♪ >> BRANDON: Mineral water, which promised to cure just about whatever ailed you, is what originally brought visitors to the valley.

And it's what built two incredible hotels.

♪ The French Lick Springs Hotel was first, established in 1845, and expanded in 1901.

♪ Just a mile down the road, the West Baden Hotel opened for guests in 1902.

♪ And with a jaw-dropping 200-foot dome covering its atrium, was advertised as the eighth wonder of the world.

♪ Architect Harrison Albright designed the building, and Oliver Wescott, a bridge engineer, designed the dome's trusses.

♪ >> ASHLEY: It was and still is a marvel.

In fact, it was the largest free spanning dome in the United States for more than half a century.

♪ >> So by the early '90s, this place was really in shambles.

♪ An attempt had been made to restore it, but that had failed.

An outside wall had collapsed, and so that's when we weren't sure if it would be saved, if it could be saved.

>> We don't get anywhere without Bill and Gayle Cook.

They came in here, heard the call from preservationists that something had to be done on an emergency basis to save this place, or we would lose this National Historic Landmark.

Bill Cook, being the kind of guy that he was, jumped in hands first, head first, feet first.

He just plunged right into this.

You feel the history, and that's what makes this unique.

You know, this building can be six stories tall, but it's a thousand stories deep with everything that's transpired here in the past.

So you've got all that history, married with the modern conveniences and the destination as a whole has grown around what we've done here, which is -- was always Bill's dream.

♪ >> ASHLEY: Today, guests from around the world still travel to these tiny southern Indiana towns, but the waters are no longer the draw.

Instead, it's golf, gaming, spas, and two remarkable structures that have stood the test of time.

♪ ♪ >> BRANDON: From the past to the present.

♪ >> ASHLEY: From big cities to small towns.

♪ >> BRANDON: And everywhere in between.

♪ >> ASHLEY: The Hoosier state is full of history, ♪ natural wonders, ♪ and more than a few surprises.

♪ >> BRANDON: Thank you for joining us as we've explored them all, right here on "Journey Indiana: From Above."

♪ >> Support for "Journey Indiana: From Above" is provided by WTIU members.

Thank you.