(anticipatory music) (mouse clicking) (keyboard clicking) (mouse clicking) (energetic music) (engine revving) (energetic music) (engine revving) (keyboard clicking) (mouse clicking) - There's the excitement of the volunteers coming through, and then the bar opens, and it all comes together.

And at eight o'clock it's magic.

(elegant music) Well, the mission of the Valentine is to serve as the cultural hub for northwest Ohio, southeast Michigan.

We have been here for 127 years.

- So it was constructed in 1895 by a Toledo architect who at the time was quite renowned.

His name was E.O.

Fallis.

The theater itself was built by a gentleman named George Ketcham.

- [Jori] The Ketchams are so important to the Valentine stories.

It was George who built the Valentine in honor of his father, Valentine Ketcham.

- The building itself was built in 1892, so if you look outside, you'll see, the Valentine Building is a whole city block, and then they put the theater within it in 1895.

The city of Toledo wanted to have a nice, legitimate theater that would be representative of, you know, how prosperous the city was at the time.

- [Jori] Of course, as time went on, the theater closed, and it was almost demolished, and there was a group of citizens called Citizens for the Valentine, let's save the Valentine.

And they came together and they shared with the community how important this theater was and that it shouldn't be demolished.

$23 million was raised, and they were able to renovate this theater and reopen on October 9th, 1999.

But it had taken a good 20 years to get to that point.

And these were citizens who just, because of their love for this building, love for the arts, and they realized the importance of a historic theater in a downtown area.

I mean, it's just incredibly important.

- We're perfectly located between New York and Chicago.

So this was the place.

It was an ideal place for all the companies to stop here whether they were in buses, or whether they were on trains, for the most part in those days.

But all of the great artists at that time, at one time, also performed here at the Valentine Theater.

And they're depicted in the mural of the Grand Lobby that's painted by Toledo's own Paul Geiger.

And it's a beautiful mural, and one of the largest of its kind in the state.

- Oh, if you want the opportunity to see the mural, it's really exciting.

And those will be the performers who were here between 1895 and 1917, which was really an incredible time period at that point.

And as you look at the mural, you'll see the Barrymores are there, and Anna Pavlova, and Will Rogers.

And it just goes on, and on, and on.

And it includes not only those folks who were performing, but also some of the folks who were of note during that period.

(jazz music) So when you walk in, if you will walk in from the main entrance on Superior and Adams, that is the new entrance.

And so that was incorporated in 1999.

Originally the entrance was on St. Clair Street, and as you walked in that door, you would be going to the box office and the concessions.

But when they redid the building, they wanted this entrance over here.

So as you walk in, you'll walk into the beautiful Grand Lobby that showcases the mural, and then you will come into the Historic Lobby.

And this lobby is incredible.

We have the original tile work on the floor from when the Valentine opened in 1895.

Some of the original marble work is still here, and many the color schemes, many things are a tribute to that original building, which had gone through many transformations in its lifetime.

But we really wanted to honor its historical significance.

- I think what draws people, still draws people to the Valentine is the wonderful acoustics, the wonderful quality of the performances that we bring in with our national touring groups, the support that Toledoans have for performing arts and for cultural arts.

- The Valentine Theater is a jewel box in downtown Toledo.

It's the only existing historic theater in our downtown.

Downtown Toledo is filled with beautiful theaters.

It's just a beautiful theater to experience from the point of being able to hear.

Acoustics are great.

You could be sitting in the back of the balcony and hear and see beautifully.

There's not a bad seat in this theater.

And we offer a great season to choose from of diversity for people to choose something that they want to see and bring their family to, to experience the theater.

- Our theater is open from like September through the end of June, and we are busy almost every weekend.

We host our own presenting series.

So we have a Broadway Series, we have a Pick Four Series, and we have an extensive children's series, and that's both a weekend children's series, and now it's sensory-friendly.

And then we have what's called a Valentine's School Day Series, and that is for school children throughout the region.

Actually, children from a radius of 50 miles are invited to attend Valentine's School Days.

So in addition to our own presenting programs, our own presenting series, we also host the Toledo Opera, the Toledo Symphony, the Toledo Ballet, the Toledo Jazz Orchestra, Toledo Jazz Festival, Ballet Theater of Toledo.

- And we are so lucky in Toledo to have so many arts groups that are just incredible, you know, and not every city can host that, but between the symphony, and the opera, and the ballet, just incredible art groups.

So you know you're gonna see a beautiful show.

- As far as the future of the Valentine, it's very positive.

We're all looking forward to another 125 seasons being presented here.

It's all part of ongoing renovation, rejuvenation of our downtown, and the arts have always been strong and flourishing here in this market.

They will continue to from all aspects, and we're looking forward to being a mainstay here.

We'll certainly be the oldest theater in downtown Toledo, even that much older then.

And we'll be presenting diverse entertainment for all families and all communities to enjoy.

(jazz music) (energetic music) - The main thing that we find with students, and especially people who have tried it for the first time, is breaking down their barriers, overcoming their fears, achieving something that they didn't think that they could achieve.

(energetic music) (keyboard clicking) (mouse clicking) (energetic music) The main thing that we find with students, and especially people have tried it for the first time, is breaking down the barriers, overcoming their fears, achieving something that they didn't think that they could achieve.

(energetic music) - We're creating space for anyone to climb.

And what we thrive on here is collaboration.

Collaboration is the heart of climbing.

- It's been crazy to see people now becoming friends, and the interactions with each other, and it's just the beginning.

So we've known for a while that there's a lot of climbers that live here who, once in a while, will go out to Ann Arbor, or down to Kentucky, or other places, indoors or outdoors, to rock climb.

Now we have a really big climbing facility for everyone to kinda get together.

So we're very much looking forward to continue to grow that community.

- In a climbing facility.

Our product are our routes, and what that means is that there are puzzles that we can solve through climbing and collaborate on how to solve the puzzles.

And I am really impressed with our route setters.

I think our routes are exciting, they're engaging, they're a little bit technical, and I think it creates a really cool experience and makes me wanna get back on 'em.

(soft music) - We focus on four different styles of climbing.

The most basic would be bouldering, and that's a great way to learn how to rock climb, because you don't have to fiddle around with ropes or belay devices.

You just get climbing shoes, a little bit of chalk in your hands, and you get to just have fun on the walls.

Another great way for beginners to get started climbing is on the auto belays.

We do suit you up with a harness, and clip you into a rope, because when you get up there, it'll just, you let go, and it automatically just slowly lowers you back down on the ground.

(energetic techno music) Then the next level up from that would be top rope climbing, when you need to get a partner that can belay for you.

Belaying is the action of holding the rope, or slowing down the fall by redirecting that rope through your device attached to your harness.

That person on the ground is belaying for the climber who's on the wall, and they can stop that fall whenever that climber comes off.

So that's probably one of the best ways to get started climbing if you're a little afraid of heights or afraid of falling and hitting the ground.

With bouldering, you have a little greater risk of kind of landing awkwardly because you're just having a landing on this foam mat.

Over there on the ropes, you have maybe only a foot or two of fall.

above that would be lead climbing.

And lead climbing is when you, as the climber, would be attached to the rope and you're protecting yourself as you climb up the wall.

So you still have a belayer that needs to know what they're doing.

In fact, they need extra knowledge to be able to know how to give you that slack as you're climbing out, and then to be able to stop your fall and to catch you if you do take a fall while you're on that lead climb.

(techno music) One of the ways that people get injured the most in a climbing facility is becoming complacent, becoming too comfortable, because they're used to doing the same things over and over and over that they forget to double-check.

So we definitely encourage people to have those partner checks where they show someone that they're tied in correctly, or that they have a proper carabiner that's gonna connect their belay device.

Another thing that we definitely wanna highlight is our facility orientations when we go over with a first-time guest, all of our policies regarding the bouldering, specific practices with avoiding each other when you're on the the bouldering wall, and how to downclimb rather than just taking falls all the time.

The other aspect of ropes would be taking a class.

We do offer classes for even first-time guests that can come in and they'll learn the best way to tie a knot, and they'll learn the best practices for belaying so they can use them that very first time they come in here.

So you don't have to wait a month before taking that class.

You could also maybe wait for about three to six months.

If you really love climbing, then you can learn how to lead climb.

But we'd encourage people to definitely learn from an instructor rather than just going to the internet and looking up a video for how to do it.

I think there's so many benefits of climbing.

I actually wanna emphasize maybe four of them.

So the first would be the physical exercise of climbing.

It just is a great way to get physically fit because your mind is so engaged that it's almost like you're tricking your body into getting a workout.

Secondly, like I said, the mental activity of problem solving and trying to gain that awareness of your mobility, and how to figure out if that's gonna be a left hand, or maybe a right hand for that hold, and how to move and balance your body.

It's all a great activity of problem solving.

As well, there is the third benefit, which would be kinda like that self-confidence, or psychological benefit of seeing that improvement over the weeks, and months, and years of climbing.

As you get better and better you have this great, and even on the first day someone can try and look at the top of that boulder problem and think, "There's no way I'm gonna get there," and by the end of that hour session they might have actually surprised themself and got themself up there.

It's a great benefit when you get to the top, especially someone that's been trying something over, and over, and over, and just can't get up until finally they figure it out, and they get to the top of that problem.

Such a great feeling.

(energetic music) Fourthly, give you that social benefit because climbing, whether it's on the ropes, gaining friends who can belay for you and literally save your life on the wall, is just a great benefit.

This is a great way to learn the best practices for indoor climbing.

And then we also help people to transition to outdoor climbing when they're ready for that.

This is a great place to not only get physically fit, but also make some social progress in your life, as well as spend your time maybe with your family or with your friends.

- We welcome anyone, we encourage anyone to come and climb to give it a chance just one time.

One time.

You would be amazed what our amazing bodies can do and what they're capable of.

(gentle music) - [Russ] This is a part of Ohio's history that people forget about a lot.

And we are in a unique position to be able to show people what it was like back when the canals were running.

- [Announcer] Want to see your favorite local story featured on our show?

Head to our website at wbgu.org/scenicstops.

Find the blue button and let us know where we should go next.

(keyboard clicking) (mouse clicking) (gentle music) - Today we're going to be taking a trip back in time.

We're going back to the year 1876 here on the Canal Experience, and you're gonna be riding with us on a canal boat, and that canal boat, well, we're gonna be telling you a little bit about the Miami and Erie Canal, and what it was like to ride on a canal boat back then.

And you'll be going through an original lock, not a rebuilt lock, not a restored lock.

The same lock the boats were going through in 1840 when they passed through this area.

I'm going to be the interpreter.

In our scenario the captain is in Defiance, and so he left me in charge.

I'm in charge of telling the people a little bit about the boats and about the canal and what they can expect on the journey.

Anybody, are you doing that because I told you about the hogs?

(guests laughing) Well, that's all right because, well, we carry a lot of hogs here on The Volunteer, and folks are always getting off before the hogs get on.

It's a unique part of history that we're able to share the work that we do on the canal boat, the way we run the ropes, the way we dock the boat, the way we lock through, all of that is the same as they were doing back in the 1800s.

- My character's name is James Bodie.

My task on the boat today will be operating the tiller.

The job is called the steersman.

My job is to make sure the boat doesn't drift into the trees or run into the canal wall.

And if we have to make a left turn, I'll make it, and I have to maneuver us to get into our historic lock.

- Sally and Molly have been with us now for 19 years.

They're 23 years old.

They know every bit of this canal a lot better than the rest of us who work here.

And Sally's always in the front.

Molly's always in the back, and they're a pleasure to work with.

♪ Sally and Molly greeted the day ♪ ♪ Smelling coffee, johnny cakes, and a bale of hay ♪ ♪ They're rested, and ready, and full of pep ♪ ♪ Cincinnati gets closer step by step ♪ ♪ Hitch 'em up, let 'em go ♪ Those good old mules walk real slow ♪ ♪ But they'll get you where you want to go ♪ ♪ On this Ohio Canal The song about Sally and Molly, it's a song about canal boat mules, but I have to put their name in the song because, well, you know, they're part of the family here.

Music was a big part of canal boat life, and there was always somebody on every boat who was making up songs about the places they went, the things they did, the people they met, and that was a form of entertainment for them.

And very few of those songs exist because they weren't made up by songwriters, so they didn't write 'em down.

They were just boatmen who were entertaining themselves.

And I've tried to carry on that tradition here.

And all they had to work with were shovels, and picks, and wheelbarrows, and their own strong backs.

And this is part of the song that he wrote about that.

♪ I was one of the navvies ♪ Who worked with shovels and picks for 30 cents a day ♪ ♪ To dig this big ditch ♪ We ate cornbread and beans, washed down with some whiskey ♪ ♪ And we lay down to sleep in our small wooden shanties ♪ ♪ We dug this canal, it was 40 feet wide ♪ ♪ Then cleared out the towpath ten feet on each side ♪ ♪ There were 103 locks that took the boats up and down ♪ ♪ And we were pulled by two mules who just poked along ♪ I enjoy everything about working here.

Riding the boat is wonderful; you know, doing that kinda work.

And telling people about history, enlightening them to things that they didn't know before.

The lock itself is nothing more than a little room.

Inside with the gates closed, it's 90 feet long, 15 feet wide, plenty big enough for our boat.

It's just a wonderful thing to be able to impart that knowledge to people.

And at each end there are big gates.

Those are called whaler gates or mitre gates.

And those gates weigh three and a half tons a piece.

And on top of those gates, oh, oh look, (chuckling) this looks a little bit like one of those whaler gates.

And now I get to tell the captain's wife that I used the washboard today.

She'll be pleased.

But on top of each of those gates, oh, now don't be disturbed about that.

I know you heard that splash.

Don't be disturbed about that, that's just us disconnecting from the mules.

We have to do that in order to get into the lock.

It's for the mules' safety.

Now you can see up on top of those whaler gates there are handles, and those handles are attached to gates that are under the water.

They're called wicket gates, or paddles.

And those wicket gates, when we turn those handles, the wicket gates is going to turn sideways, just like that.

And that's what lets the water in and out of our lock.

You see how close we are to this lock?

We're very close.

There's only a few inches between this 12 1/2 ton boat and that lock wall.

And when we let the water into this lock, this boat's gonna move backwards, and forwards, and sideways, and it'll hit one wall, maybe two, maybe more than once.

We never know.

It's always different.

But if your hand is outside this boat when it hits the lock wall, it's going to break your hand, and nobody wants that.

So best thing to do, just keep your hands and your heads inside the boat.

(mellow music) There are three types of stone in the lock.

The very top layer, the one that you see us walking on, that's a quartz sandstone, came from the peninsula area of Ohio.

Down below that you'll see four levels of nicely cut limestone.

It's even decorated, has little dimples in it.

But those four levels of nicely cut limestone that are always above the water, those came from Marblehead and Kelleys Island.

They brought 'em up the Maumee River on flat-bottom boats as far as they could, and then by wagon the rest of the way.

But down below the waterline.

This is about another 10 feet of water down below this boat right now.

And all of the limestone that's below the waterline was quarried from the bottom of the Maumee River right across from us here.

The thought at the time was, that limestone had been sitting underwater for thousands of years, and it would hold up better underwater in the lock than this dry stuff they pulled out of the ground at Marblehead.

That is the original lock.

It was lock nine on the Wabash and Erie Canal, lock 44 North on the Miami and Erie Canal, but to the boatman who worked in it since 1840, it was always the Providence Lock.

It's the same lock the boats were goin' through in 1840 when they opened up that inlet at the Providence Dam and filled this canal all the way to Toledo.

But this was only one of two major canals here in Ohio.

(mellow music) Everybody on the boat worked a six-hour shift.

You had one bowsman who threw the ropes, one steersman who steered the boat.

You had the hoggee, or mule driver, you had two sets of mules, and one captain who owned the boat, and one cook who was usually the captain's wife.

That was your basic crew.

And they had a mule stable in a lot of the boats.

If the boat was taking two sets of mules, they had a mule stable in there.

And on this canal, it was in the center of the boat.

On most of the other canals, it was in the bow of the boat.

Now, six hours is important because a mule can go eight to 10 hours without getting tired.

A canal boat day went from 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning until 10:00 or 11:00 at night.

And so you're always going in the early morning, always going after dark.

But a boat could go 24 hours on this canal because they didn't close it.

Now folks, you remember I told you that we had to disconnect from the mules in order to get into the lock?

Well, we have to get outta there somehow.

So Mr. Bodie and Mr.

Box from the mill are pulling us out.

You can see if they're able to pull us out, get us up to speed by the time we hit the end of the lock, and get connected back to the mules, those mules are not working as hard as you might think they are.

They'd be working a lot harder pulling a plow in a farmer's field than pulling our old canal boat.

(mellow music) - My goal at the end of any trip is for the passengers to have a good time.

- We mix in some light banter and things like that in there.

It's going to that confectioner in Defiance.

- Yes sir, it is.

You know what happens when we get Defiance we don't have that molasses on board?

- That puts us in a mighty sticky situation.

- That does put us in a sticky situation.

- It's pretty easy to get into character.

Now, I know my character very well.

Even if we're not going back in character, the passengers are still getting an authentic look at what it was like to be on a canal boat.

And I think that's a very important thing to be able to convey to people because the canals were so important to Ohio's early history, - I have actually learned a lot more than I was ever expecting.

I've learned a deep minutiae of facts I was never interested in, never knew that they could have ever existed about our mill, about what life was like trying to operate these boats.

- It appears we're turning around, and it's illegal to turn around on the old canal here.

It's illegal because we might get mudlarked, or stuck.

And if we get mudlarked, well, all of us will have to be running back and forth here on the deck to jar us loose.

And if that doesn't work, we'll have to get out and push.

- It's given me a bigger perspective on the place where I grew up and where I come from, and what made Ohio the state it is.

- This is a part of Ohio's history that people forget about a lot, and we are in a unique position to be able to show people what it was like back when the canals were running.

(gentle guitar music) - [Announcer] If you missed this week's episode of "Scenic Stops and Stories," you can stream the full episode for free any time at wbgu.org/scenicstops.

(energetic music)