"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!

>> BRANDON: Coming up, travel to Wabash, to learn how it became the first electrified city in the world.

>> ASHLEY: Take a trip to Rose Island, a 100-year-old abandon amusement park in southern Indiana.

>> BRANDON: And join Ashley and me in Nashville for a unique photo adventure.

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

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

I'm Brandon Wentz.

>> ASHLEY: And I'm Ashley Chilla.

And we're coming to you from the Morgan County History Center and Museum.

Located in downtown Martinsville, inside the Historic Blackstone House, this museum celebrates all things Morgan County, from John Wooden to Old Hickory Furniture.

>> BRANDON: And we thought this would be the perfect place to share some of our favorite Hoosier history stories, and we're starting off in north central Indiana to learn how Wabash became the first electrified city in the world.

Producer Todd Gould has the story.

[ Bell tolls ] >> "March 31st, 1880, The fame of Wabash, Indiana, has been wafted upon every breeze and hurled from one point of the compass to another, until every nook and corner in America has been reached.

This is because she is the first city in the world to be lighted by electricity.

It was the strangest light ever exhibited in these United States," Fort Wayne Gazette.

♪ >> Rarely does the geographic layout of a city guarantee its place in international fame, but such was the case in 1880 in the town of Wabash, Indiana, which enjoys the claim of being the first electrically lighted city in the world.

>> They had this courthouse high on a hill that would allow the light to spread over the whole town and service the whole town and light the whole city.

It was a wonderful thing.

♪ >> In 1879, Dr. Charles Brush of Cleveland, Ohio, was one of the first entrepreneurs to shed new light on the functional uses of electricity.

Brush was working with a new arc lamp, which generated power from a small dynamo, sending electrical sparks firing through two carbon rods, creating a bright white light.

At the same time, in Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison was perfecting his new incandescent light.

In a heated publicity race, both men were eager to show how their inventions could light an entire city with electricity.

Meanwhile, in Wabash, Indiana, Thad Butler, editor of the Wabash Plain Dealer, along with his partner T.P.

Keator thought they could offer a solution to help Brush succeed in beating Edison.

>> These two men were walking one night and noticed that big courthouse and thought maybe the top of that courthouse would be a good place to try lighting the town with these new lights they had read about.

Thad Butler went to Cleveland, talked to Charles Brush, presented him with the idea.

He liked the idea, and so they brought it back to the city council.

♪ >> Notes from a city council meeting in February 1880 stated that Wabash would agree to pay $100 to the Brush Company to set up a lighting demonstration at the Wabash Courthouse in March.

If the event proved successful, Wabash would pay the company $1,800 to set up a permanent lighting system in the town.

The two editors from the Plain Dealer were thrilled, and hyped the coming attraction with great flare.

But as soon as the deal was signed, Wabash citizens began to question the move.

The city's rival newspaper called the lighting event a stunt, and many worried about the motives of folks from out of town who might abscond with the tax money raised by the good people of Wabash, none of whom had ever seen electric lights before.

>> People had read about electricity.

People in Wabash had read about it, but they had never experienced it.

>> They were doubting.

Both newspapers had all of these things that might happen, like the cows being so stressed out from light all the time, and so tired they wouldn't give milk.

The chickens the same thing.

They would probably croak.

They'd be so tired.

♪ >> As the time drew closer to the March 31st lighting event, tensions soared in Wabash.

Plain Dealer editor Thad Butler reported that one day the arguments grew so heated between the two Wabash newspapers, the editor of the rival paper accosted a Plain Dealer editor by holding a pistol to his throat and threatening him.

Butler and many members of the city council began to doubt their decision.

>> They have a moment when they are wondering, what have we done?

Why -- why did we decide to take this on?

You know, will it work?

[ Train whistle ] >> On March 31st, 1880, special trains from all over the Midwest poured into Wabash, crammed with people hoping to see the spectacle.

The tiny town of 2500 citizens was flooded with more than 10,000 spectators from all over the country.

>> So on March the 31st at 8:00 local time, it was pitch dark, and the arrangement was that the lights would come on at 8:00, at the stroke of eight.

There was tremendous tension in that crowd.

They were standing there and hearing the clock go bong, bong, bong.

>> All of a sudden the lights came on, and it was such an awesome thing.

They were so bright, the people were absolutely quiet for a little bit.

They didn't even say anything.

It was like ahhh.

>> There was dead silence.

You could have heard the proverbial pin drop.

>> And then the cheers, of course, and the celebration.

And supposedly a farmer out in the country, it was bright out there, and he saw this light.

And he ran in and said, get on your knees, mother, the world is coming to an end, you know?

>> "The crowd spread over the suburbs making tests by looking at watches and reading newspapers in an area that just moments before was pitch black.

In short, Wabash now enjoys the distinction of being the first city in the whole world to be lighted by electricity," Chicago Tribune.

>> This became a great matter of civic pride.

And some of that still exists today.

♪ >> ASHLEY: You know, Brandon, it's hard to believe that something that we take for granted like electricity, was such a big deal back then.

I mean, there was so much drama surrounding this.

>> BRANDON: Yeah, a gun to your neck.

Not surprisingly, the Wabash County Historical Museum has a wealth of information about this story, and you can learn more at Wabashmuseum.org.

>> ASHLEY: Earlier, we caught up with Patty Dow to learn all about the Morgan County History Center and Museum.

>> Back in 2017, there was a group of people who got together to form the Morgan County History Partnership.

And in 2018, then we began actually talking about starting a museum.

In 2019, the Christian church over here were kind enough to rent this building to us at a very low rate, but COVID hit.

So we didn't actually open the museum until June of '21.

And it has just grown so fast!

We've been so pleased with everybody that has donated to us.

All of these things are coming from people's attics, basements.

We've even got store owners and like the Reporter Times, that have things in their back rooms that they don't know what to do with, and we said, please, send them our way.

We have a wall for John Wooden with a lot of information on him and pictures.

We have a military display that goes from Civil War, clear up through Afghanistan.

We have a lot of information on the sanitariums that existed in Martinsville, as well as some of the medical devices.

In the train and farm room, we are dedicating it to all of our Hoosier homestead farms, and how the railroads first came through Morgan County.

So just about anything that you might have an interest in, we have here in the museum.

And if we don't have it, bring it to us.

We'd be glad to put your things on display, and we will even take things on loan if you don't want to give them to us permanently.

It's a county museum.

We've got a lot of Martinsville things in here right now, but we want things from Monrovia, Eminence, Paragon, all of the surrounding towns and communities.

We had a family come in from Pennsylvania that was doing some research on their family, and when I went to talk to them, I said, oh, have you seen the picture of the Eisenhower House?

Well, didn't even know anybody had that picture.

Then I showed her the passport and itinerary of a great aunt.

Then I went upstairs and got letters from the family and brought down, and they set here for an hour and a half going through those and photographing them.

They were just so excited, and those type of things, all the hours of work and sweat and everything else just -- it makes you so happy.

It's history, and we want to preserve as much of it as we possibly can.

>> ASHLEY: And you can learn even more at: >> BRANDON: Up next, we're headed south to Clark County, to learn about an amusement park that was abandoned more than 80 years ago.

Producer Adam Carroll has the story of Rose Island.

♪ >> To tell you about Rose Island, first, I have to tell you about the park that was here first.

The city of Louisville was already a pretty large city at that point.

You had a lot of pollution beginning.

Coal was used in all the buildings, all the homes, all the businesses had coal furnaces.

There was a lot of soot and ash from that.

And even in those days, people thought that it was probably best to be away from that, to at least get out into nature into fresh air on occasion.

At the same time, you had a company called the River Excursion Company out of Louisville, who owned and operated several large Steamboats.

They saw an opportunity with this desire to get out of the city, if they were to create a park setting away from the city, that would require a boat trip there, then they could keep their boats making money.

So in the early 1880s, they created a park called Fern Grove.

And Fern Grove was really just kind of a basic picnic grounds for most of its life.

Think of an open, manicured city park.

You know, there were shade trees scattered around, lots of picnic tables.

It was a very popular destination.

Churches would have their picnics here.

Eventually employ -- picnics for companies were offered here.

And before it was over, Fern Grove did become just kind of a destination for the general public.

Eventually the park starts to lose its luster.

So Fern Grove was put up for sale, and it remains for sale for several years before a businessman from Louisville decides to buy it.

That man's name was David Rose.

So in 1923, he becomes the new owner of Fern Grove, and right away, really re-invents the park.

He has a power plant built on site.

So they have electricity now.

They start to add games, rides, and other attractions to really make it more than just a picnic ground.

The biggest change, though, was on the outside, the name.

It is now known as Rose Island.

That name is a little bit of a mystery to us, and a little bit misleading.

Rose is obvious, David Rose, named after his family.

Island was a little bit more confusing for us, because Fern Grove was never mentioned as an island because it's not an island at all.

This site became the popular destination, and the boats were once again filled with people coming from Louisville, Jeffersonville, Clarksville, New Albany, would take those trips here for a day of picnicking and fun in the park.

Mr. Rose was enjoying great success, but then we have the stock market crash, and, of course, The Great Depression.

But Mr. Rose continued to put his own funding into the park to keep it open every season, knowing that eventually the economy would get better, and of course, it does.

And business picks up again.

Mr. Rose starts to plan for his next phase of development, including adding things like a golf course, and other games, rides and attractions, but, again, he never gets the opportunity to see that because in January of 1937, it begins to rain.

And it continues to rain for days upon days, upon weeks, and we're left with what is considered the most devastating flood ever seen in our part of the country, what they would have called a 500-year flood.

And Rose Island was quite literally under water from the Ohio River.

What was not swept away from the flood was damaged so far beyond repair, Mr. Rose really could not afford to re-invest at that point.

So he essentially abandons the park.

And in 1940, the land becomes part of the Indiana Army Ammunition Plant, which essentially seals Rose Island off to the outside world until 2011, with the opening of our bridge here, and the opening of our Rose Island Trail.

♪ >> When we first opened in 1996, Rose Island was part of that original property.

We knew that there was a great interest from the local community to visit.

Unfortunately, because of the way the park property was laid out, we had no direct access to Rose Island.

So we knew that we would need a bridge to get people here.

So it really took a number of years of researching and finding some creative funding routes for that.

Fortunately, we were able to find that with the help of grants that were available for the preservation of historic bridges.

So the idea then became if we could find a bridge that would fit in our location, would fit those historic requirements and is not needed in its original home, that maybe we could get that bridge here.

The bridge was built in 1911, and it's an iron construction.

So the bridge was quite literally disassembled on site, on the White River in its original location, brought here piece by piece.

Those pieces were then restored, and it was reassembled here over Fourteen Mile Creek.

♪ A lot of the things that remain were the things that were built with concrete.

So, of course, our swimming pool is a main attraction here.

It was a main attraction in those days as well.

It's actually the first Olympic-length swimming pool built in the state of Indiana.

That pool was still full of water in 2011 when we first got access.

But there's also a couple fountains and foundations left of concession stands, things like that.

But really what was here before was much greater than what we can see today.

So one thing you will find when touring the site on your own is that there's not a lot here.

You know, as I said, most of it was washed away by the flood or damaged beyond repair.

So we really needed to tell the story in a much better way; otherwise, it was just a trail in the forest.

So we have some interpretive panels that have the stories on them and written text and photos.

Of course, that's not something that everyone is capable of taking in.

So we wanted to offer guided tours as much as possible.

But it's a walking tour.

Typically lasts an hour and a half to two hours, even though we hike less than a mile.

There's just so much stories to tell that it's a really slow pace walk, just a casual stroll through the woods with our tour guides just telling lots of stories.

So every year, we still have folks that are from the local community that come out and say, I just heard you are doing these tours.

My mother used to talk about these.

Or I went there when I was a child.

I've been able to meet some people over the years who were here, and enjoyed it in its original state.

It's pretty amazing to hear those stories and to be able to share those.

♪ >> BRANDON: You can learn more at in.gov/dnr.

Just search for Rose Island.

>> ASHLEY: Up next, we're headed to the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis for the latest installment in our Treasures From the Museum Series.

>> The Lincoln mallet is a tool that Abraham Lincoln used when he lived here in Indiana, and he was here during his formative years from the time he was 7 until he was 21.

The burl was a nice hard piece.

So he didn't want to lose his tool.

So that's why he marked it.

So it was important for use, but then when the family moved to Illinois in 1830 and they had to decide what to leave behind, he left the tool, downsizing.

But he also may have had an idea that he wanted to do some things that didn't involve hard, manual labor that was so necessary on the frontier.

Barnabas Carter was the family that ended up with the mallet, and that mallet stayed in their family, stayed right in the area, for five generations.

So ultimately, in that fifth generation, the owners, Keith Carter and Andrea Carter Solis, decided that maybe it was time to share it with the public.

Here at the museum, we have a couple of things.

We have the area where we have Lincoln's earlier life.

And so we have things like a ledger that his family, in Kentucky, that showed what Thomas Lincoln was purchasing.

The mallet is out all the time.

And then in another area where we talk about the Civil War and about Lincoln's legacy, we have a rotating selection of artifacts.

There isn't very much that really shows or was owned by Lincoln from that time.

You know, they didn't have a lot of money.

Things were very practical.

There are some beautiful cabinets his father made, and we have two on view here.

There are some sum book pages that he wrote out that are treasured and that are in several museum collections, but very little, and very little that shows just how hard life was on the frontier.

And so that's really what that mallet represents.

>> ASHLEY: The Indiana State Museum is full of treasures, and you can more at the address on the screen.

>> BRANDON: Finally, we are headed to Brown County and back in time!

Producer Ron Prickel took us to the Yesteryear Old Time Photo Studio, and we -- well, take a look.

♪ >> Hi.

>> Hi there.

>> How are you guys today?

>> Good, thanks.

>> Good.

Do you want to get a photo?

>> Yes, absolutely.

>> We have a character list up on the board here.

And there's several pictures to your right, and there's also a book there on the table that gives you a lot of examples.

And then if you guys have any questions, I will help you out.

>> Awesome.

>> Just ask.

>> We are so excited about this.

>> Yes, this is going to be fun.

>> It's good to have you guys here.

>> All right.

Let's pick a couple.

I think we have to go with some gunslingers.

>> Yes.

>> I mean, because you have been Bonnie in Bonnie and Clyde, haven't you?

I'm just going to pull everything I can from your resume.

>> And I think we should definitely do prairie woman/mountain man.

That one looks fun.

>> Yeah.

Yeah.

And it would give us another chance to have moonshine.

>> Perfect!

>> I think this will really show the different sides of us.

>> I think so too.

So we're going to be piano man and singing gal.

>> Yep.

>> We're going to do prairie woman and mountain man.

>> Yeah.

>> And then what was the third one?

>> A couple of gunslingers.

>> Couple of gunslingers.

>> Yeah, the Bonnie and Clyde.

>> Great!

♪ >> All right.

>> What have we got here?

>> So now, I'm going to give you this big old pair of pants.

They will be a little large, but we'll fix that.

>> All right.

>> So you're going to have a seat.

>> Yep.

>> Pull those right over your jeans.

>> Oh, this is a pretty color.

Which one is the most popular one?

>> Um, this one is usually popular with the younger kids.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> And this one is more for the older people, they tend to go for that one.

>> Yeah, I was going to say, I like the print on this one.

>> You want to go with that one?

>> Brandon, should I go with an older look or a younger look?

>> I don't think that you can pull off old.

>> That's the right answer!

We're going to go with this one then.

>> All right.

>> You got to know, you know, how to talk to your coworkers.

Okay.

>> Big old pants.

That's perfect.

I can pull your curtain shut for you.

>> Okay.

>> There you go.

>> Go ahead and put the boots on.

Don't worry so much about lacing them up because it's really not going to matter much.

>> All right.

♪ >> And what do we do with these?

>> I will tie them right back here for you.

>> Great, thank you.

♪ >> I'm really getting in the spirit.

>> There's a bonnet out here for you.

>> Wonderful.

A bonnet.

>> Don't worry about your shirt showing, because I'm going to give you lots of things here in a second that's going to hide all of that.

♪ >> There you go, and you can tie those under your chin or you can leave them loose.

>> Awesome.

Thank you.

>> The most important thing for a mountain man is his critter hat.

>> There we go.

Look at you, you got one that fit me too.

I feel more rugged already.

>> Brandon, how is it going?

>> Oh, we've been ready for about 20 minutes.

>> I'll be ready soon.

I'm putting a bonnet on now.

>> You know, if I had a dollar for every time I heard you say you would be ready soon but you were putting on a bonnet.

[ Laughter ] >> You would have a couple of dollars.

All right.

Well, this is a good look for me.

I think I should wear this all year round.

>> So I want you guys to have really straight backs.

First one, you are going to be very serious.

>> Okay.

>> All right.

Now I want you to smile because you are very happy.

And one more real serious one.

♪ ♪ Well, I was in Nashville taking pictures ♪ >> It used to be with a film camera.

We had the old camera, the cover over your head when you took the picture.

♪ Singing all over the place [ Laughter ] >> We put in a film, and then you took one photo.

And after that, then you would go into the darkroom, develop the negative, and check it with the little magnifier to make sure everyone's eyes were open and whatnot.

Then we would actually develop the picture in the darkroom.

We were busy, it would take a couple hours to get everyone's photo back to them.

>> You really look like you are enjoying playing that piano.

>> I'm a very good prop.

>> We could develop the picture on to a paper, Kodak paper, or a tin plate.

>> And there's our true personalities.

>> Yep, there it is.

>> When the digital came along, I bought the last of the 4x5 film.

So I actually kept my business -- or, you know, kept doing the old process, right up until I ran out of tin plates.

>> I mean, that's the poster for "Journey Indiana" right there!

>> I've had the business for 20 years.

I met a lot of good people here.

>> Thank you so much for having us.

>> It's my pleasure.

>> This was so much fun.

>> Good.

I'm glad you guys came in.

I hope you guys come back.

>> We definitely will.

Thanks so much.

>> Enjoy your day.

Thanks, guys.

>> Oh, thank you, Brandon.

>> Of course.

>> Let's see about getting you a shotgun.

>> BRANDON: Who were we then?

Like, I look at it now.

I feel like we need to go back because I much more fit the mountain man now than I did back then.

>> ASHLEY: Yes, I could see that for sure.

I mean, we were children.

We were mere children.

And I still never got that shotgun.

>> BRANDON: I know.

And we knew so little about Indiana then, compared to now.

[ Laughter ] And if you think you would look good as either a mountain man or a prairie woman and would like to do your own photo session, you can get all the info over at Nashvilleimage.com.

♪ >> 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!