>> Funding for "Journey Indiana" was provided in part by: >> The WTIU Vehicle Donation Program.

Proceeds from accepted donations of a car or other vehicle make this program possible.

Most vehicles are accepted and pick up can be arranged at no cost.

Learn more at WTIU.org/support.

>> Charitable IRA rollover gifts.

Individuals aged 70 and a half or older may make a tax-free charitable distribution from their IRA to WTIU.

Consult your advisor and visit Indianapublicmedia.org/support for more details.

>> WTIU sustaining members.

Committing to regular monthly contributions, providing WFIU and WTIU with reliable ongoing support.

Becoming a sustainer is one of the most effective ways to support public media.

>> And by viewers like you.

Thank you!

♪ >> Today on "Journey Indiana," we're visiting some of the Hoosier state's best roadside attractions.

Paint your way into the record books.

>> It weighs, like, 11,000 pounds.

That's insane.

>> Get stumped in Kokomo.

>> It is the biggest sycamore stump in the world.

>> Visit some iconic television landmarks.

>> It's really cool.

They were even using it in "Parks and Recreation."

>> Witness a Christmas miracle.

>> And I knew right then that somebody had to do something to be able to restore this Santa.

>> And marvel at a winter wonder.

>> Any friend I have, and like if they come to this side of town, I'm, like, you have to come see it!

Like, it's the best.

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

♪ >> First up, we're starting this road trip at the world's largest ball of paint.

>> Some roadside attractions don't need fancy billboards to draw folks in off the highway.

The world's largest ball of paint is one of those attractions.

♪ >> I do not advertise.

It's all word of mouth.

You tell somebody and just on and on and on.

So every year, I get more and more people.

Last year, I had over 3500 people walk through that door, and that's the most in one year, and I'd expect this year to be even more.

♪ ♪ >> For more than 48 years, Mike Carmichael has been adding coats to this behemoth of a ball, layer by layer.

This is number 29,807.

♪ Today, the ball is a monstrosity that weighs more than 11,000 pounds.

>> It's all steel support on top of a concrete floor.

And I've welded supports all around it so it would hold quite a bit -- quite a bit of weight.

>> But the ball wasn't always such a whopper.

♪ It all started when Mike, a house painter by trade, began a simple experiment.

♪ I started this ball in 1977 with my boy, who was 3 years old at the time.

I took a rod like this, and I stuck it through a ball, and we just started painting it, and he put the first coat on there for me.

And then we just continued on that for the next 48 years.

Day after day, with each new layer, the ball grew in circumference.

>> In the earlier days, the only people I could get here was my neighbors and friends and family.

So it worked out -- it still worked out pretty good.

>> But after years and thousands of layers, the ball began to grow in reputation.

♪ That's when the Guinness Book of World Records took note.

>> And Guinness actually turned me down about three or four times because there was no competition.

There was no record to beat.

So they finally sent a guy from Guinness here, and they drilled a hole through the ball, like they do trees, and they pulled out a core sample and they sent it to Guinness' in England.

They put it under a microscope and counted all the layers, and that's how I got my certificate.

That's how it all started.

>> I've got yellow, pink, blue, green.

♪ >> These days, the world's largest ball is a busy roadside attraction.

♪ >> Mike says tourists pop in from all over the country and even the world.

>> About got it, don't you?

>> And each visitor has the chance to make a contribution to this colorful experiment.

>> When you come in the door, I will take your picture while I explain everything to you.

I will give you a roller of your choice of color.

You'll paint it, and after you get done painting it, then you get to write your name in my book, where you're from, and I'll give you a certificate with your name on it, and then you get to write your name on the wall.

And at that time, you will have held the world's record until somebody else paints it.

>> I just researched things online to do with the kids, and, you know, something fun and unique to do, and so I thought this would be the perfect thing for us to do one day.

>> I heard about it a few years ago, and we planned a little day trip to this part of the world.

And I said, hey, while we are out here, we just definitely stop.

>> It was neat to see how it started out just as a baseball and how large it.

It weighs like 11,000 pounds.

That's insane.

>> It's a lot larger than I thought it was.

Pictures don't do it justice.

>> And by the way, that personal world record, free of charge.

Can't beat that.

>> No, I do not charge to walk in the door.

I support myself with T-shirts and donations.

That's it.

>> You hold the world's record until 12:30.

>> Okay.

Okay.

>> I like seeing the expression of seeing something that they've never seen before.

A lot of them come in here and they've never painted before.

And you don't have to be a professional to paint this.

You just roll a little bit on there.

And a family, it only takes a few minutes to paint it.

It's just I like to see the joy of everybody doing it.

♪ >> Next, we're headed to the steer and the stump, two very large and very strange roadside attractions.

The city of Kokomo keeps a couple of mother nature's giant roadside attractions tucked away in the middle of a sprawling city park.

It beats a dusty tourist trap any day.

>> The sycamore stump was raised in western Howard County, along the Wildcat Creek.

And this one thrived.

Grew to be about 57 feet in circumference, about 100 feet tall, estimated maybe about 800 years old.

>> But, of course, it's a stump, not a tree.

So what happened?

>> The tree was damaged, lightning strike.

So it was dying.

And so some people thought it would be a good idea to bring it all the way into Kokomo to Highland Park, here.

It is the biggest sycamore stump in the world.

When you go out here to our park, there are dozens of giant sycamore trees, and the biggest one -- if you take the circumference of the big sycamore stump here, you could put four or five of those sycamore trees in that circumference.

>> And to keep the big theme going, right next door, they've put a bovine behemoth.

>> Old Ben is a giant steer.

He was 125 pounds at birth.

The people who owned him took him around to county fairs, state fairs throughout the Midwest, the Indiana State Fair.

>> Weighing in around 4,000 pounds -- that's three times heavier than your average steer -- Ben was a serious hunk of beef.

>> Then about 1910, he fell, broke a leg.

He was put down, and the owners considered having frankfurters made of him.

Well, the locals were outraged, and that didn't happen.

The owners did have the hide taxidermy and brought back here.

And then about 19 -- I think it was 1910, the same year, the city acquired Old Ben and brought him here next to the sycamore stump.

>> And just like any good roadside attraction, everyone around here knows all about the steer and the stump.

>> That's what we refer to it as, the steer and the stump, locals anyway.

You bring your kids here.

You grow up here.

It's in Highland Park, our most popular park.

I think it's unique.

I think it's quirky.

Roadside attractions are, by their very nature, quirky, unusual, they're large, they're exaggerated.

I think people like that.

>> Next stop is Pawnee, a fictional Indiana town, made famous by the NBC comedy "Parks and Recreation."

♪ >> The NBC Comedy "Parks and Recreation" gave Hoosiers more than just plenty of laughs and some good-natured ribbing.

The show went to a real life Hoosier landmark where it would leave a lasting impression.

>> You are at William Henry Harrison's Grouseland, the home of the Indiana Territorial Governor and ninth President of the United States.

>> Harrison is famous for a few things.

He was the shortest serving president, only 32 days, because he was the first president to die in office.

But before all of that, Harrison ran a groundbreaking campaign, far more lively and ruckus than in previous elections, where events ended with three-mile long parades of people singing, chanting and drinking.

It featured a catchy slogan commemorating his victory at the Battle of Tippecanoe, a campaign song or two.

♪ Rolling on, for Tippecanoe and Tyler too ♪ >> And an eye-catching attraction that was rolled from one campaign stop to the next.

>> You know the big car dealer, the big floaty guy that catches people's attention.

That was probably the way the ball was in that campaign of 1840.

They rolled from Kentucky, as far away as Maryland, and coined our current phrase, "keep the ball rolling."

>> This almost carnival-like atmosphere drew unprecedented crowds and helped deliver Harrison the presidency.

It was so successful that over 40 years later, when his grandson Benjamin Harrison took a shot at the presidency, he brought the idea back.

>> Benjamin Harrison recreated the William Henry Harrison campaign ball.

So it is definitely a Harrison legacy from both of those presidential elections.

>> So when the Parks and Rec folks wanted a campaign ball for an episode, they took the Benjamin Harrison ball and whipped up a new one, and Jones saw a golden opportunity.

>> The producer told me they were going to recreate the campaign ball.

And I said, oh, wow, we've always wanted to do that.

We thought that'd be a great thing.

Can we have it?

When the show is over, can we have it?

So he said he would have to see.

And one day a semi pulled up in front of Grouseland and said we have two big crates, and they were from California, and they were the two parts of the campaign ball that you see behind me here.

And we bring it out for special days like Presidents Day today, parades and floats.

>> The ball is too big to fit through Grouseland's 19th century doors.

So it stays dry and safe in a garage most of the time.

But when it comes out, it gets lots of attention, even in frigid Indiana weather.

>> It was great publicity, because you can see the episode on Netflix and Hulu.

So it's gonna be around forever, and we were hoping that it would capture the 20-year-olds and 30-year-olds, the younger audience.

And so we thought, let's show them that this history here is still relevant.

It's really cool.

They were even using it in "Parks and Recreation."

>> Jones says they hope to get the ball rolling on a new visitors center that would sit right next to Grouseland, and would, of course, house the campaign ball all year round.

♪ Tippecanoe and Tyler too >> While the Harrison wheel played a starring role in an episode of "Parks and Recreation," two other Indiana attractions made appearances in every episode of the show's iconic opening credits.

These two big fellas both live in Blackford County, and they both came from a factory that sold hundreds of similar statues, but they have lived different lives.

The ice cream man has fallen on hard times.

He first went up on this corner as part of a buzzing little tourist stop, but those days are gone.

He's even lost his ice cream.

Left now to hold an empty cone.

And even a local historian, just five miles over, doesn't have too much to say about him.

>> Too far outta town.

[ Laughter ] >> It's the opposite for the Miami Indian, who looks phenomenal for his age.

>> It was constructed in the 1960s in California, and it was created for Tom Wood Pontiac in Indianapolis.

>> He then stood outside a few different parks and museums before coming to rest on this corner in downtown Montpelier.

Thanks to the efforts of a descendant of Chief Francois Godfroy.

>> Two and a half miles southeast of this town was a predominant hunting ground that had been used by the Miami for generations.

Chief Francois Godfroy, who was the last war chief of the Miami people, he specifically asked for that area in the treaty.

>> And while he may not accurately reflect Miami dress and style, he may serve a larger purpose.

>> While it's not completely historically accurate, it has always been designed to draw attention at the auto dealership, at the park, and now here in Montpelier, where it gets an awful lot of attention.

>> And showing up in the title sequence of "Parks and Recreation" doesn't hurt one bit.

>> People recognize him now.

I'll see cars drive by, and all of a sudden you will see brake lights hit.

And then a boatload of people get out and get their picture taken with him.

It happens on a regular basis here.

He's on our Chamber of Commerce letterhead.

He's on our weekly newspaper, right on the front cover every week.

>> And while having two big dudes is better than one, it's clear who gets most of the limelight.

>> It's really our chief here.

He's the -- he's the main draw.

He's our community icon.

>> Sorry "Parks and Rec," the ice cream man and the Miami Indian are all great, but they don't compare to Big Santa!

>> On the north side of Evansville, just off Highway 41, stands a Santa Claus that is three stories tall.

He's been greeting passersby at this spot since 2016.

But for folks that grew up around here, he is a blast from the past.

>> I mean, this thing transcends just being here on this corner and people seeing a Santa.

It is a -- an icon to our Tri-State.

I saw it when I was a kid and always remember it waving.

Because, you know, I knew that I was close to home if we would be gone or something like that, when I saw the Santa.

>> Santa has been bounding around to different locations in Evansville since 1974, before settling down on the city's north side where he stood for over 30 years before he fell into disrepair and was hauled away.

Then one day, over a decade later, Ron McKeethen spotted Santa looking worse for the wear in a junkyard.

>> And I knew right away what that was.

It had stood in Evansville, Indiana, for so long.

And I took pictures of it and posted it on Facebook, and the next day it had 30,000 responses.

And I knew right then that somebody had to do something to be able to restore this Santa.

And the thought right behind that was, well, you're somebody.

>> So Ron, a commercial painter by trade, and artist Bob Zasadny went to work cleaning and restoring the fiberglass Father Christmas back to festive form.

>> And it wasn't just repainting.

He was broke in half.

It was a year.

It took a year to put him back together.

>> Lots of folks came by to see the progress, including a children's author who wrote a book about Ron and Santa.

>> It's called "Santa's Gift."

And not only does it talk about the restoration process and what it means to Evansville, in the back of the book is a complete history from when it was built, all the way up until the time it stood up.

He's a big old dude, ain't he?

>> Now Ron is thinking about the future.

>> I have six daughters of my own.

Six granddaughters and a grandson.

And so I want them to be able to experience the joy that I did, along with the whole entire Tri-State.

This thing was never meant to stand 45, 50 years as it has now.

I'm hoping that some people get interested in it enough to actually do a replica of it that will last for years.

>> But for now, Ron, his kids and the Tri-State area, are more than happy with the Santa they have.

♪ >> The holidays may be over, but we're keeping this road trip going to Veal's ice tree for a little more winter magic.

♪ >> Describing the ice tree is so difficult for me.

It just touches your spirit in a way that nothing else does.

♪ >> When people visit and they see the ice tree in person, they say, this is like nothing I even imagined.

It's taller.

It's bigger.

It's more beautiful.

Pictures don't do it justice.

♪ >> So in 1961, there's five kids in the house.

My parents have a home office, and let's get the kids out of the house so we can work in peace.

And there was no snow on the ground to make a snow hill.

So my dad goes, well, let's make an ice hill.

So he started spraying the hill.

When the wind shifted that night, it blew the water on honeysuckle bushes, and it froze and made this beautiful pattern.

And with his personality, let's make it bigger, better, more fun, that was my dad.

So that's how the ice tree started.

>> My dad passed in July of 1973.

And just between all of us kids, we kept it going until the third generation was ready to start ice tree building.

>> I was never able to meet my grandpa, but because of the ice tree and what he created, I feel like I get to be a part of what he was doing.

And I feel like I get to meet him in that sort of way.

♪ We typically start this tree with the water running when 30 degrees hits consistently for more than seven days.

So before that, we'll build a frame, and we'll just sit and wait.

♪ We get the water from our pond, and there's an inground pump in the pond.

We're using what nature has given us.

And it's a spring-fed pond.

So when this ice melts, it just goes straight back to the pond, and in the summertime, we build a water slide.

♪ The hoses don't freeze up, because under pressure, water doesn't freeze.

So if we can keep these going constantly until the end of the ice tree season, it won't freeze.

So these hoses run all night, all day, we never turn them off so that we can just keep this water going.

♪ I have many roles in maintaining the tree.

My main role is being an ice tree builder, which means that I need to be in charge of making sure all of the hoses are placed where they need to be placed, getting branches from trees that need trimmed around the property, and then placing them on the ice where I know that I want to grow the ice, and make the ice tree taller.

♪ We climb it, take our hatchet, hatch away with what we need to hatch so that we can keep a climbing route.

And then we will take the branches, we'll climb up, we'll place those at the top of the ice.

And then if we need to add a hose to what's up there, we'll add a hose to make that hose taller.

I climb the ice tree without getting hurt by, one, putting these spikes on my boots.

And that really helps to grip it, but it's still so slippery.

Sometimes I'll have these on, and I'll slip and fall.

So I'll also take my hatchet with me.

I will hatchet the ice to kind of break it up, make it more of like a powdery snowy effect.

And then that makes more of a grip so that I can climb it.

♪ Normally, we can get it about 30 to 45 feet.

If there's a longer stretch, we'll get it taller.

So this is average for what we are used to for building.

♪ I really like to make sure that there are beautiful icicles in the front of the tree, and we don't make our climbing route in the front of the tree, because when people come, we want to make it really beautiful for their pictures or videos or whatever they are wanting to do here.

♪ We have a fourth generation.

Her name is Athena Hawk, and that is my daughter.

And a week ago, she got to color the ice tree for the first time.

Look how good you are doing!

We add color because it brightens it.

It makes it look beautiful.

It's another way that we can be artistic with the ice.

And with that, we've been finding that everybody that comes to see the ice tree really, really likes this color.

♪ If there's not color on it and people are visiting, they ask us, when are you going to color it?

>> I live nearby, and I never actually see it, and finally we went to go see it.

It's way more impressive than I even imagined it would be.

>> I think it's cool just kind of in someone's backyard.

I didn't realize.

I thought it was going to be in the middle of a park or something.

>> It's insane.

I thought it was gonna be like a small tree, like that big, but it's a lot bigger than that.

>> It's pretty cool.

I've never seen these colors before.

>> Any friend I have, and, like, if they come to this side of town, I'm like you have to come see it!

Like, it's the best.

♪ >> This year's ice tree was so much better than I imagined.

I'm really happy about how tall it is this year and how wide it is and what it looks like.

I wish we had more time to keep building it taller, but I think it went really well, and I'm gonna miss it so much.

>> We keep up the ice tree every year because it's a part of us now.

It's what feeds our spirits.

The years that it's too warm to do it, I feel like it was a waste of winter.

>> Thanks for watching.

We'll catch you next time on "Journey Indiana."

♪ >> Funding for "Journey Indiana" was provided in part by: >> The WTIU Vehicle Donation Program.

Proceeds from accepted donations of a car or other vehicle make this program possible.

Most vehicles are accepted and pick up can be arranged at no cost.

Learn more at WTIU.org/support.

>> Charitable IRA rollover gifts.

Individuals aged 70 and a half or older may make a tax-free charitable distribution from their IRA to WTIU.

Consult your advisor and visit Indianapublicmedia.org/support for more details.

>> WTIU sustaining members.

Committing to regular monthly contributions, providing WFIU and WTIU with reliable ongoing support.

Becoming a sustainer is one of the most effective ways to support public media.

>> And by viewers like you.

Thank you!