(bright music) (mouse clicks) (keyboard clacking) (mouse clicks) (bright music) (mouse clicks) (bright music continues) (keyboard clacking) (mouse clicks) (lively music) - The building that you're in right now was the epicenter in the nerve center of the Auburn automobile company.

There's a very long illustrious history that went here before this building was established.

It was in 1874 that Mr. Charles Eckhart created the Eckhart Carriage Company here in Auburn just because that's where the Eckhart's lived.

And believe it or not, he was building carriages in the parlor of his house.

So it was actually two of Mr. Eckhart's sons, Frank and Morris, that were very interested in taking the Eckhart Carriage company and turning it into an automobile company.

So in 1900 they established the Auburn Automobile Company and by 1903 they had created their first vehicle.

While they were fantastic at what they did, they were not businessmen.

And we see that a lot in the automotive industry.

A lot of these early startup companies, they're wonderful inventors and designers, but not great businessmen.

So the company did go into receivership and it was a couple of the investors that were looking to bring somebody on that would be able to market these vehicles, maybe rebrand the vehicles, create something new and dynamic for the public.

So they brought in E.L. Cord to see if he would be interested in being general manager of the Auburn Automobile Company.

He ended up acquiring the majority of the stock and named himself president of the company.

So E.L. Cord, again, he was always looking to the next thing and he decided that he wanted to create his own line of vehicles.

(calming music) So he put together a team of designers and experts to work with him on creating what would become the first front wheel drive vehicle sold to the American public.

That vehicle is right behind me.

That is a Cord L-29.

That front wheel drive E.L. Cord thought, well, what if I put that into a consumer vehicle?

It's safer, it's more reliable.

There are a lot of designs that you can do with a front wheel drive rather than rear wheel drive, including eliminating the drive shaft from underneath the vehicle and actually being able to create a vehicle that was a lot lower and closer to the ground.

The L-29 sold very well.

(calming music fades) We have to talk about the Duesenberg brothers, very inventive brothers.

Fred and August or Auggie Duesenberg, they created by 1921, their first vehicle, which was known as the Duesenberg, straight eight, but again, not the best businessman.

When Cord approached the brothers, he said, this is what I want to do.

I want you to create the epitome of luxury, the finest of the fine, the best of the best, the most luxurious, the fastest, and the grandest American car.

Well, that car would be known as the Duesenberg Model J.

And now you've got Auburn, which is again kind of the basic tier.

You've got Cord right above that and you have Duesenberg.

These were very segmented markets depending on affordability and the class of people that were driving them.

The Duesenbergs were the most expensive American car that was built at the time period.

They were meant to outclass, outperform and outrun everything that was on the road.

And they were really built for royalty.

And we could say Hollywood royalty.

We could mean literal royalty, kings, queens, princes, princesses.

You would see them at some of the grandest estates and they were marketed for their lifestyle.

They were marketed for their performance, their durability, their speed.

And it was really, it was really a statement (bright music) - When you first walk into the showroom.

What you see is the 1930 grand art deco showroom as it was back in 1931.

It was originally built displaying mainly Auburns Cords and Duesenbergs of the era from when E.L. Cord arrived, starting in 1924, all the way to when the company closed in 1937.

It also includes vehicles such as an airplane.

You'll see a a Stinson aircraft as E.L. cord owned, more than just the Auburn Mobile company.

He also owned Stinson.

So in our, in our collection, we have about 120 cars.

Up on the third floor, you'll, you'll see other competitive makes of the 1920s and thirties such as Packard, Stutz, Pierce Arrow, and and more all technology.

That's where we display a lot of the innovations of the Auburns Cords and Duesenburg cars.

So you'll see things like a Cord 810 engine with the front wheel drive, you'll see a Cord L-29 chassis with its first iteration of a front wheel drive, as well as some original offices from when the building was in operation such as E.L. Cord's office.

A museum has grown into being the premier institute for not only displaying and owning ACD cars, but the archival collection as well as a learning and educational institution.

(soft music) - We love being able to tell the story of the history of the automotive industry and its impact on Northeast Indiana and how a little town like Auburn, Indiana was very instrumental in really galvanizing and just really pushing the boundaries of what was possible with automotive technology at that time.

- In a small town at the time, middle of nowhere, Indiana, basically some of the most forward thinking, innovative, progressive minds, designers, engineers, builders, put together and created some of the most innovative and fantastically designed automobiles of the era that pushed technology and engineering along that eventually led to the cars that we drive today.

- This is really a magical place.

I say it's a time capsule and you are walking right into history.

And even if you're not a car guy or car gal, there is so much history here.

If you are interested in preservation, architecture, history, the evolution of America, what is one of the most important things that changed our world in history?

And it has to be the automobile.

- 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.

- I tried to go with everything that's native to northwest Ohio, so everything like in this mural, you could probably see around here as well.

(bright music) The way I got into murals and doing it as a career, I graffiti as a teenager, like painting drains and buildings.

(bright music) (keyboard clacking) (mouse clicks) (rhythmic music) When the Wood County Historical Museum contacted me about doing the mural, they didn't really have too many requests.

They kind of let me do my own thing.

They wanted like birds and flowers because of the garden being so close.

I try to go with everything that's native to northwest Ohio.

So everything like in this mural, you could probably see around here as well.

(music continues) I mean, I basically been into art my entire life, you know, since I was a kid.

I always loved drawing and stuff like that.

The way I got into murals and doing it as a career, I graffiti as a teenager, like painting trains and buildings and then that kind of just, you know, evolved into what you see that I'm doing today.

(rhythmic music) Probably one of my favorite things to do when it comes to murals and painting, especially in public places, is taking these buildings or these objects that most of the time no one's really going to take a second look at it.

I really like being able to change a space.

(rhythmic music) I mean, I have multiple styles honestly, like I like to dive into realism, but I can also do abstract.

I like graphic pieces.

I also like when I can blend all my styles together.

'cause I'll throw in like typography patterns and design with the realism.

And so I try to not really stick to one thing.

I like to, you know, do a little bit of everything.

I've traveled all around the country painting murals, but most of my work is right here in northwest Ohio, all over Toledo.

Some of my favorite ones is one I did last year for the Toledo Metro Parks on the east side of Toledo.

I, I painted like the side bridges.

I also own a gallery in East Toledo called the River East Gallery.

We've done a lot of murals in that neighborhood right there, just trying to, you know, beautify the neighborhood.

(music continues) The process starts with me first just looking at the space, like how big is it, what can I do with it?

Noticing the corrugated metal, thinking about what type of imagery that can lay over that, that I can paint.

From there, I start designing the mural.

(ladder clacking) I had a site visit here where I went into the garden, took pictures of some of the flowers, researched native plants and birds from northwest Ohio, and then start just finding images on the internet and building that design from there.

When I get here to start painting, I prime the wall.

'cause the most important part about a mural because prep work.

So if you don't prep your wall right, the paint's not gonna last.

And with my murals, I want these things, you know, last 10, 15 years.

And then from there I'll find the images and I'll start sketching it on my computer.

That way I can take it to my iPad and my projector at night.

It just goes so much quicker when you can just trace it on the wall.

But that's like one of the tricks.

Muralists uses the projector just so you can basically size everything.

Perfect.

So after I trace everything up there, I come back the next day and just start filling each piece in.

I'll take my reference and just work section by section and looking at the reference as I go.

And then repeat that same process throughout the whole mural.

(bright music) The first section with the bird, I believe that's a yellow warbler.

I went with that because I really like the yellows in it and I envisioned the background being more blues and dark blues.

So that contrast between the two I really like.

Same thing with the two other flowers and the butterfly, lots of yellows, browns going on in the mural.

Also, I like painting cardinals.

People find like a symbolic meaning with the cardinals and with the red, like I said, same thing with the contrast.

And then the center of the mural I went with a white lotus flower could also almost play off of like it being like the sun in the background center in point.

Everything's kind of coming off of that.

My murals are most of the time very symbolic.

You know, I want people to kind of see different things in them and relate to them in different ways.

(music continues) It's definitely quite a few layers.

Building my darks and my lights and all the midtones together to give it that depth.

I really try to make these murals pop where it's not so flat.

I want things to almost look like they're jumping off the wall.

I couldn't even tell you how many different colors are just in the cardinal alone, but quite a few just to give it that, you know, more realistic look.

If somebody wanted to do what I do, I would say this just takes a lot of practice and determination of just not giving up.

And that, I think that goes with like any, any passion or anything anybody's like, like passionate about is just keep doing it.

If you enjoy it, just keep doing it.

Who cares what anybody says if you enjoy it, that's what, that's what counts.

(can spray) Usually everyone really loves the, the work that I do.

I think everybody gets a sense of enjoyment out of it.

I'm really big on the idea that art can be healing.

Like say you're having a bad day when you come across a mural that's colorful and maybe has like a positive message to it.

I, I really believe that can, you know, lift your spirits even if it's just for that moment.

Because I put that type of, you know, energy into my work that I, I hope that it makes you happy.

(bright music) - We really wanted this to bring some vibrance to the back part of the property.

It's right near our herb garden and that is always in bloom in the summertime.

Our volunteers take such good care of that and we wanted to sort of help guide people in that direction to draw more attention to it.

And this was our idea to do that.

This has been several years in the making.

We told him that we wanted birds that you'd find in Ohio.

We wanted flowers that were in the area and he definitely took his inspiration from right on the property here at the Wood County Museum.

I hope that people take advantage of this.

I hope that they love it as much as we do and they come and take pictures with it, take selfies.

And then it also gets them looking around the property at this exact stuff (bright music) H.O.O.V.E.S stands for healing of our veterans equine services.

And our mission is to enlist rescued horses to help veterans transform post-traumatic stress into post-traumatic growth, (calming music) (keyboard clacking) (mouse clicks) H.O.O.V.E.S stands for healing of our veterans equine services.

And our mission is to enlist rescued horses to help veterans transform post-traumatic stress into post-traumatic growth.

(calming music) Post-Traumatic growth is a term that we use a lot around here because there's really a stigma around post-traumatic stress and what people call post-traumatic stress disorder.

If you've had a traumatic thing happen to you, you're never gonna be the same person.

And sometimes I hear people say, I need to get back to who I was before the trauma.

And that is not realistic.

So what we look at is you've had this trauma, you know, we wish that it hadn't have happened to you, but it did, and we can't change that.

But what we can change is our perception of the trauma.

And so anytime we've had a challenging situation in our life, we have had some form of growth.

And that's where the term post-traumatic growth comes from.

(horse sighs) My dream as a young teenager was actually to become a fashion designer.

And then one afternoon I had some girlfriends over and my friend Andrea looked at me and said, don't you think it'd be really cool if we like joined the military and we could get in shape?

And you know, at the time I was just like, oh yeah, that sounds like a really good idea.

We were just having a casual conversation.

But my mom heard us from the other room and within about 15 minutes she had been on the phone with a recruiter and was now shuttling us all to the recruiting office in Holland.

(dramatic music) Being in basic training, I almost didn't want to leave.

Like I, once we got into our routine and the structure, I really adapted to that well.

But that structure I think fundamentally changed me and it's really been the foundation for me to be able to build everything that I've built with H.O.O.V.E.S and otherwise in my military career, (calming music) the plan was actually never to come back to Swanton, (chuckles) but here we are again.

I think destiny played a large part in that.

But I actually grew up just a couple of miles from where the farm is at.

And when I originally got out of the Air Force and moved back home, I was living in Grand Rapids, Ohio, and that's where I originally started a boarding and training farm with my father.

And then I quickly realized that that was not my destiny and little things just kind of started going wrong and I didn't really feel fulfilled in that career.

And so I made the decision to shut it all down.

I was kind of at another moment in my life where I was like, okay, what's next?

Because why do I have a big farm if I'm not going to board and train horses?

Like what else is there to do with horses?

I'm not really sure.

And that's when I met a man named Rob and he talked to me about equine assisted psychotherapy.

And in the beginning I thought, oh, psychotherapy on a horse, that sounds kind of weird.

And Rob said, no, no, we do the therapy for the people and the horse is a conduit to help them get in touch with their emotions.

And as soon as he told me about it, I just knew right away that was my life path.

In the infancy stages, we didn't have a focus specifically on veterans, but I went and I got my training and certification and my dad and I launched Riverbend Equine Therapy.

So H.O.O.V.E.S just started as a simple program under the umbrella of Riverbend Equine Therapy, but it's the one that stuck and it's the one that got the most traction.

And now today, we only operate under H.O.O.V.E.S (calming music) One of the things that I had done after I got out of active duty was I joined the International Guard here at the one 80th fighter wing in Toledo.

The airmen would come in and I would get to know them, and then they would go on a deployment and then they would come back and they just wouldn't be quite the same.

So I saw the direct need in front of my eyes and I had learned the power of what this work can do for people.

(guitar strums) In 2013, two days after Christmas, my dad unexpectedly passed away, and that led into me not being able to keep the farm and most of the horses that I had at the time.

While it was a devastating loss, one of the amazing things about the work that I have and the work that I teach is I use those tools to help me get through an insurmountable situation.

He was a sergeant, major retired and a lieutenant on the police force.

- If I would not have come to hooves, he said that I would be dead within a year, a year and a half.

- I think one of the amazing strengths of the military is their tradition.

We've tried to incorporate a lot of the traditional things in the military that reflect the positive times.

And one of the things I think any veteran will say is the thing they miss most about the military is that feeling of being something bigger than yourself and the brotherhood and the sisterhood.

And so we try to bring some of those elements in.

When I started H.O.O.V.E.S, I was using a framework that I had been trained, but over the past 20 years, I've developed my own framework.

The retreats start on a Wednesday night, so all the participants come in, they do stay here on the farm.

We have bed and breakfast style rooms in the house for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

We have a experience in the morning that is holistic, so we'll do yoga, meditation, different mindfulness practices.

Then we have about four hours of classroom work where we actually teach veterans tools on how to manage their perceptions and regulate their nervous systems.

And then in the afternoon, we take what we've learned in the classroom out to the horses, and then we get to have an equine guided experience.

And we understand here that there's no cookie cutter to healing.

Everybody heals differently and people have different interests and some things work better for others.

(birds chirping) Two of the participants in every retreat are H.O.O.V.E.S alumni.

Once you get through the program, you get one year of mentorship and you also get a 90 day take home workbook that has a daily best practice in it to help you further integrate what you learned at the retreat.

And then once you can live by the principals, we invite you to come back and help the next group coming in do the same.

So I've actually created a certification program and now I'm training other veterans how to facilitate the work.

One of our first certified facilitators is Tim.

He was a sergeant, major retired and a lieutenant on the police force.

And he has so much to offer our veterans coming through.

He has a lot of experience, he has multiple tours overseas, what he can provide, just taking the tools, applying the tools radically changing his life and then coming back to teach them is a huge inspiration.

(soft music) - In 2018, after my house burnt down and the difficulties that followed for the next nine months, it really put me into a tailspin with the military and with my life in general, I started drinking heavily.

I was very angry all the time.

I was angry because I was angry.

And then it just escalated.

Suicidal ideation came back and I was suicidal for, for then on.

It was if not weekly, it was biweekly or even daily.

If I would not have come to H.O.O.V.E.S I read one of the psychiatrist's report on me.

I don't know how I got it, but he said that I would be dead within a year, a year and a half at my own hand because I was (soft music) a raging alcoholic with suicidal ideation (soft music) that I'd be dead within a year, year and a half.

And that was a report that went to the VA. (soft music) I've had to reach out several times because in my mind I did not want to die, but I saw no hope (soft music) and I had to reach out to other service members that I was close to that knew that what I was going through or a portion of I was going through and they would talk me through it.

But combined that with drinking, it doesn't help.

And I was self-medicating the whole time.

And that's a scary thought.

Now because I, (uplifting music) I'm truly grateful for my life, I'm truly grateful for the opportunity to be here at H.O.O.V.E.S as a facilitator.

I'm truly grateful to help others by giving them the tools to help heal themselves.

(uplifting music) And to realize where I came from to where I am now is just amazing.

(uplifting music) - When we put a group of veterans in the arena with the horses, the horses are gonna start reading their body language and they're gonna start showing up just like the veterans are showing up.

So if you are shut down, the horses will not respond to you.

If you are anxious, the horses will be fidgety or anxious as well.

(horse groans) The horses are providing a constant feedback loop.

And I think what is so amazing is that when the veterans start looking in themselves and getting authentic and getting vulnerable, and they have a shift within themselves, they will immediately see a shift in one of the horses.

(uplifting music) - Welcome family, guests, donors, board members, volunteers.

Thank you all so much for coming to cohort 423 graduation.

(applause) - The success of our participants is really on a spectrum.

After you complete the program, I always tell everybody, you get out of this exactly what you put into it.

And some people come through the program and they just wanna sleep better at night, and they sleep better at night.

Some people come through the program and they radically transform their life and actualize all their hopes and dreams.

So to me, I think success in this program is being at least a little bit better than you were before you got here.

And I would say most of the people that participate in the program really do find exactly what they were looking for.

(uplifting music) (energetic music)