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

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>> ASHLEY: Coming up.

>> BRANDON: Roll into a bygone era with some duckpin bowling.

>> ASHLEY: Explore the wonders of the Tyson Temple.

>> BRANDON: And meet the graveyard groomer.

>> 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 Santa Claus Museum in Santa Claus, Indiana.

For nearly a century, Santa Claus, Indiana, has been connecting kids and families with the Christmas spirit.

Today, the museum is keeping the tradition alive through a network of volunteer elves who gather here every year to personally respond to children's letters arriving from all over the world.

And we will learn all about this magical place in just a bit.

>> BRANDON: But first, we're headed to Indianapolis, where producer Tyler Lake serves up a strike at Action Duckpin Bowling.

♪ >> Walking into Action Duckpin Bowl on the fourth floor of this historic building in Indy's Market Square, is a bit like stepping back in time.

And when you see these pint-sized bowling balls and tethered pins, you might need someone to explain it to you, and that's okay, because there are folks here to help.

>> The first thing you need to know is that you've got three balls per frame, rather than just the two that you have with regular bowling.

>> It's a lot harder game.

You get your -- strike is your first ball.

Spare is your second ball.

Third ball is only a point ball.

Controlling the ball, you know, the smaller ball with no holes, it's not that easy.

It's just fun.

A lot of people just enjoy it.

It's different.

>> This is duckpin bowling.

A blast from the past that's still drawing big crowds.

In the '20s and '30s, the sport was in full swing.

It had a national organization and a devoted following.

>> Back in the day, you bowled in the winter.

You played baseball in the summer.

So for bowling alleys to gain revenue, they came up with what they called penny games.

So basically what you did, you could go in and bowl a game for a penny.

It has to be bowled on the 10-pin regulation lane.

The small pins are on a 10-pin spread.

So you have a smaller ball, smaller pins, and you don't have the inertia of the larger ball to get all the pins knocked down that you normally would.

So your scores are a lot lower in duckpin.

>> The game is a draw for anyone looking for a unique pastime, as well as skilled bowlers searching for a new challenge.

>> We have a lot of 10-pinners that come in here just for the novelty to play a different style of bowling game.

>> The average for adult scores that I see are usually around the 60 mark.

I had a gentleman the other night, he bowled an 86 his very first game he ever did in duckpin.

I'm, like, that's ridiculously good!

>> Behind the scenes, Stewart keeps the ball return and pin reset system up and running.

>> You roll the ball down the lane, and just before you get to the masking unit, there's a sensor down here.

It sees the ball.

It sends a signal up.

Whatever pin has been knocked down, that sensor knows to pull those pins back up and set the other pins back down.

And then you have the ball return, and it's just a chute with your chains and a lift, and it sends it right up and rolls right back down to you.

Actually maintenance on these, as far as pins, isn't too bad.

The more maintenance is in the computers that run the things.

>> You don't have to spend much time here to start wondering, why is there a bowling alley on the fourth floor of this historic building.

>> Back in the day, 1928, when this opened, everybody came to Fountain Square for entertainment.

This was a 10-pin bowling alley.

Woolworth came in the '50s and gutted everything in here.

Linton Calvert, my former employer, bowling family.

All this bowling stuff in here, it's all his collection.

When he found out that this building was available, and it did have a bowling alley, initially here, I want it.

This is mine.

The lanes came from Lyndhurst Bowl.

All the seating, the masking units, returns, items like that, those came out of Schuman's Lanes in Columbia City.

>> But for Stewart and Dancer, the one-of-a-kind space and vintage lanes are all part of the charm.

>> That's the appeal of this place.

They walk in and all of a sudden they're, like, in an old bowling museum almost.

And yet they get to play around.

We've got some regulars.

A lot of companies do their team building exercises with us.

So, you know, we're used to seeing Lilly and Anthem, Rolls-Royce, and all of those places that have headquarters or locations close by.

There are others that have celebrated every significant family event here.

>> And it's more than just a fun activity.

Stewart says the bowling alley and the revitalization of the building has led a Market Square Renaissance.

>> We opened in '93.

I was here in '92, and we were installing these in 1992.

So the initial problem was getting people to cross Washington Street to come to Fountain Square because people were afraid of crime.

We came here, other businesses started seeing this building expand and grow.

We did work on several other of the buildings to help renovate those and get them up and going.

Another business would come in, another business would come in.

We started taking off here in Fountain Square.

And now, try and find a place to set up shop.

[ Laughter ] >> The bowling alley and theater now sit in the heart of a bustling district, offering food, retail, and most importantly, a place to get away.

>> Especially right now, people need an escape from whatever is going on outside, and this provides a perfect environment.

They're walking into a quirky old bowling alley in a quirky old building, you know, escaping reality and just having a good time for an hour, maybe two or whatever.

And so I kind of count it my responsibility to help them do that.

♪ >> ASHLEY: You know, he was talking about how using a bowling ball is what -- like, the inertia helps knock down the pins, and this is harder because you don't have that.

>> BRANDON: Yeah.

>> ASHLEY: I can't even knock down the pins with the inertia of a regular ball.

I can't imagine trying to do it with a smaller one.

>> BRANDON: It seems like it would be hard for you to roll it with both hands.

>> ASHLEY: Yes.

>> BRANDON: Want to learn more?

Just head to fountainsquareindy.com.

>> ASHLEY: Earlier, we spoke with Patricia Koch, the founder of the Santa Claus Museum, to learn all about this holiday wonderland.

>> Santa Claus Museum and village is a place that we have designated to keep all the history since 1856, when the town received its post office.

>> Although the origin of the town's name has been lost to time, documents suggest that in 1856, the people of the town formerly named Santa Feey changed their name to Santa Claus; however, the town didn't develop a Christmas heritage until 1914, when postmaster James Martin took over the town's post office.

He began responding to the many letters that arrived intended for St. Nick.

Nearly a century later, Pat and her team of elves are carrying on this tradition.

My mission is to give the visitors another place to visit that they can enjoy to keep up the very wonderful legacy of helping Santa Claus answer children's letters that they write.

>> People, when they come here, can expect to see the original post office building, which was a log building.

And then I moved it here as an historic building.

So the front room, somebody donated desks so children can come in there and sit down at those desks and write a letter to Santa Claus.

And then they put their letter in the magic postbox and have to ring the bell so the elves know that their letter went out.

And the backroom is now the room in which Santa's elves sit to help Santa answer all the letters.

There's 25 to 35,000 letters.

Santa's very busy getting ready, right?

All of the letters have to be treated with great respect.

We tried very hard to find something in the child's letter that we can talk about when we write back so they know Santa read the letter.

Letters come from all over the world.

We just received four packages from schools in China.

Many letters.

And then we have the wonderful Santa Claus statue that I just love.

It was built in 1935, and it too was going into disrepair.

It had been sitting up here abandoned.

And so if you go to the museum, you will see some of the foundation that had to be taken off and a new foundation, but we kept pieces of the old one.

I think that's a magnificent, magnificent piece.

And then in the museum, we have historical documents.

application for the post office, pictures of the school children from the old town.

Pictures of when the statue was being built.

Many things for people to look at.

It's not a big corporation.

It's just a small village where people can feel like they belong and they are important.

And I hope they come and realize that Christmas is very, very important and spiritual in many ways.

I hope they do come visit.

>> BRANDON: So after hearing about this, are you excited to take some time to help out answering some of these letters?

>> ASHLEY: I've been looking forward to this for longer than I care to say.

I love holidays.

I love Christmas time.

I love Santa Claus.

So I'm very excited about -- about reading the children's letters.

You can find out more by going to SantaClausmuseum.org.

>> BRANDON: Up next, producer Ron Prickel takes us to Versailles to bask in the glory of the Tyson Temple.

♪ >> Located in the southeastern corner of Indiana, Versailles is the seat of government for Ripley County.

With the population of around 2,000, this community is like many small county seats with a skyline that's easy to overlook.

But one church steeple, just a block west of the town square, makes the skyline of Versailles unique.

This cross is the apex of what is referred to as the Tyson Temple.

♪ >> Oh, it's art deco.

It's one of a kind.

People come here and they see it, and they're awestruck by the structure and the -- just the design of it, the way it's been preserved over the years.

It's just a very unique building.

>> In the late 1800s, Versailles' native son James Tyson was living in a boarding house in Chicago, where he met and befriended Charles Walgreen.

Walgreen at the time owned just one drugstore, but soon came to Tyson with a proposal.

>> He said he would like to buy a second store, but he was short $1,500.

So he says to his friend Mr. Tyson.

He says, man, I would like to open that second store.

And, of course, Mr. Tyson had an extra $1,500.

So he loaned him the $1,500, and that was the start of Walgreens, so to speak, in terms of additional stores and chaining.

>> By 1917, Walgreen had multiple stores, and Tyson had become the secretary-treasurer of Walgreens Incorporated.

>> Walgreen went public in 1928, and, of course, him being an integral part of the company and a friend of Mr. Walgreen's, he was entitled to a large number of shares at the initial public offering.

But he never forgot his hometown.

1930, he decided to create an endowment, and he donated 18,000 shares to that fund for the benefit of the citizens of Versailles.

And he had some ideas as to what he wanted to do going forward, and one of those was to memorialize or commemorate the life of his mother, Eliza Adams Tyson.

And he asked his good friend James High, which he grew up with here in Versailles, how that would best be served, and James High recommended that he build a church.

>> In 1936, the cornerstone was laid.

Then the next year, May 16th, the church was dedicated.

I think there was a lot of excitement about the church going up.

>> I understand that there was just thousands of people here.

>> Tyson was there.

He presented the church to the board of trustees.

I think the church itself was the main draw.

I don't think people had ever seen -- around here had ever seen a church or a building like this.

>> When the church opened, there were only 500 people in the town of Versailles.

But 5,000 people attended that initial celebration and opening.

And then in the next three years, 27,000 signed the register out here.

So it was quite an event!

>> Despite their folded and faded appearance, the original architectural drawings display intriguing details of the structure's art deco style.

A close inspection reveals that the church is 90 feet from the front steps to the rear.

The width measures 41 feet and 5 inches across, with the building interior height coming in at 32 feet from the auditorium floor to the apex of the roof.

To get the overall exterior height of the structure, the dimensions of the unusual steeple need to be included.

>> From the spire, it's an inverted cone, and it's aluminum and stainless steel, and there's a 6-foot aluminum cross at the top.

From the top of that cross to ground level, it's 100 feet.

The spire itself is 65 feet.

And that spire, incidentally, cost $35,000 to construct.

>> The exterior finish of the church utilizes an unusual material to give the building its polished look.

>> It's that glazed terra cotta brick, primarily.

♪ Now, the downspouts and the guttering is all copper, but it's gilded with lead, if you will.

The church was designed to be built without structural wood.

>> Mr. Tyson had visited the temple in Jerusalem, and he got the idea that he would like to do it without wood or nails.

That's why it was called the temple supposedly, it's like Jerusalem's Hebrew or Jewish temple.

>> It's concrete and masonry.

If you can build it out of masonry, it will last a lot longer than wood, and it's more structurally sound.

>> The interior ceiling is adorned with gold and silver stars.

The location of each star is significant.

>> The 250 silver stars and the one gold star were all hand hammered and imported from Germany, and they are in the form of the night sky, the night that Eliza Adams Tyson died, and that gold star is in the position of the North Star.

♪ The windows are interesting because they are all imported from England.

They are stained glass, leaded windows, and they are grouted with zinc.

>> Originally, the church was built in 1937 for $150,000, which was a lot of money back then.

>> In addition to all the architectural technique on display, there are also many examples of religious symbolism found in the church.

>> The gold leaves that go horizontal and it represents the streets of gold of heaven.

The scallops running vertically are representative or symbolic of the Hasmonean scrolls that were used to write most of the Old Testament and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The arch itself is representative of the rainbow after the flood that Noah saw.

And the three rings up at the top on each column are representative of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

The flame represents the Pentecost.

The apostles were on fire and had passion to spread the word.

Those recessed handrails as you come up, those are an influence from Rennes, France, where he visited a cathedral, and he saw those, and it struck a chord with him.

And he thought, ah, must have made a mental note and said, I'm going to use those.

>> As each Sunday marked the passage of time, it became increasingly expensive to maintain the unique look of the church.

>> Over the years, they've had to rebrick the two sides and the front.

And the copper roof was replaced back in the '80s.

And it was $250,000 to repaint and refurbish the inside.

We used to have glass block windows in the front.

They were a maintenance nightmare.

Since it's been built in 1937, we put between $1.5 and $2 million back into it.

Any replace or repair comes out of the Tyson Fund, which is a godsend, because we couldn't keep it up.

>> Even though it's now been over 80 years since the temple first appeared on the Versailles skyline, it still manages to attract onlookers.

>> They schedule tours.

A lot of times, I'm out there doing something, they drive by and then they drive by again.

And sometimes they will stop, and ask a question, and it's captivating from a visual perspective.

>> I've been here working on things, and people will walk up and want to just tour the -- and I will stop what I'm doing and walk through, and let 'em look and their eyes are wide open coming in here.

They just look around like, how did this happen?

>> Sometimes they don't talk too much.

Sure, you are visually awestruck, but there is a feeling of -- I don't know what it is, magnificence, power, testimonial.

It's almost as if the structure itself is witnessing.

>> This is where I grew up.

This is -- this is my church.

When I was young, I didn't appreciate all the symbolism and the beauty of the church.

It's on the National Registry.

I want to always be on it, because I think it's a really special place, and I think it should be on it.

>> When I come through those front doors, I'm with God.

I feel his presence.

Yeah.

And I think everybody does.

>> If it can touch one heart or one soul through all of these tours and these different things, and people become closer to God, then in my opinion, it served its purpose.

♪ >> ASHLEY: It's pretty astonishing that a town of 500 people would have 5,000 people show up to the opening of a church.

>> BRANDON: Yes, or that 27,000 people would visit it in the first year, or at least that many signed the registry.

How many people were signing for, like, their whole family?

Want to learn more?

Plan your visit at the address on you >> ASHLEY: Up next, we're in Fayette County, where producer Todd Gould brings us the tale of the graveyard groomer.

[ Birds chirping ] >> We leave a cemetery in a certain area, and you realize what you actually put back together and made respectable again.

Oh, it's rewarding!

To me, that's the most rewarding part.

♪ >> Today is kind of a homecoming for Nancy J. Platt of Switzerland County, Indiana.

You see, Nancy died in 1879.

And over the years, time and the elements have done a number on her tombstone, leaving little more than crumbled mortar and faded memories.

But today, more than a century later, Ms. Platt's memory is being resurrected by a big bearded man and his brother, who are working hard to restore this intricately carved piece of Indiana history.

♪ >> If a stone is unstable to where it's a threat to a human, a caretaker, a visitor, we'll stabilize them right off the bat, get them leveled up and get them mortared together and tight.

>> That bearded man is John "Walt" Walters, better known in his trade as the Graveyard Groomer.

♪ >> I've done several other jobs throughout my life.

I was always unsatisfied with it, but, you know, I was a floor cover for many, many years, a roofer, a bridge work on the roads.

I did a little bit of all of these different trades, and actually, to this day, I feel like all of those was just giving me a little experience of this, that, and the other, that makes me good at what I am now.

>> Back in 1996, Walt was working for the county highway department near his home in Connersville.

One of his responsibilities was mowing the grass at the area's pioneer cemeteries.

As he started to work, he noticed the often intricate carvings on the headstones, as well as the wear and tear brought about by years of neglect.

The sight of broken and cracked headstones began to trouble Walt, and motivate him to do something about it.

>> It was the artwork that really grabbed my attention of being able to save that, and then realizing what more I was saving by the history of the region and on and on and on.

♪ >> Walt taught himself the basics of stone masonry, carpentry, pouring foundations, and intricate sculpting and design.

Even sent himself to the Association of Gravestone Studies in Washington, D.C., to learn still more.

♪ With the county's permission, he started restoring the stones in Fayette County with remarkable success.

By 2000, he left his job with the highway department to start his own company, The Graveyard Groomer.

Word of his success soon spread.

Within a couple of years, folks in 45 other Indiana counties and seven other states around the Midwest clamored for his services.

>> The critical lean would be, say, 10:00 and 2:00 on the clock.

If you've got a stone leaning at 2:00 angle, you better get it before it hits three or, you know, it's going down.

And so those become the big issue.

And if the stone's got a serious lean that when it falls, it could break the neighbor's stone, you know, now you've got two problems.

A stone that was like this, is the same stone, and here you have it finished up and restored.

>> Today, Walt is booked two years in advance in order to help various cities and counties restore their heritage.

He also conducts seminars to pass along to others, stories of the challenges he has overcome and the wisdom he has gained.

♪ >> It's problem-solving, a big part of this type of work.

You are looking at each individual stone.

What's the problem?

Is the problem the lean?

Is the problem the break?

Is the problem the size?

You know, and then, you know, the solution comes.

It's more than just a piece of stone.

You think about when it was -- the person laying there, and how many of the families would come and say prayers, shed tears, gather there, you know.

And you can almost get a sense of these families coming in, doing their grieving and mourning.

Finally the families go, and they are gone, and then that's when the stone usually gets neglected and forgotten about.

For me to be the guy to come back around, and for whatever reason, reset it and make it back in that respectable condition, it's realizing that that's more than just a chunk of marble.

It's more than a chunk of limestone.

It's someone's -- you know, an entire generation or family's loved one at one time.

♪ >> ASHLEY: You can learn more about Walter's work at graveyardgroomer.com.

>> BRANDON: And as always, we would 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.

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

>> ASHLEY: All right.

I've been waiting a while to read these letters from kids.

So I think we should go and do that.

>> BRANDON: All right.

We will see you next time on -- >> TOGETHER: "Journey Indiana"!

>> When you finish doing your letter and it's in the envelope, just lay it out here, and we will pick those up and they will go out to our wonderful children that we love.

>> ASHLEY: Okay.

♪ >> ASHLEY: So it ends with, may your holidays be full of laughter and love.

Have a very Merry Christmas.

I'm so glad you like to play with your friends.

Merry Christmas, keep being good.

[ Laughter ] >> BRANDON: Mine is, I'm so excited for you to have a new sister.

They didn't even ask for a specific gift.

They just wanted to tell me about their sister.

>> ASHLEY: That's very sweet.

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

Thank you.