(bright music) (mouse clicks) (keyboard taps) (mouse clicks) (bright music) (mouse clicks) (bright music continues) (keyboard taps) (mouse clicks) (upbeat music) - People that visit our museum, they are totally surprised at what they find.

(bright music) The facade of this building and our museum is a replica of the 1854 Fulton County Courthouse.

That was the first courthouse, and it was located in a little place called Ottokee.

Just about a mile from our location here.

Our building actually, when you pull into the parking lot and look, you will see the courthouse facility because it stands out, but also attached to the courthouse facility is a barn-looking structure, and that is actually where the museum itself is located.

And that barn structure is designed to pay homage to the agricultural heritage of Fulton County.

(upbeat music continues) When you first enter the building, one of the things that we want is a grabber is a large mural that we have on the wall.

There are actually two murals.

The first one is a tile mural that is made up of photographs of people from Fulton County: businesses, churches, all kinds of organizations who have given us photos to display on these tiles.

It was a fundraiser for gathering funds to build the museum.

The second mural inside that one is a collection of 12 people whose stories we tell and the cultural background of Fulton County.

- What makes us special is that I don't just put a collection.

Here, I'm taking all sorts of objects, putting them together to tell a story.

I really want to tell stories that are untold stories.

You have your typical history book, and it's all rich white men, and I'm trying really hard to tell the story of women, different groups of people, orientations, and pulling those out.

It's exciting to see the collections we have here.

And after we've moved here, we've received even more things.

We had a powder horn from pre-Revolutionary War, and the family had passed this down from generation to generation up to today.

The flashlight that's on loan to us from NASA is also really worthy of seeing in the collection.

(gentle music) - We preserve our history here because, as the saying goes, we're doomed to repeat the things if we don't understand what's gone before us.

And what we try to show in the museum is that although history doesn't necessarily repeat itself, you see patterns of things over the years that continually seem to happen.

The way the museum is lined up is that it's very colorful and each one of those colors represent a season and a historical era that's going on.

And they do repeat themselves to some extent with those colors.

And the colors represent kind of what's happening.

So if there's a blue color that's kind of cold, that's usually an era when things aren't going as well; The spring colors, things are a little better' And then there's autumn colors that we're kind of in transition.

So we're trying to show people that things move over time and that you can relate things that happened in the past to things that are happening today as well.

The other piece that I really like to try and hit with people is that we do changing exhibits.

- If you buy a year's membership, you'd be seeing at least three if not more exhibits a year.

We try to have as many interactive things in the gallery as possible, especially for children, because they get bored with mom and dad reading labels.

So there are drawers that we want people to open to see the artifacts inside that are hiding.

Some of the photography in the Civil War section is so old that I didn't really want it exposed to light, so we purposely put things inside drawers and areas where you have to lift the display.

And then I used the photography idea as a way of creating these interactives.

So the first section you see silhouettes because that's the only way people could capture an image in the old days was either paint someone's portrait or create a silhouette.

So the poor man would get silhouettes.

So you can create a silhouette with a light box that we've created.

And then I have 1850s Daguerrotype, and you can actually put your head in a Daguerrotype and take a selfie.

And then we have Barney Oldfield in the 1920s.

We have him in his car, and I made a cutout so that when you sit behind it, it looks like you're riding with Barney Oldfield around the racetrack.

We also have four movies now.

We're just installing the fourth one right now on the Underground Railroad.

And we also have audio tours that are based on your cell phone with a QR code.

So if you have a cell phone, you can hear an actual person from the past talking.

- [Narrator] The American Revolutionary War interfered with my childhood.

I became a part of a great fight for liberty.

- All of the exhibits, except for one, was done by our local people, all volunteers.

- Every exhibit has a team of people that help do the research and installation, and so this railroad exhibit covers a huge span of time and four different railroads.

What makes our railroad history unique is that unlike other counties, we didn't have canals, rivers, and train travel is really what changed the county.

- We encourage our local people to bring people from out of town and family members to come get an idea of what the actual history is so that you know where you came from and the people that went before you.

(calm music) (upbeat music) - [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.

- If my work has changed over the years, it probably has to do with my interests and the way I see things.

You want to draw people's attention, but you want to hold their attention.

(tools tap) (keyboard taps) (mouse clicks) (tool taps) What drew me to metalsmithing, I can remember, it was about the second grade, some of the local neighborhood kids and and I, we would go to town every once in awhile and walk into the main part of town.

There was a railroad track then that went north, and the trains would go very slow, and I can remember taking a penny and putting it on the railroad track, and the train ran over it and just being like, "Wow, wow!"

Now, how do you control that?

That was kind of my first introduction to moving metal.

Actual metalsmithing then is of course is more controlled, more refined.

A lot of my work is site-specific, so I try to design it for a specific place, for a specific customer, for a specific use.

That kind of boundary sparks a direction.

You want to draw people's attention, but you want to hold their attention.

I like the work to show the signs of how it was made.

Sometimes that's just the very direct hammer marks or a piece of copper that you've shaped to resemble something else.

The detail is important, especially if it builds on the piece.

It just raises the level of everything.

Texture affects how the light bounces off of it when you get close.

And really, I like to think that the texture shows up from a long way back.

You might not notice it exactly, but you perceive that the texture is there.

(laid-back music) A lot of the work that I've done in the last 15, at least, years is generally referred to as chasing and repousse.

The repousse is basically pushing out a dent from the back.

It's creating a dimensional form from a flat sheet of metal, and then you refine it from the front, and that's the chasing part.

You see the form evolve as you're working it, and it's back and forth, back and forth until it looks like what you want it to look like.

(laid-back music continues) I guess I've used a lot of different kinds of metals over the years.

I don't know that I have a favorite really.

I try to pick what's right for the job.

I've mostly worked in copper.

It moves easier than steel.

Now, what you do with copper is you heat it first to anneal it, you heat it to a dull red, and then it's soft.

It's dead soft.

And then the longer you work it, the harder it gets.

The crystals in copper are kind of like a series of plates.

The more you hammer it, those plates get more and more brittle.

If you keep hammering, it will crack.

The one thing about working with different metals, but in particular steel, if you get it hot enough and you know how to push it right, it's kind of like working with clay.

So the magic is you can work it sort of like it's clay, but after it cools off, it's very, very strong.

(machinery whirs) My work is very diverse.

Lately I think it has been more intimate projects.

They're in small spaces.

A lot of it has been that, but I also have some public works.

Several years ago I was approached by Lorain First Lutheran in Lorain, Ohio.

Their church had been destroyed by an arsonist.

The one thing that they dearly loved about their church was their pipe organ.

And the pipe organ at the end of the fire ended up in the basement, basically just this pile of black burned up metal.

So they contacted me sometime after that, and they asked me would I be interested in making something using that copper and also the glass from their stained glass windows, which were also destroyed, to hang there.

And of course I said yes.

And they said, "Well, we'll leave it to you to come up with the idea.

And it took me a while to come up with the idea, but finally I thought maybe a peace dove would be a good idea.

(gentle music) The Wassenberg portal is another wonderful project.

They had outgrown their space in town, which was actually just an old house.

They managed to acquire an old armory and repurposed the armory into an art center.

Along the way, they tried to keep the original look of the building, and my thought was, "Well, you did a great job restoring the building.

It looks beautiful.

It doesn't look like an art center."

So I said, "You need something to create a transition from the street to the art center to kind of prepare people to catch their eye that this is an art center."

And so then I thought it's sort of like a portal.

So that's why it's called the Wassenberg portal.

(machine bangs) One of the things that is most important to me is if I make something that affects people's lives day-to-day.

So many of the pieces that I make, because I'm very personally involved in every aspect of it.

It's like sending your child off to college.

Some of 'em you can visit easily, and some of 'em , maybe it's even a piece that you dearly love and a very important piece, you may never see it again.

But all the pieces that I make for people, there's not really one of 'em that you don't kind of feel bad about walking away from.

But the harder they are, the more it took, the more you love the piece, the harder that is.

If my work has changed over the years, it probably has to do with my interests and the way I see things.

I mean, I've been doing this not quite 50 years, but pretty long.

So I'm not the same person, and I don't see the world in the same way that I did.

But what I like best about what I do is figuring out what the thing should look like, how it will work.

I come up with all my own ideas.

(machine bangs) Boredom isn't a factor, because you have to figure out all the little tiny aspects with what that means, and you're constantly figuring out how to make that happen.

You never run outta stuff to do, unless it's time for you to quit, and I don't feel like quitting yet.

(laid-back music) - [Narrator] Coming up next, it has some rich local history and was named after President Harrison's army base in the War of 1812.

(keyboard taps) (mouse clicks) (laid-back music) This is Fort Seneca, Ohio, located 10 minutes outside of Tiffin.

(laid-back music continues) Despite its size, it has some rich local history and was named after President Harrison's army base in the War of 1812.

(laid-back music continues) (birds chirping) The people of Fort Seneca enjoy a wide variety of sporting events with their four baseball fields, a basketball court, and a sand volleyball pit, which are all expertly maintained.

These are home to the teams and clubs of the Old Fort Stockaders, with a dedicated playground area and the Pete Mellott Memorial Field, named in honor of a community member who had a passion for Little League and was instrumental in the design and building of the fields.

(laid-back music continues) (birds chirping) If you are a history buff, there is also an Ohio Revolutionary Memorial Trail marker built in 1930 by the Ohio Revolutionary Memorial Commission.

It represents military movements to Battle Island in 1813.

(laid-back music continues) Fort Seneca is a small stop with an amazing background.

Whether it's to go for a family picnic or to explore more of your historical side, this is a perfect stop for you.

(laid-back music continues) (mouse clicks) (mouse clicks) - hoopla is available to all users, either through a web browser or your Apple or Android device, and anyone with a library card that has access to hoopla will be able to borrow the same media at the same time.

We want everyone in the community to have access.

(bright music) You think about a book club, usually everyone has to buy a copy of the book, and you go to a library and they don't have enough copies of the book.

Our service makes everything available to everyone without any waiting.

hoopla's available to all users, either through a web browser or your Apple or Android device.

And anyone with a library card that has access to hoopla will be able to borrow the same media at the same time.

It allows you to borrow audiobooks, eBooks, movies, television shows, comics, and virtually anyone with a library card can have access to hoopla.

hoopla is the digital arm.

It's a digital service to public libraries.

We have a sister company called Dreamscape, which they're an audiobook publisher, but they also do videos.

And Midwest Tape is our parent company that does physical media.

- Midwest Tape is a full service distributor of media to libraries across the United States and to Canada.

We are in Australia now.

Midwest Tape offers products and services that allow libraries to be successful in their communities.

- [Jeff] So when I started, we had a video store, and we would sell access inventory.

At that time, VHS tapes were very expensive.

We would sell them to public libraries, and then we would talk to libraries and really find out what their needs were.

We do business with about 4,000 different public library systems in the United States.

We're also in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

- [Sue] From starting with VHS to then going into movies, then we offered audiobooks and music, and then the digital.

I mean, we have the hoopla that we've really grown our staff, where we used to have 60% of our employees be warehouse, I would say that is flipped now.

Because of digital and the environment we're in, we have well over 130 people just working on product and development.

So the dynamics of our business have changed quite a bit.

- [Jeff] If you're an independent author or a small publisher, we want everyone in the community to have access to your materials.

We have over 350,000 different children's books and materials, and we have a lot of read-alongs.

I mean, we have lots of different world language products available in ebook form, audiobook form, movie form.

So the ability to carry all of those items.

On hoopla, you'll find a better selection than you would in any bookstore or any branch location.

- [Sue] You think about what other product is so far-reaching.

Having these digital platforms available is huge.

- [Jeff] You think about rural libraries or somebody living in rural community, and to be able to have the same experience you can have in a big city, that's the premise of what hoopla does.

- The more you can expose and get access to knowledge and information, it just gives you options.

And now you can use it on just about any device that you have, which is accessibility, right?

I mean, that's what our goal is, - [Jeff] Our reach to be able to help serve everyone in every community the same is really kind of our focus and kind of our mission.

This ability to be totally empowered to discover or educated or informed, that's the premise of what hoopla does, and that's what John tried to do with physical materials with grants to libraries as well.

- John Eldred, what he's created here and the culture and the philosophy still lives on with our team, and the spirit of it also lives on in his legacy Foundation that he created to continue what he really was passionate about.

- My husband was John Henry Eldred Jr.

He had a rough life.

His dad would be doing well one day financially and poor the next day.

Libraries were always his safe place, his comfortable place.

He was just a, a great guy.

He knew a lot about a lot of subjects and all of that I think stems from this love of libraries, which got him into working with public libraries.

At some point, when the company was doing really well, he wanted to start giving back, and he formed the Dorothy Louise Kyler Foundation to help rural public libraries.

- The mission of the John Henry Eldred Jr. Foundation is to support families and the communities in which they live, work, and play.

We do that through our three primary giving focus areas, which are youth education, housing, stability, and food security.

The Foundation's mission and the mission of Midwest Tape, really at their core, it's about service.

While Midwest Tape, hoopla, Dreamscape are all about helping libraries serve their communities, the Foundation is about helping libraries and also other kinds of nonprofits serve the community of Toledo and communities nationally.

- When we talk about Midwest and hoopla being in this area, we want people to know we're here.

This region, this area, it means a lot to have an impact.

I come from a huge family, lived in, grew up in the Old West End.

My dad actually used the library to go back to school and get his GED.

In the Old West End, you had the YMCA downtown.

I had the Collingwood Branch Library that we lived at, and the Toledo Art Museum.

To give back and have the impact that we have I feel is really cool, it's very satisfying.

- My first experience with the library was great, 'cause I was a really serious kid.

There wasn't much to read at my house, so I was taken to the Heatherdowns Branch Library by my mother.

A great librarian helped me, and I got a sport almanac on earned run averages and batting averages.

This is the first time I was really empowered to read what I wanted to read.

That's the the focus of what we do, and that's what drives us.

- [Sue] Our goal here is to provide all the communities as much access to materials as possible.

- [Jeff] Everybody loves media, whether it's a book, whether it's an audio book, or a movie, or a television show, it allows you to be entertained, educate, inform, and so anybody that wants to discover new content or the next author that they're interested in, or the topic, it really is an empowering way to try things for free.

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