>> Production support for "Journey Indiana" is provided by Columbus Visitors Center, celebrating everywhere art and unexpected architecture in Columbus, Indiana.

Tickets for guided tours and trip planning information at Columbus.in.us.

And by WTIU members.

Thank you!

>> ASHLEY: Coming up, travel with us to Goshen to meet the team and learn the philosophy behind Janus Motorcycles.

>> BRANDON: Get up close with the animals at the Black Pines Animal Sanctuary in Albion.

Check out a unique art museum in a small town of Garrett.

>> ASHLEY: And take a trip to the Mid-America Windmill Museum in Kendallville.

>> BRANDON: 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 WTIU Studio in Bloomington.

>> BRANDON: That's right.

And on this episode, we are going to bring you some stories from the northeast corner of the state, my old stomping ground.

>> ASHLEY: And first up, we're headed to Goshen, where producer Adam Carroll has the story behind Janus Motorcycles.

>> In downtown Goshen, Indiana, you will find Janus Motorcycles, founded in 2011 by two young entrepreneurs, this small business is all about bringing classic European bikes to the heart of the Midwest.

>> Devin and I really started over just some rough sketches for a dream bike, kind of moped from our past.

Lightweight bike based on a 1960s kind of cafe racer, Grand Prix style of bike.

Finding a real joy of riding around on a lightweight bike.

There was a market and a need for a lightweight bike that was manageable, approachable, and didn't necessarily have all the stigma that sometimes some versions of motorcycling can come with.

But once we had finished that, it gained a lot of attention from some of our friends and people in the industry, who said, I want you to try manufacturing these.

>> And they did.

From the beginning, they relied on the community to streamline their production and keep it local, which in Elkhart County means a largely Amish workforce.

>> Starting Janus Motorcycles in Goshen, Indiana, has allowed us to manufacture in this unique area of the world.

You know, there's tons of RV and trailer industry surrounding us.

So we have many options of different shops to use.

We stumbled upon our manufacturing network just by simply asking the question: Where could we have this made?

And very quickly, you know, we had our first frames made and our tanks.

And then we asked the next question, where do we get them sandblasted?

Well, the answer is always, it's right down the road.

Then where do you get it powder coated?

It's right down the road.

Our entire network has been set up as this beautiful loop within basically a 20-mile radius of the shop where we can go out and we can approach everybody who has their hands on the products, the people who are doing the polishing and the coatings, and then they get delivered back to the shop.

Most of the metal components on our Janus bikes come from one shop about 12 miles away from our Goshen shop.

They make the fuel tanks, the frames, the fenders, the handle bars, the exhaust system, and many other smaller metal components.

>> Their focus on the highest levels of quality and their proficiency for one, but also they have an experience with the guy who makes our leather seats, is a saddle maker.

He makes our bags.

He's a harness maker, you know.

So we can -- we can do this because of that community.

I'm not sure it would be possible to do this in other areas of the country.

>> We want to make sure that we are staying true to our roots, and we use the term "mindful manufacturing."

That means it's just not pushing a button and spitting out a part.

It's that somebody is intentionally bending the metal, intentionally shaping the parts.

Leaving traces of our handmade process is very important to us.

So, yeah, if there is a bulge on the weld, some people would sand that out, but we wish to leave it as just an indicator that this is not about perfectionism.

This is not about refining the process and leaving out the characteristics of human hands touching the products.

>> That ties into the whole design, aesthetics of the bikes, the way the fuel tanks are made, the way the frame is welded.

It all kind of is a complete package.

It all tells the story that these are handmade.

I think anyone who's been in manufacturing is immediately going to be able to tell this is a handmade product, and we take pride in showing off the weld.

>> The weld is part of the story.

>> That's what made us who we are, and that's the way we wish to continue creating.

>> Janus creates three bikes in their shop, the Halcyon, the Phoenix, and the Gryffin, all 250 cc bikes.

And each bike is touched by multiple hands in the shop before it hits the road.

>> After years of refining our process, we have been able to get the build time down from when a frame hits a stand, our main assembly technician can build a bike in six to eight hours.

>> As the bike is being built, Ryan is mentally going through a whole check list.

So we have an initial status of the bike.

It comes off, exhaust goes on, and then Cameron, who is our lead certification and testing technician, will go over the bike in preparation for the test loop.

And then when he goes out on the test loop, he's looking for anything that's vibrating, making sure the brakes are seating, making sure the brakes are working properly, making sure the transmission is good.

When he gets back here, the bike then goes through fixing any issues it may have had, and then a wash and detail.

So it gets a thorough wash, detailed, and then a final comprehensive certification process, where we are checking to make sure that everything is completely tightened up.

It's just a simple thing that goes down the road.

And it maybe takes you from one place to the next.

What we are doing, though, is we are creating something that has a lot more character and personality than that.

The owners of these bikes, they keep them in their house in the wintertime, in their living room.

I mean, like, we're talking -- they have this personality and it also allows the owner, when you are riding it, you have this connection with it, because you know there's a story.

You know that Kelly did all the pinstriping.

You know that Ryan assembled it.

We use their names as much as we can.

>> Jaclyn is actually taking photos of the entire build process.

So the second it comes back from powder coat, and when it gets pinstriped, to when the frame hits the stand, we are updating them constantly on the stages of their bike.

>> And that creates for the owner a really cool awareness when they are riding down the road.

They actually experience, I think -- we always hear from our owners that their experience riding the bike or showing it off when they stop to get gas is just so much more immediate.

And that's really our business model, is making bikes that are joyful to ride.

>> That joy and awareness is evident in all things Janus.

From discovery days, where potential customers can tour the facility and see production, to demo rides with the Janus crew around town, Janus and Goshen look to thrive together as a small town motorcycle shop heads into the future.

>> I love the idea of just coming in the shop every day and being around what we all create as a team, which is this beautiful vehicle, and the team itself here at Janus is exceptional.

>> We don't know what the future holds for us.

We are definitely an adaptable company.

However, we do know that we value the hands-on, face-to-face kind of nature of our customers and us.

So we never want to lose that.

We want to make sure that it's a personal connection.

People can visit the factory, and that we can maintain on some level a downtown feel, a Main Street feel.

♪ >> BRANDON: I really love that they leave all the signs of a human actually making it, as opposed to sanding everything away to make it look like it was made by a machine.

>> ASHLEY: And I'm not even that into motorcycles, but I think those look really cool.

I would like to ride one.

>> BRANDON: Yeah.

>> ASHLEY: You can get more information at Janusmotorcycles.com.

>> BRANDON: Up next, we are headed to the small town of Albion to learn about the lives being saved every day at the Black Pines Animal Sanctuary.

Producer Reuben Browning has the story.

♪ >> One of our tigers, his name is Eragone.

He's 14.

He came up from a facility in Colorado, where they housed about 110 cats in an area that was big enough for about 20 cats.

So what they would do is they would just take a big chunk of meat every day, just toss it in, and whoever ate that, they ate; and whoever didn't, did not eat.

Definitely, like, very bad living conditions, overcrowded.

Just not getting that good care that they deserve.

We are at Black Pine Animal Sanctuary in Albion, Indiana, and I'm one of four lead keepers here.

We are a true animal sanctuary, which means we do not buy, sell, trade, or breed animals.

A lot of these animals have been privately owned before, which means that they were just a pet.

So a lot of these animals, unfortunately, have been mistreated.

We take animals from bad situations, bad previous facilities, kind of like backyard zoos or zoos that aren't accredited.

These animals, they would not do well in the wild.

They don't have those instincts.

So unfortunately, we don't -- you know, we aren't able to rehabilitate and release.

So this is kind of like a retirement community for our animals, and we just take care of them for the rest of their lives.

♪ >> We are the only multispecies sanctuary in the Midwest.

We have over 90 animals.

We have a lot of tigers.

We have a lion, a cougar, some small cats like bobcats and servals.

We also have a lot of primates, reptiles, birds, bears, foxes and wolves.

♪ Joe is one of our primates.

He's a long-tailed macaque.

He was privately owned.

So they used to, you know, walk him around with a belt around his waist, and then he started to get more aggressive, and they realized that they were too afraid to handle him.

They didn't want to handle him anymore.

So they ended up putting him in a closet.

He really only had, like, one enrichment item.

It was a little swing for him.

Not a lot of branches to climb on and things like that.

And they also would just put scraps of food on a paper plate and slide it underneath the door.

The floor was just covered with paper plates and urine and feces.

You know, they were too afraid to go in there and actually clean.

So when we got him, he was completely skin and bones.

He was very, very malnourished.

We didn't actually think he was going to make it under anesthesia.

We are not a zoo, and so we don't want to create more of an issue of this exotic ownership in the United States.

We don't ever get to handle them here, but they do come up to the caging a lot of times.

You will get that one-on-one experience, and that kind of closeness experience without having to actually handle the animals, which is -- you know, one of our missions is we don't ever want to, you know, use these animals for entertainment purposes.

Some facilities offer, like, pay-to-plays and cub pettings and things like that, which does sound awesome.

You know, as a kid I really was, like, oh my gosh, my dream is to hold a tiger.

I love tigers, but it's not the ethical thing.

The animals do go through a lot.

They are out there for hours and hours.

A lot of times they get really stressed.

They -- they are wild animals.

They don't want to be handled.

They deserve to be just using their natural behaviors.

Unfortunately, a lot of those facilities are only in it for the profit.

So this our lioness Africa.

She's 8 years old.

She was actually part of a cub petting program.

So people sitting around in a circle pass her around, and apparently a small child actually fell on her back, and the people that owned the facility thought that the kid had broken her back.

But instead of getting the vet care that she deserved, they just threw her in this concrete cage for three years of her life.

It was about the size of a large dog kennel.

So she just had enough room to turn around, but that was it.

But when we got her, she was very, very malnourished.

I mean, you could count every single vertebrae on her back.

And this is her first enclosure that actually has -- like, she stepped on grass for the first time.

Luckily, when she was healthy enough, we did get her the vet care.

Now she's just amazing, you know, healthy lion that she is today.

♪ So education is a big part of what we do.

We want to make sure people are aware of the issues that are going around in the United States.

There's not a lot of laws that prevent people from owning exotic pets.

So that is one thing we are trying to push for.

We have a couple of family events throughout the summer, and we have different overnight events as well.

So we welcome, you know, all ages.

There are a lot of adults that end up learning a lot more than they think they would.

We are a nonprofit organization.

We are solely run on donations.

So all that support just, you know, helps to care for these animals.

The bonds that you create as a keeper with the animals is really, really special.

You are so pretty.

Just knowing that you are giving them a better life is just an amazing feeling.

It drives me to, you know, wake up every day, come here and take care of all of these animals and just give them the best life that we possibly can.

>> ASHLEY: It's really unfortunate that those animals, you know, ended up at Black Pines because of some really sad situations, but how great that they get to live their life out in a place where they feel safe.

>> BRANDON: It's true.

If you've never had a chance to go to an animal sanctuary, I highly recommend it.

You can get more info at bpsanctuary.org.

>> ASHLEY: Up next, we're headed to a small town in DeKalb County to check out a former bank that's now an art museum.

Producer Jason Pear has the story.

>> The town of Garrett was a railroad town.

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad made a connection between Indiana and Chicago, Illinois.

And so a man named John W. Garrett actually came here and founded the town.

Bought 50 acres and settled here, and that was in 1871.

So the town was really built on railroading, and people working for the railroad.

It has evolved into what it is now.

There are a few businesses and banks and churches and some residential neighborhoods.

Garrett State Bank was really founded in 1893.

It was in the Wagner Opera House, and after that moved the Mazillo Building.

Neither of those places still exist.

And in 1917, they had an architect come and build this building.

It's built in the classical style.

It was, I imagine, one of the grandest buildings on the main street here.

It stayed here until 1975.

There are still people that come in and tell us about remembering when they were little kids and would come into the bank and, oh, the tellers booths were over here.

And I remember bringing my pennies in and having them count them for me.

The bank is still open.

It just relocated.

So in 1975, they vacated this building, built a new building on the corner behind us.

They also have another branch on the main street coming into Garrett, and they have a branch in Fort Wayne.

So the bank still exists.

Still going strong.

And people around here, I imagine, all bank here.

There were a group of people, one being an art teacher and one being a local artist, that knew that the building was going to be empty, and thought, you know, we have always wanted to do some kind of an art venue, an art museum or a gallery.

So they approached the bank and the bank said, yes.

We would love to be able to have you use the building for that.

And it became a museum because there were some people that said, well, we have paintings, or some kind of drawings or illustrations that were from Garrett residents.

And we would like to start a so-called permanent collection.

And so hence it became a museum versus a gallery.

This is unique.

There is no other art museum in this area.

There are a few smaller galleries in DeKalb County, but we're the only art museum.

Open call used to be called our member show.

So we have had it every year since the very first year in 2008.

That was the very first exhibit that ever opened here, and we carried on the tradition every year.

And this year, we decided that we would change the name to open call, not stipulate that you had to be a member to be in the show.

We want to include you.

We want you to be able to your art somewhere, since it's difficult right now to get shows and shows are canceling.

We thought we could open it up more to the community.

In the main museum for open call, we have a variety of people that have come all the way from Huntington, some Ohio, Michigan, and then our surrounding area.

I'm encouraged that we will have a lot of 3-D art this year.

We have jewelry, which we have not had before.

We have sculptures and pottery, plus the paintings that are hanging on the wall.

It's a very eclectic show, which makes it interesting to hang and challenging, but once it's all together, it seems to work.

We have 10 to 11 exhibits a year.

We try to show not only local and area artists, but now we're expanding to national.

In 2022, we open the year with Edward S. Curtis, who was a famous photographer in the United States, who made it his mission to try to document the so-called death of the American Indians.

His work is shown all over the world, and we are fortunate enough to be able to be bringing 70 pieces here to the museum.

We're also bringing in a national/international photographer Brooke Shaden, who is from California.

She does conceptual photography.

She's quite well known.

We're excited about having her.

And we just found out that we'll be doing a Norman Rockwell exhibit in 2023.

In this area and the surrounding counties, it is a vibrant art scene.

People will make it a destination visit.

We have a lot of outdoor public art.

We have murals, and when they find out about us, they are glad to have a museum in this area to be able to come to.

>> ASHLEY: It's really interesting that you can take some spaces that are meant for one thing and turn them into something totally different, like I once knew of a train car that was turned into an ice cream shop.

So to see a bank turned into an art museum is really cool.

>> BRANDON: Yeah, I think over the course of our careers, we have both done a lot of theater in spaces that weren't theaters that were then transformed into theaters.

>> ASHLEY: The Edward Curtis exhibit runs through March 27th, and you can get all the info about that and future shows at Garrettmuseumofart.org.

And finally, we are headed to Kendallville for a look at a former icon of the Indiana landscape.

♪ >> If you think about windmills in Indiana today, this might just be the image that comes too mind.

Fields of turbines, like these in Madison County, harness the wind and provide power for the surrounding area.

Around a century ago, the scene would have looked more like this.

This was the era of the agricultural windmill, and nearly every farm had one.

>> Wind power was very important because you had water to cook with, cattle, to take a bath.

If you didn't have the windmills back then, there was no way to get water up from the ground.

>> The windmill was also an integral part of the westward expansion.

>> They would have windmills against the track, and they would fill the steam engines.

It would go into a tank, and then the tank would fill into a steam engine, but at the same time, that windmill could also take care of the cattle in that area.

So it was a dual purpose windmill.

>> And for more than a quarter century, a unique, nearly one-of-a-kind museum in Northwest Indiana has been keeping this history alive.

♪ >> We are in Kendallville, Indiana, at the Mid-America Windmill Museum.

We are only one of two museums open in the United States.

There's another one down in Texas.

May 23rd, 1994, we had a grand opening of our museum.

When we first started, we just had 10 windmills.

We are up over 50 some in display at this point, and we have more to go up.

So we have just gained a lot through the 25 years.

And when we look back, it's amazing what you can accomplish.

>> The museum, located on 40 acres just east of Kendallville, is run entirely by volunteers.

They work to maintain the grounds, give tours, and staff the gift shop.

And not surprisingly, a lot of volunteer hours go towards maintain and restoring the windmills themselves.

>> And it's very intensive.

The one we have over here that was a windmill took 160 man hours to reassemble and get it back to new again.

We have another metal one over here, it took 100 hours.

It's very time intensive.

And you've got to know what you are doing.

>> So why Kendallville?

>> At one time, there was 90 windmill companies within an 80-mile radius of Kendallville.

This was kind of a hub with Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio.

>> The largest of these 90 companies was Kendallville's own Flint & Walling.

At one time, the second largest manufacturer of windmills in the country.

>> And their first made windmill was in 1878.

They quit making them in 1954.

>> There were 11 different models of Flint & Walling windmills, each an improvement on the previous generation.

>> When they first started making them, they were wood windmills.

That's what everybody did.

Then later on, they got into the metal windmills, and we have all 11 in our collection.

We don't have them all up yet, but we do have 11.

We have one outside that is hooked up to a well.

It's the only one we have hooked up to a well.

It is the last windmill off the assembly line of Flint & Walling.

And that's a very neat feature for us to have.

>> Flint & Walling which long ago made the switch from windmills to submersible pumps is still very much a part of Kendallville, and the windmills that bear their name are very much a part of the Midwest Windmill Museum.

But they are not the only windmills you will find here.

In fact, the majority of these are from other manufacturers.

>> We are a windmill museum that features actually three different types of windmills.

A water windmill, which most people see that the Amish use today.

Another windmill is a power windmill, which will run a shaft from a windmill to a piece of equipment, and run a corn sheller or a saw or something like that.

And then we have the Robertson post windmill, which is a grinding windmill.

A lot of them are different models of the same company, like Aermotor made many different models of windmills.

So some didn't make as many models or only ever made one.

>> A unique museum, celebrating and sharing a unique part of Hoosier history.

>> We've had people from all 50 states.

We've had 44 foreign countries represent with people here, which when you think about it, that's a lot of different people visiting from all around the world.

So it's been really a neat attraction to our community.

>> ASHLEY: If you would like more info on Indiana's historic windmills, just go to midamericawindmillmuseum.org.

And as always, we 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.

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

>> BRANDON: And before we say good-bye, let's spend a little more time in Northeast Indiana taking a look at the Elkhart County quilt gardens.

2022 marks the 15th anniversary of the gardens, which should be in bloom in late May.

♪ >> Production support for "Journey Indiana" is provided by Columbus Visitors Center, celebrating everywhere art and unexpected architecture in Columbus, Indiana.

Tickets for guided tours and trip planning information at Columbus.in.us.

And by WTIU members.

Thank you.