>> Production supportfor "Journey Indiana" is provided by WTIU members.

Thank you.

>> Coming up... >> ASHLEY: Learn about African American history in Evansville.

>> BRANDON: Set sail on Lake Monroe.

>> ASHLEY: And motor on down to Indy RC Raceways.

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

♪ >> Welcome to "Journey Indiana."

I'm Ashley Chilla.

>> And I'm Brandon Wentz.

And we're coming to you from the Cope Environmental Center in Wayne County.

The Cope Environmental Center is a 130-acre nature preserve dedicated to nurturing environmental stewardship among Indiana residents.

The Center's forests, grasslands, prairies, and wetlands are open to the public year-round and serve as an educational resource for thousands of students each year.

>> And we'll learn all about this beautiful place in just a bit.

But first, producer Tyler Lake takes us to Vanderburgh County to visit the Evansville African American Museum.

♪ >> As you enter the Evansville African American Museum, you pass through gates that are meant to evoke the baobab tree.

It's native to Africa and is also known as the Tree of Life, a fitting metaphor for the place the museum holds in the surrounding community.

>> The Evansville African American Museum is inside an apartment building.

The apartment building was part of the Lincoln Gardens complex that was built in 1938 through the WPA program.

There was 500 units where residents could move into and have basic amenities that the rest of Evansville had.

And cultivated a very strong community presence.

And it got to the point where the Lincoln Avenue, which is in front of the complex, populated 200 Black-owned businesses.

And it really was the gem of the community that helped uplift the people that lived here.

And so it lasted until 1997.

Evansville Housing Commission was going to bulldoze everything, but our founder, Sondra Matthews, petitioned the city to save as many units as she could, and she was awarded one unit.

So we're very blessed that we have this one building where that houses the history of the Evansville Black community.

And with that, we've never separated from the descendant community.

In fact, the original descendants that created the space still interact with the museum and use it as a community center.

>> Inside, you'll find meeting spaces, interactive play rooms, an original apartment with era-appropriate furnishings, and exhibits that tell the stories of the Baptisttown community.

>> So right now, in the first set of cases when you walk into the museum, we have the exhibition "Baptisttown Reimagined: The Three Renaissances of the Black Community."

We look at the 157 years and three succinct periods that show periods of extreme growth, as well as collapse.

And then we have a pictorial representation where you can see what housing looked like.

And so we color-coded the Renaissances to the pictures.

You see these houses, you see Lincoln Gardens, and then you see where we're at today.

So it's this pictorial representation of what this history looks like.

>> Another exhibit tells the history of the fraught relationship between the African American community in Baptisttown and the white citizens of Evansville.

>> What you learn in this exhibit is the American Victorian ideology and the race relations that were happening here in Evansville.

It led to the festering of racial tension and racial anxiety, which was a term called Negrophobia.

And from that Negrophobia, it launched itself into the most traumatic event in Evansville history, called the Bloody Race Riot of 1903.

And what made that race relation boil over was the fact that a Black man shot a white man.

The citizens of Evansville took it upon themselves to administer justice, and it led into a multi-day race riot that was ended by the summoning of the National Guard.

>> Tensions remained high in the city until the start of Prohibition, which became an unlikely catalyst for cooperation between the Black and white communities of Evansville.

>> It accidentally mended racial relations in Evansville.

Black and white individuals were working together to circulate moonshine, to manufacture it and sell it.

And then it also led to the establishment of bootlegging joints, in which white and Black individuals spent leisure time together.

They started to break down racial tensions.

>> While the exhibits tell the sometimes difficult history of the neighborhood, the museum itself is a place for people of all ages and backgrounds to learn and enjoy.

>> So where we are now is Building Communities for Kids and Legos, where kids can actually come and have some fun and enjoy themselves while they're at the Museum.

There's also another WonderLab, which is right next door, that will allow kids to learn about history and some of the African American Black residents of Baptisttown.

♪ >> So this is an apartment that how it looked when it was built back in 1938.

And this was really an upgrade for the community.

Modern appliances, indoor plumbing, recreational center and playground.

It was very clean and it was like an amazing place for people to live.

So this is the Lincoln Clark Douglas room.

Lincoln used to be segregated high school and it's where actually African Americans were allowed to go to school.

And they were outstanding in sports and basketball, football.

They won several national championships, and just were phenomenal and a pride of the community.

This is a map of Baptisttown.

This is where Blacks were centrally located.

The whole idea around Baptisttown is it was designed.

It was a red-lined community.

It was drawn up: This is where we want Black people to be.

In fact, the whole idea, the terminology of Baptisttown, came from whites because of the idea that there were so many Baptist churches.

And Liberty Baptist Church being one of the first Black churches, whites called it Baptisttown as a negative thing.

The Blacks adopted and turned it into a positive thing.

>> Turning something negative into something good is just what this community does.

They have made the one remaining Lincoln Park Gardens building into a lot more than just a museum.

>> We have a community space.

We have tons of different groups that meet here.

The Soul Writers Guild, the DNA lab.

Cultural heritage professionals come here to host workshops.

We're going to hold election polls here.

We have the Baptisttown Cultural Festival that we have on an annual basis to celebrate our history.

We have a gift shop.

It has objects for sale from local Black vendors.

We've only been around for 15 years.

We are in the infancy of our existence as a museum and community center.

So one of our biggest missions right now in our strategic goals is to rebuild local Black pride.

When you come into a space like this, it's amazing, because when you see people laughing and talking, moving around the hallways, it's not a traditional quiet, don't-touch-anything museum.

We want to get you involved, we want to get you inspired, and want you to have a piece of this history with you so that you can understand again: Why is this important?

Why we need to be here.

But also so you can connect with it.

♪ >> I don't feel like every historical center always centers themselves or gives younger people who go to visit something to do.

And what I love about this place is that they actually have interactive pieces for younger people who visit.

Like, I would imagine if I brought my son there, he would love to build on that Lego Community Center, which I think is great.

Want to learn more about the museum?

Just head to... >> Earlier, we spoke with Marcy Crull, Executive Director here at the Cope Environmental Center, to talk about all the wonderful things you can find here.

♪ >> Cope Environmental Center promotes the sustainable use of Earth's resources through demonstration, education, and research.

We do all of that here on our property, where we teach sustainable practices and develop a love of nature.

Cope Environmental Center is located in Centerville, Indiana.

Our goal is to be open to the public, be able to spread our sustainability message, and teach others how to incorporate that into their daily lives.

And our goal is also just to inspire a love of nature, to get dirty, to be able to see critters in their natural environment and habitat.

We have many trail systems throughout the property.

We have wetlands, ponds, prairies, forests.

And then we have this awesome certified Living Building that we're currently in right now.

Cope Environmental Center was founded by Jim and Helen Cope.

They wanted to give back to the community to teach about sustainable practices on their farm.

So right here on the property, and then it has expanded throughout the years.

Both of them had a love for nature and they wanted to give back and share their knowledge and passion for sustainable living and the environment.

Cope Environmental Center has the only certified Living Building here in Indiana.

You have to meet the criteria, which can range from how your building is situated on a property, how much carbon footprint it is leaving and that you're offsetting that.

We have to monitor how much energy we're using, how much water is being used.

But what an exciting thing to have here in Wayne County and Indiana for people to come and see that it is a doable process.

We have programs from preschool age all the way up to our senior citizens here in our community.

So we do a lot of field trips.

We partner with the schools.

We have school kids out here all year round.

We've been very lucky to partner with Earlham College, Indiana Universities, and Ivy Tech, here all locally, through internships.

We have over three miles of hiking trails here at Cope Environmental Center on 130 acres.

We have a nice hiking trail that covers the whole outer perimeter of one of our prairies.

With the prairies, you'll see lots of different bird species, different native plants, pollinator plants.

So, you're going to see the bees and the butterflies out there as they've grown up -- and more summertime, you're really going to see that.

We have wetlands here, and where our building is positioned is in between two of our wetlands.

So at different times of the year, you might be at our Visitor Center and you will see maybe three different types of turtles passing by, and then a snake.

And so it really gives people an opportunity to see some of these species living in their own habitats.

What we try to do is just provide programs for the community so they can come out and see how they can connect with nature.

How they can learn more to lead that sustainable lifestyle, and that it can be for anyone.

And that there is a starting point, and you don't have to know everything all at once.

>> With this place being open all year round, we have in here a couple of different animals, some of which we may get to experience later.

Is there anything that you're particularly excited about when it comes to the wildlife here?

>> Um, you know, I love the birds.

So you can't see this, but currently where we're standing, there's lots of windows around.

And so we can sort of see the native birds coming in and out.

And I always love going to nature centers because you get to see all of the different kinds of birds that are native to that area, which I don't always pay attention to.

But I do when I come to spaces like this.

>> Want to learn more?

Just head to... >> Up next, producer John Timm takes us to Monroe County to learn the ropes, and the sails, and the rudder, and all that other stuff with the Lake Monroe Sailing Association.

♪ ♪ >> Once you get out on the water, the feeling of actually holding the main sheet and steering with the tiller, you feel like you're in charge.

You feel powerful.

♪ >> We want to get to know all of you.

So again, I want to know your name, where you go to school, your grade.

>> My name is Lauren Morrison.

I'm the Lake Monroe Sailing Association Youth Sailing Camp Director.

I've been working with the camp for the past five years.

♪ >> Lake Monroe Sailing Association Youth Sailing Camp has been around for at least the past 15 years, and we teach kids from 9 through 16 how to sail.

And it's to further the love of sailing to the next generation.

♪ >> Through the Bloomington Parks and Rec, we've been able to grow our program and get kids from all over, that wouldn't have heard about our program, to come down to the lake and develop a love for it.

♪ >> I was 8 years old and my mom was like, oh, you need to do that sailing camp down there.

And I was like, I really don't want to.

I don't want to spend my summer doing that.

And then once I got through camp, it was such a good environment and everybody was so nice.

>> This is how you control the boat.

It's connected to the rudder.

>> There's nothing like the Youth Sailing Camp really anywhere in this area.

There are a lot of sailing camps on the coasts, but it's really unique for the Midwest to be able to have a program like this.

So when you sign up for sailing camp, you can expect to get wet.

>> Man overboard!

>> We teach kids about sailing from the very fundamentals of having never stepped on a boat before, maybe having never been down to the lake before.

♪ >> We set up the program so that they can work their way up from having little to no knowledge to being able to sail a boat completely on their own.

♪ >> Our three camp goals are to be safe, have fun, and learn to sail.

And if everybody walks away from the program with those three things, we consider it a success.

♪ ♪ >> If I had a goal that I would want every camper to walk away from this camp knowing and understanding is the relationship of the boat to the water, and how that interacts.

How do we harness the wind in order to make the boat move?

♪ >> We teach them about wind direction.

We teach them about points of sail.

We teach them about capsizing, so that's when the boat tips over.

You have to flip it back upright.

♪ >> And then kids who have been coming here for years and years, they begin to learn racing techniques.

So we get into the sport of sailing and the sport of racing sailboats.

>> See how close you are to the box.

Try to get back in.

>> We also want to make sure that all of our kids have a basic understanding of boats and the parts of the boat.

We teach them the bottom part of the boat is the hull, but the big pole that goes up, the giant metal lightning rod, is the mast.

That's what holds up our sails.

The part of the mast that sticks out horizontally, it's called the boom.

We tell the kids it goes boom when it hits you in the head, so don't let it hit you.

You'll have a main sail, which is the bigger sail.

And then some of our boats have a smaller sail on there, which is the jib.

We don't have any ropes on a boat.

They're called lines or sheets.

In order to control the sails, you have a main sheet controls the main sail, a jib sheet controls the jib sail.

And then in order to steer the boat, we have a rudder on the back.

The part that you hold on to is called the tiller.

♪ ♪ >> One of the greatest things about this program that I think that Walt and Rita just did a wonderful job when they established it is that there's campers that come for week after week.

And they've structured the program in a way that they then go from learning to sail, to learning to teach sailing.

And they're passing on their love of the sport and the activity to the next generation, kids that are younger than they are.

>> (indiscernible instructions).

>> After that one first summer, I realized that I had made some friends.

So kept coming.

Eventually moved my way up the ranks.

Got all the bracelets.

Slowly became an instructor.

♪ >> All of the staff here were campers at one point.

So it's always like once you're sailing and you get small boat certified.

And then once you turn 14, you can become an intern.

And everybody chooses to become staff, because being staff is super fun.

We're all just like one big family, it's really cool.

♪ >> This is my first year as an instructor, so that's pretty exciting.

I love being on the boats, just teaching the children and just having fun with it.

A lot of it's just trying to be that fun person that the kids can relate to, have fun with.

♪ >> It would be great if every kid came away knowing a basic understanding of how we can possibly harness the wind to move this boat.

And also, that I can do it.

Like, I'm a kid, but I can do this hard, cool thing by myself.

And, you know, I don't really need adult help.

♪ >> I just think it's a great way for kids to grow in their independence.

And so, if every kid walks away having some understanding of sailing, but also just had a great time and feels more confident, then that's excellent.

♪ [water rippling] >> ASHLEY: Want to learn more?

Head to... >> Up next, producer Tyler Lake takes us to Marion County to get up to speed at Indy RC Raceway.

>> Indy RC Raceway and Hobbies is the home base for a lot of dedicated Hoosier remote control racing fans.

It offers tracks, cars, parts, and most importantly, plenty of competition.

>> So downstairs is our 1/10 scale track.

It's a carpet track.

We do actually do three programs: off-road, on-road, oval, all three.

♪ >> Tonight is our off-road programs.

We'll have a lot of, like, short course trucks, buggies, maybe some stadium trucks.

We offer various experience levels.

We have like a novice class, entry-level stock classes, modified classes.

Indy RC community as a whole in Indiana, it's pretty big.

Pretty big range of what guys are doing.

You see a lot of people here every weekend for the same race program, same time.

On busy nights, we'll have between 20, 30 drivers here.

You know, a lot of times, it's 20, 30 entries.

We typically do about six drivers on the track at a time during heat races.

Mains, we'll have up to eight drivers.

Pretty much every race day, we open up at 10 a.m. depending on the day of the week or what program is determines what time you start.

Saturdays, we start racing 6 p.m. every Saturday.

So we open at 10:00 a.m, have open practice 10:00 to 6:00.

If you're just somebody that's looking to come in and practice instead of actually racing, we do offer open practice as well.

That's five bucks, you can play all day.

And then as far as racing goes, we start racing 6:00.

You have to be signed up by 5:45.

>> But before these racers hit the track and start competing, they spend a lot of time dialing in their cars.

>> Actually, this is kind of a newer car, so we're just doing multiple things.

It's just a matter of finding out what's best for it.

But mainly shocks right now and tires what I'm working on.

>> I've been into RC cars forever and my son is now into it as well.

So that means unlimited fun for everyone.

A lot of time goes into prepping the cars when we're not at the track.

So again, my son has really come into his own as far as figuring out what spring rates he likes, gear changes, tire combinations, things like that.

So I'm actually letting him kind of lead the way on those setups now, mainly because he's beating me regularly, too.

>> I got my Tekno SCT410.3, which is a four-wheel drive short course.

And then I got my XRAY SCX'23, which is a two-wheel drive short course.

So this here is the battery charger.

So you basically plug it in and you program in the size of your battery and how many amps you want to charge it at, hit the start button, and let it eat.

This here is the Spectrum Dx5 Pro.

Ergonomics plays a big factor, you wouldn't believe, when you're on the driver stand on being comfortable.

This thing's got more adjustments than I'll ever use.

♪ >> Some of the classes require certain motor systems, where everybody would be on the same size so should be about the same output on those guys there.

And then some classes are completely open motor, so you can put anything in there.

I mean, a lot of these trucks that you'll see running down here, they're actually capable of going faster than what they could actually get on to the track.

On the track, they're probably hitting 25, maybe 30 mile-an-hour, but it wouldn't surprise me if someone could hit 40, 50, 60 mile-an-hour.

>> And with cars that powerful and races this competitive, drivers show up with a lot of gear.

>> I mean, those guys bring pretty much anything.

So, you know, loaded up in their pit bags, they'll have pretty much anything they'll need in there.

So a lot of these guys are having to solder in motor systems, the electrical components.

Obviously, you have to make sure you have a soldering iron if you have a motor or something go bad and have to switch it out on the spot.

I mean, these guys, they'll have 400, 500, $600 charger setups, fancy -- you know, fancy chargers, power supplies, whole nine yards.

>> Mainly it's for tool soldering, whatever you need for the pits.

And then right here -- there are all your main drawers.

A lot of guys will store a lot of chargers, batteries and everything up here.

Down here, you got extra storage.

I got more parts in that little container.

In one of the drawers, I have extra aeons for front and back.

In this one in particular, all the spare parts for this buggy in particular.

>> And if you need anything, the folks behind the counter have you covered.

>> In the shop, we keep a little bit of everything.

We have a couple of -- few airplanes, helicopters, boats, you know, all the different cars.

When it comes to the cars, we have everything from the 1/28 scale we race up here, all the way down to the 1/5 scale stuff.

Not really a lot of the racing itself being done with the 1/5 scale stuff, but a lot of bashing being done with those.

A lot of guys take those to skateparks, stuff like that, and really beat 'em.

Typically, kind of the big question we always ask when somebody comes in looking for something is what exactly are you looking to do with it?

Because as I mentioned, there's a big array of things you could do.

There's like parking lot models up and down the street, different drag racing stuff, crawling stuff, and then the off-road bashers.

>> Yeah, so we've got all the 1/10 scale section on this side.

It doesn't really matter which one you go for, they're all great intro drivers, like if you've never driven them before.

So these guys are a lot of fun.

I've had a lot of people say they ruffle up the blankets at home on their beds.

Use that as their crawler course, or any other number of little just around-the-house crawling courses.

The X-Maxx, I can't quite remember when it was first released.

The power out of this guy.

It says it only goes 50, which doesn't really sound too fast, but trust me, it's fast enough.

>> And no matter what kind of car you choose, there's a good chance there'll be a race series for you.

>> So we do have the novice class, and then we have the stock slash class, then we have the fully modified class.

Total of racing itself typically takes about three hours to get through, typically about an hour per round.

So heats and mains are each five-minute races.

And then -- so you have like two qualifying rounds of the main events.

Racing itself starts at 6:00.

A lot of times you're done by 9:00 or 9:30.

We get a lot of like fathers and sons.

We're actually starting to see a few more females get into the hobby as well.

That's really what we care about is getting people into the hobby.

The racing stuff, that's cool having that down there, it's really neat.

But we care about getting new people in.

We got to get new people in to keep the hobby going.

♪ >> You know, I don't have a whole lot of experience with cars like that, those smaller cars.

I would -- I find it fascinating.

>> Yeah.

>> Do you think they crash a lot when they're in there?

>> As fast as they go and as tight as some of those turns are, I imagine you would have to.

And they've probably got, like, protection on the walls and stuff, because those are very -- some of those cars are faster than my first car.

[laughing] >> So you gotta be careful.

Want to learn more?

Just head to the address on your screen.

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

>> BRANDON: Just head over to Journey Indiana.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.

♪ >> Okay, Brandon, you've brought up turtles and snakes, and I -- I think we should go explore.

I think we should go see some animals.

>> I mean, you can't see it right now.

But off camera, there has been a turtle trying desperately to get to us this whole shoot.

>> It wants to be a star.

>> Yeah -- we will see you next time on -- >> "Journey Indiana."

♪ >> Okay, in here, we have a painted turtle named Hudson.

>> BRANDON: Hudson, hi.

So what does he like to do here?

>> He likes to be around people.

>> BRANDON: Hello.

Look at the color on that.

♪ >> Okay, Ashley, in here we have a Kenyan sand boa snake.

>> Okay.

>> And are you going to hold the snake?

>> I am, I'm fine with that.

♪ >> Hello.

[laughing] ♪ >> Production support for "Journey Indiana" is provided by WTIU members; Thank you.