WTIU members.

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>> ASHLEY: Coming up, explore the halls of the Randolph County Asylum.

>> BRANDON: Discover Abraham Lincoln's Indiana roots.

>> ASHLEY: And meet a father-son duo preserving historic stone cutting techniques.

>> 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 Spirit of Jasper Train in Dubois County.

The Spirit of Jasper Train takes riders on scenic tours across Dubois County.

Passengers can ride and dine in three beautifully restored train cars as they watch the scenery roll by.

>> BRANDON: And we'll learn all about the Spirit of Jasper in just a bit.

>> ASHLEY: But first, we're headed to Randolph County, where producer John Timm explores the supernatural at the historic Randolph County Asylum.

♪ >> If these calls could talk -- they wanted to.

They've been waiting to talk for a hundred years.

♪ >> You could feel when you walked in the building that there was something here.

♪ >> We are at the Randolph County Asylum in Winchester, Indiana, a building built in 1899, and had plenty of -- plenty of names.

I mean, plenty of -- did a lot in its era.

>> The history of Randolph County Infirmary actually started out way back in the year of 1851.

And there must have been a great need for homeless shelters at that time, because every county in the state of Indiana built one of these places.

What they're called are poor farms.

And for you to qualify to live here at no cost to you, you have to have either a mental or physical handicap or you cannot work to take care of yourself.

In the early spring of 1898, they started building the building that we're in today.

And by late fall of 1899, they've got this building done.

It was 351 acres.

They raised corn, beans, and wheat, just like we do every place else in Indiana today.

They had great, big huge working gardens, plus they raised their own livestock.

And so it's very self-sustaining.

You've got your own rooms.

You get fed three meals a day.

It's a good setup.

By 2005, it got to the point where there wasn't enough money here coming in.

And in 2006, the caretakers, Dave Burge and his wife, were let go by the county.

And so it was closed.

It was done.

[ Door creaks ] Now, Dann and Richard, they picked it up in 2015.

>> My name is Dann Allen and I'm president of STOP, Saving The Old Properties, an organization we started up about two years ago, but we've been saving properties for the last -- geez, since 1996.

And we try to save them inside and out.

So we are not turning them into apartments or condos or anything.

Just -- we save the building as it was for the future.

♪ >> My brother kept driving by and seeing this kind of, like, being just slowly deteriorating.

So he went and talked to the county councilman.

And we told him that we save these old buildings, not to make apartments, not to try -- but to save the building and the history.

♪ >> When we came here, we thought if it's not -- you know, not haunted, we've got a neat old building that we'll do something with, and we'll rent it out for parties, this, that and the other, but just don't tear it down.

Well, yeah.

It just right off the get-go.

>> Did we buy it for that?

No.

We bought it for the history.

The residents came with it.

♪ >> One night we were downstairs in the front room, and we heard somebody up on the second floor.

So I ran up there without a flashlight.

Didn't think to bring a flashlight, and I heard somebody walking down the hallway.

And I said, go get a flashlight to the person standing next to me.

Go get a flashlight.

I don't want to leave because if the guy takes off, we won't know where he's at.

So the person got a flashlight and came back to me.

Well, meanwhile, when he went to go get the flashlight, this whatever walked down the hallway, about halfway, a little bit more than half, stopped, opened the door, walked through the door, closed the door, and I could hear him take two or three steps and faded out.

[ Footsteps ] So I went down there, and there wasn't even a single door that was closed, let alone somebody in there.

But it was just so realistic.

>> First day here, I was scraping the walls because there's just a lot of paint just coming off.

So we were scraping the walls and I looked and there's four of us.

And I looked, and it's, like, I'm the only one scraping.

It's, like, where did everybody go?

So I heard them at the end of the hall down here talking.

And I thought, what the heck?

But they were outside.

[ Laughter ] >> We offer history tours, just come in and do the history.

We offer tours during the day.

Even if they want to come in and just do a mini hunt during the day, or they can spend the night.

♪ >> My name is Amanda Sherman.

I'm part of the group that's called Seekers of the In-Between.

We're a paranormal group.

We travel around to haunted locations and see what we can get.

>> I'm telling the spirit box.

Let's see if you can try talking to us on it.

>> When I first heard about this place, it was on "Destination Fear".

>> Ovilus didn't give me any responses, but it feels so creepy down there!

Every minute that went by, I felt like it was getting worse and worse down there.

>> I was watching it, and I found out the place was here, located in Indiana, which is where we're from, Indianapolis, Indiana.

And I found out that it was just an hour and a half away, and so we figured we had to make it here.

>> Do you remember us?

>> We have been here before.

We had a lot of stuff happen the last time.

Personal experiences, some EVPs.

>> We do photographs, videos.

I got a REM Pod.

We'll pull that out.

>> You can use the green light for yes.

Can you stop?

>> We do thermal to find out if there's any cold spots or anything like that.

>> Ever since I was a child, I've had interactions with spirits.

When I was a little girl growing up, my house was haunted.

When I was younger, I was very scared of it and terrified, but then I owned -- I owned it.

You know, I thought I don't want to go throughout my life being terrified of paranormal experiences.

I want to learn what they are, find out what's going on there.

♪ >> It's fun, and I loved seeing people's evidence that they get, because it took them hours to get it.

I love to see it, because there's a lot of stuff I can't explain.

♪ >> The residents that are here like the idea that we're keeping this place up.

>> We're here to see that it's done right and respectful.

>> There's a lot in old buildings, old bones, you know?

It's more than just being paranormal, but just the history behind them.

>> ASHLEY: Well, this is definitely one of the spookier stories we've ever done on this show.

I've got to know, Brandon, would you spend a night there?

>> BRANDON: No!

No!

What's the matter with you?

[ Laughter ] >> ASHLEY: I would not either, in all honesty.

I said I'm not scared about -- too many things don't scare me that much, but that place, no, thank you.

I'm not going to spend the night there.

Want to learn more?

Visit hauntedrandolphcounty.com.

>> BRANDON: Earlier, we spoke with Tom Moorman, City of Jasper Park Director to learn more about the Spirit of Jasper.

♪ >> Jasper, Indiana, is home to many traditions.

One in particular is pushing full steam ahead, as one of the community's most beloved attractions.

>> We are the only city-owned passenger train in Indiana.

>> There's a lot to see on the Spirit of Jasper.

From a southern Indiana perspective, we have wetlands.

We have hills.

We have good foliage here in the fall.

>> The Spirit of Jasper can travel from Jasper, Indiana, to French Lick depending on the ticket.

And don't worry, on this train, being bored is not an option.

>> So the Spirit of Jasper has been running since 2009.

We have multiple rides available.

Everything from a one-hour trip to full meals, chocolate wine and dine.

You know, chocolates from the local chocolate shop, Chocolate Bliss.

Beer and pizza rides.

We have a variety of things.

Our three cars that we have, two of them are meant for eating the meals on or main passenger.

The middle one is our bar car.

It is a wonderful thing to be with these people while they are experiencing this.

I don't know why kids love trains so much, but I'm glad they do.

And adults turn into little kids when they are on the train too.

It's a great thing to experience.

♪ Coming to Jasper in and of itself is an experience.

There's a lot to offer.

The train ride is wonderful to see southern Indiana, to enjoy a great meal, and to have a unique experience of riding a train.

We don't have trains that go across the country anymore.

That was the main mode of transportation.

This is an experience that will last a lifetime.

>> BRANDON: Want to learn more?

Head to spiritofjaspertrain.com.

>> ASHLEY: Up next, producer Nick Deel takes us to Spencer County, to the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial.

♪ >> Illinois may claim to be the Land of Lincoln, but Indiana is where the 16th President spent his formative years.

>> The Lincoln family moved here when Abraham Lincoln was 7, and they spent 14 years here.

So they moved to Illinois when he was 21.

>> The Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Lincoln City, Indiana, attempts to preserve and contextualize Lincoln's time in the state.

>> Thomas Lincoln owned land in Kentucky.

They lost their land at least twice, because of dubious land laws.

And Indiana had just become a state.

He could actually buy land from the government.

So he decided to buy 160 acres of land here in Indiana so that the title would be clear.

People come to visit this park because when you walk on the ground here at the park, you are walking on ground that Abraham Lincoln walked on.

He spent 14 years here, roaming through these woods.

He helped his dad create a homestead here.

They built a cabin.

They cleared land for their crops and their kitchen garden.

So they were here.

They experienced life for 14 years as pioneers.

So people want to be a part of that.

They want to come and see, and, you know, recognize where he grew up.

>> A bronze footprint stands where historians believe the Lincolns' home once stood.

And a working pioneer homestead demonstrates to visitors what life was like for a typical pioneer family.

>> They were here from 1816 until 1830.

What we're depicting here is that time frame of Abraham Lincoln's life.

So some of the things that we're growing here are heritage plants that would have been seen and grown in their gardens.

They would have had to grow everything that they needed to be able to survive, and they would have had to properly store their food to last through the winter.

So what they grew and what they harvested would be what they had to eat.

And so they -- they really had a lot of work to do every day, just to be able to survive.

♪ >> Life was hard.

It was a very forested area.

A lot of trees needed to be cleared.

They had to grow their own food.

They had to raise their own animals.

So it was very subsistence farming.

Depending on the weather, depending on if you could get your crops to grow that year was how successful you were going to be.

A lot of fencing that you see around us, the fencing was to keep wild animals out.

So when they were here, Abraham Lincoln wrote about panthers, and he wrote about bears that were still here in the area.

So those kinds of dangers were still around too for these pioneers.

>> Despite the hardships, Abraham Lincoln thrived in Indiana.

>> Thomas Lincoln was a carpenter.

So he had a carpentry shop.

He worked as a carpenter for the people in the community.

He really emphasized determination and grit.

That's what he kind of gave to Abraham.

And then Nancy, she also really encouraged Abraham's love of learning.

So he only went to school for about a year total.

When he was learning, it was a lot of learning on his own.

>> The Lincolns would also note tragedy during their time in Indiana.

Nancy, Abraham's mother, died during an outbreak of milk sickness, spread through the milk of cows that ingested wild, toxic plants.

>> She died when he was nine.

He actually helped his dad build the coffin that she was buried in.

And so a lot of trauma there.

Ten years later, he had lost his sister.

She died in childbirth here.

She's buried, actually, in what is now the state park across the street.

So a lot of trauma.

A lot of hardships.

It was just a hard life for pioneers.

>> Another outbreak of milk sickness would push the Lincolns to depart Indiana for Illinois, where Abraham would grow to become a lawyer, politician, and eventually the President of the United States.

And while much has changed since Lincoln's time in Indiana, the lessons that visitors can take are still highly relevant.

>> I think all national park sites are important for the nation.

So we have 424, currently, national park sites in the country, and they all come together to tell the American story.

So this particular park site is all about Abraham Lincoln's youth.

Those lessons, those people, events, things that happen to us in our life that help us, you know, create us and develop us into these adults that we become.

So this was that place for Abraham Lincoln, the lessons he learned from his father, his mom, his stepmother, his sister, even his neighbors and friends.

You know, those all went into the development of Abraham Lincoln and the leader that we remember in our history today.

>> ASHLEY: Want to learn more about Lincoln's time in Indiana?

Just ahead to the address on your screen.

>> BRANDON: Up next, we're headed to Lawrence County where producer Saddam Abbas introduces us to the father-son duo at Kopelov Cut Stone.

♪ >> I was raised in a way where I was given the space and the freedom and the opportunity to take an interest in a lot of different things.

And how exactly I became so interested in stone carving or stone cutting, I'm not sure, but it's also a larger interest.

I really love a lot of the whole process of it, that it takes certain ingenuity and machines to accomplish the carving that I do or the -- the architectural details that we make here.

Working with my father from an early age, in masonry, because he did a lot of different kinds of masonry, stonework, brickwork.

So I did start learning to use chisels and carve stone for walls and things related to what he was working on.

And he really gave me that opportunity to learn how to use the tools.

♪ >> I spent 40 years in New Mexico.

I didn't grow up there, but that's where the business started, in New Mexico, near Albuquerque.

There, we did a lot of stone projects for California or West Coast, and we did a lot of sandstone restoration.

Well, the main reason why we moved to Indiana is that the shipping costs for getting blocks of stone from Indiana out to New Mexico was starting to rise.

We started thinking, well, it might be better to be located where the stone is -- where the material is, rather than shipping it all the way, you know, to New Mexico, and then cutting it up, having all that waste sitting in New Mexico.

Because there is waste when you are cutting stone.

If you start with a block, there's probably anywhere from 25% to 30% waste that you bought, that you can't use in the finished product.

So it does come down to economics.

♪ >> Here at Kopelov Cut Stone, we carve limestone and other calcareous stone.

And we do mostly carving and cutting for restoration projects and historical work, as well as monuments.

And we specialize in historic textures, tooling, things that were done, you know, 100 years ago with chisels.

>> We definitely are into old world architecture, as well as even the technology.

I mean, we do use some modern tools.

They are handy.

But there's a look that you can only get from using the tools that were available at the time when some of this old architecture that you see around the world, and even in this country, you need to actually finish stone a certain way to get that look.

So what I'm talking about is things like certain textures that were used on buildings.

A lot of times these textures, it's -- they're not just for aesthetic reasons, because somebody thought it was beautiful.

They actually also had a purpose.

It created certain shadows on buildings, that you -- whereas, if you just had a flat sawn surface, something like Indiana limestone, which is rather monotone, it would just disappear.

So when you are standing 50, 100, couple hundred feet away, it would just look rather flat and uninteresting.

And a lot of the older architecture is interesting looking.

I noticed this ever since I was a little kid.

So I've always been attracted to old world architecture.

My son Kino, he is as well.

When we were trying to come up with a business model, I think it was pretty evident that that's what -- we were going to go after what we were interested in, where our hearts were.

And that's why we do this.

♪ >> So we start with the blocks or the slabs, and then depending on the project, we cut it into sort of the overall shape with a little bit extra depending on if we're cutting molding or cornice or if we're going to carve something, we have to leave a little bit extra.

The project I'm working on now is a monument, and I did plane a rough profile on it, but then quickly I went to using patterns, marking on to the sides, and doing everything else with air hammers and chisels.

With more decorative work, it moves quickly to hand work.

From -- from our saws, we'll -- we'll usually set it up on banker tables, and then we'll have patterns to lay out the shape we are going to need to carve, and we'll go to chisels and air hammers.

The reason I do limestone is I just love the look of the finished product.

It's gonna last.

I've worked in wood.

It just moves around too much.

It's not my kind of medium.

But stone, it pretty much stays where it is.

Some stone carver, some stone cutter, would have had to have done this work thousands of years ago.

They did do this work, just so that I have the ability to look at it.

It's more an historical perspective.

It's not just my lifetime.

So I'm continuing the craft so that people can look at it, you know, 100 years from now.

>> BRANDON: You can learn more at kopelovcutstone.com.

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

>> ASHLEY: 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.

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

>> ASHLEY: Well, we will do a little bit more exploring, but we will see you next time on -- >> TOGETHER: "Journey Indiana."

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

Thank you!