HH1005 transcript Just ahead on Heartland Highway weíll take you to two very unique museums.

Weíll learn more about the history of land surveying at National Museum of Surveying in downtown Springfield, Illinois.

And in Sadorus, Illinois, weíll make a stop at the National Museum of Ship Models and Sea History.

Finally weíll meet Chet Turner a boat builder who specializes in the Y-Flyer sailboat, thatís coming up next on Heartland Highways.

[music] Thanks for coming along for another edition of Heartland Highways, Iím Lori Casey and Iím Kate Pleasant.

Weíre going to kick off this weekís show with 2 adventures to 2 very unique museums.

Located on the historic square in downtown Springfield, Illinois is a one-of-kind museum that is dedicated to an important part of American History.

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln were of course U.S. presidents, but they also had something else in common, they were land surveyors.

Land Surveyors are the ones that develop the United States of America, but Land surveying is still very important today.

If you own land you need to know where that land is and how you can use it.

So, that was the other goal was to show how land surveyors developed America, why land surveying is important, and why itís needed today.

(Narrator) The National Museum of Surveying is the only museum of its type in the U.S. About 20 years ago a group of Michigan land surveyors put together a museum in Lansing.

When they wanted to make it into a national museum, they started looking for a new location And of course being here from Springfield and all the Lincoln Sights and knowing that Abraham Lincoln had been a surveyor, I put an offer in.

I said let me try to put a proposal together and see if we can bring it to Springfield.

(Narrator) In 2008, the museum found an ideal location just across the street from the old state capital and by the fall of 2010, the museum officially opened their doors.

Through interactive displays and historical artifacts, the museum preserves the legacy of surveying and its role in the development of America.

And so we go back to the Washington Survey when he was 16 years old.

We show the kind of equipment that was made.

And I mean surveying was tough enough, but just imagine how you made surveying equipment out of brass in the late 1700s, middle 1700s.

And so we try to show why those instruments are important.

So, we go through that and tell some of the interesting things about the equipment, about the maps and about the surveyors.

Also, when surveyors of those times surveyed they had five people on a crew.

The compass person, there was a head chainman, a rear chainman, a head flagman, and a person that cut brush.

And they would lay out the chain and measure 33 links at a time.

Well, to remember how many times they would go 33 links.

One of them had acorns in one pocket.

They take the acorn out of one pocket and put it in the other pocket and at the end of the day they would count out how many acorns they had.

And thatís how you could tell how many 33 foot links they had gone.

Because these people could read, write and do math.

In fact, seven signers of the Declaration of Independence were land surveyors.

So, they were very prominent people.

We have pictures of surveyors back in 1909 and they are in suits, vests, white shirts and ties and you think outside surveying why would you do that?

Because, they were very prominent people and people held them that way and they wanted to dress the part.

(Narrator) Where state, county, city and property lines start and end is the result of the land surveyor.

But their skills were also used during the Civil War.

The surveyors actually went out in the proposed battle fields and did sketches of what it looked like.

They would then come back and meet with the generals and the generals would plan the attack or where they wanted to be.

Also, we have actual photographs of surveyors of the Civil War.

We have a tent encampment of like an office where they would sleep.

(Narrator) Abraham Lincolnís time as a surveyor is also displayed in the museum.

He was responsible for the layout of 5 towns, 4 roads and about 35 properties.

Some feel that it was surveying that helped his political career.

Well, Lincoln ran for state representative in 1832.

There were 14 candidates, but he lost.

He came in 7th.

He won New Salem, but he lost out in the county.

He then, John Calhoun looked him up in 1833 and asked him if he would be the Deputy Salem County Surveyor.

So, Lincoln became this surveyor in 1833.

He got out in the County, the people got to know him, and they trusted him as a land surveyor.

He ran for state representative in 1834 and he won.

So, we believe because he got known in the community, people trusted him is how and why he got elected.

(Narrator) While the museum dedicates part of its mission to history, it also uses technology to educate visitors.

If you have a museum with a name like National Museum of Surveying you need a hook.

Well, our hook is called Science on a Sphere and itís an exhibit by NOAA - National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration.

And it is a 60 inch globe that is hanging from the middle of the ceiling and four projectors projects satellite imagery on that globe and the computers time the projectors in a fashion that it looks like the globe is turning.

But also itís also about earth systemís science.

The surveyors work with their system and kind of divide it up.

And also their role is satellites and mapping while these are GIS programs and surveyors use satellite in GIS.

Surveyors play a role in the weather.

So there are all these little connections.

But, really when it comes down to it as you can see you are like why not?

You have the opportunity why say no to see the world as you have never been able to see it before.

(Narrator) There are just 57 Science on the Spheres in the world and only 2 here in Illinois.

Data sets from NOAA allow different types of imagery and data to be projected onto the sphere.

One of the amazing features on Science on a Sphere is the NOAAs ability to give us current events in a very timely fashion.

So we have a data set that should always show the last 30 days of earth quake activity.

Well, in March one of the earth quakes was this 9.0, which caused the Japanese Tsunami.

So you can see the waves propagate out.

And actually what youíre going to see a few days later if there is enough energy in this earth quake to bounce the waves off of the coast of north and south America and they came back and hit Japan a second time.

And so what we are going to see here is probably one of the most important images.

It is the basically the heights of the waves, so you can see with the black part here in the upper center of Japan, thatís roughly around 30 feet.

And you can see as the waves get smaller as they go out and you can see as it hits the coasts of south and North America and what not.

So this is just a snapshot of the Tsunami (Narrator) Data sets are updated regularity so for returning students and visitors, thereís always something new to see.

With Science on the Sphere and historical artifacts and displays The Museum is working to preserve surveying history and its accomplishments while at the same time ensuring surveying future.

The average land surveyor is 60 years old and this is true throughout the country.

When things turn around we are going to need young people to get into land surveying.

And just like you said people donít know what land surveyors do.

Young people donít know what land surveyors do.

So, we are trying to teach them.

In fact, I have a grant from a company that does the testing of young land surveyors.

And we got a grant to be able to show them what land surveyors do, why they do it, and why it is important.

The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday 10 am - 3 pm, with extended hours for groups and special events.

Some of our favorite adventures were ideas that came from viewers like you.

If you think thereís a place we should see or a person we should meet, let us know about it.

Just make sure itís in the Illinois, Indiana or Missouri area.

Drop us an e-mail at heartlandhighways@weiu.net, call us at 1-877-PBS-WEIU or send us a letter to 600 Lincoln Avenue Charleston, IL 61920.

Our next stop is to Sadorus, Illinois.

This small town, just south of Champaign has a rather unique museum.

In the middle farm country, far away from any ocean or port is the National Museum Ship Models and Sea History.

When I was a teenager, I built about six models.

Three of which were airplanes and they all crashed and I said enough of this.

So, I stayed with ship models and then as I gradually grew up and got to realize the amount history, the worldís history is really written in ships, all the way from dugout canoes to the space station.

(Narrator) Combining a love for history and a career as an architect, Charles Lozar's interest in ship models has grown from a hobby, into a one-of-a-kind museum.

I started out collecting ship models when I was in college.

And then my wife and I were in Europe for a couple of years and went around the world and I collected a number of ships then.

And then finally I had graduate studies in California.

At that point in time, I was aware of the movie models and I was able to make arrangements with Universal studios to purchase 14 large movie models and drove back from California with them in a big truck and my four children in another van.

It was a long trip.

[Laughing] (Narrator) When his collection outgrew his home, garage and several other buildings, Charles decided to purchase a building to house the entire collection.

We finally decided that we actually had to do something with all this big collection, because I had actually never seen everything together myself.

So, in about 1991 or í99 this building became available.

And although it had a lot of space the building itself was kind of a disaster but still had a big history.

So, we purchased it for the space thinking that we could spend about 6 months fixing it up and putting the models in it and we didnít open till three and a half years later.

It was a much bigger job than I had anticipated.

And as youíll see many of the models are not quite finished yet.

(Narrator) The building, which sits on the main street of Sadours was built in 1880 and severed as a store, lodge, dance hall and auction house.

After some much needed work and restoration, the collection was moved in and quickly filled up the not only the first floor, but the second floor as well.

The museum is filled from top to bottom with just about anything and everything related to ships, including models, artwork, advertising and artifacts.

The one that you canít miss when you come in is the 27 foot model of the Queen Mary made patiently out of a million toothpicks.

Um yes itís difficult to understand why somebody would do that, but it is very unusual and you can see the construction technique.

Ití built by Wayne Kusy he lives in Chicago.

Another model of very good interest is 1963 model of Cleopatraís Barge, which was used in the movie Cleopatra with Richard Burton and Liz Taylor.

Um on the second floor we also have the original model, which is about five feet long from the movie Ben Hur, which was Charlton Heston.

And then scattered throughout the museum there are a number of rather well done models that have been imported from England.

Uh one of a War of 1812 Brigantine made out of teak and shipped to the house on the rock in Wisconsin and purchased about 30 years ago.

So, many of these have been in storage for many years.

My wife is very happy that they are out of the house now.

Itís about 80% of the models need restoration.

Um perhaps your cat got into the rigging and it didnít survive very well.

Um and the larger movie models like I had said have been sitting out in Las Angles at Universals lot for 20 years before I bought them.

So, consequently restoration takes quite a bit of time.

And the movie models nothing is to a standard scale, so everything has to be built from scratch.

(Narrator) From early sailing ships, steamboats, fishing vessels, battleships and cruise ships one can trace both the evolution of technology, but also the history of exploration.

The sea has always been an effort to get from one side of land to another.

See whatís over the hill or whatís over the ocean.

So, you can explore as ship building moves from um the early days up until recent ones.

You can explore not only history, whose in power, what kind of trade there is.

But, also the techniques of construction from the ads to cut down the forest and form the keels of ships to the development of underwater welding, recently used on the oil rigs.

So, when youíre looking at the entire history of the world the exploration of the world and the universe also continues.

Iíve also thought that the next edition to the museum might be space ships, um because obviously in our imagery exploring is part of our history.

(Narrator) For Charles, who serves as tour guide, restoration expert and museum curator, there's still more work to be done, including expanding the collection.

Yes, actually I have a number of models that are in storage in Arizona.

One of which, is uh a 15 foot long model of the Queen Mary from Walt Disney and uh that is still in the process of being restored very slowly.

And I still look for models that are unique and unusual uh to fill out areas of the collection.

Models represent so much in terms of the construction ability of the individual that can actually make them.

And youíre actually making a piece of history.

Youíre not really reinterpreting history as an artist would, but youíre really duplicating it at a small scale.

And since weíre talking about boats, we thought it would be fun to revisit our story about Chet Turner from Neoga, Illinois.

Chet is the only person in the county who commercially builds the Y flyer sailboat.

The Y flyer is a one-design class of boat thatís been around since the 1940ís.

We stopped by his shop to see how the boats are made and then watched as the Y flyers raced in the annual Rivera Regatta.

Until youíve actually experienced it, itís hard to explain the feeling you get from making a machine do what you want it to do, and being in control.

(Narrator)Chet Turner started sailing as a kid in the early 60ís when his summers were spent at his familyís cabin on Lake Mattoon, IL For one thing my folks didnít care that much about power boats, so we didnít have one, but I had friends that did have them, and I had the sail boats, so it worked out real well.

When the wind blew we sailed, and when the wind didnít blow we went skiing.

(Narrator) It was Chetís father Charlie who started building sailboats for himself and his friends.

Eventually he came across the design for the Y Flyer, a boat originally design as a trainer for the e scow sailboat.

We uh, built several, or helped people build several boats out of wood, during the 60s and developed a fleet here on Lake Mattoon, and of course they immediately started racing.

And then they started traveling, because there are other fleets throughout the country that do the same thing, and uh, it just kind of ballooned from there.

(Narrator) Chet and his dad eventually turned to boat making full time in the early 70ís and today most of the Y-flyers on the water have been made by the Turners.

I think since the early 70s, 35 years or so, weíve built 210 boats or something like that.

The design is, itís got high performance, so the boat will get over its bow away and plane, giving the sensation of tremendous speed in only a 12 mile an hour breeze.

On the other hand, itís very stable, and itís an easy boat to sail, so kids and older people donít have any problem handling the boat, and getting the performance out of it that the athletes can get.

(Narrator) The Y-Flyer was designed to be made out of marine plywood and at home, which is still done today.

However, most people opt for a fiberglass boat made by Chet.

His boats are a composite with a foam core, sandwiched between two layers of fiberglass.

Since the Y Flyer is a one-design class, each boat is the same and follows exact specifications set by the American Y Flyer Racing Association.

The color and graphic designs, however, are up to the discretion of each customer.

The first thing that goes against the mold is the color, and itís a very thick resin that has the pigment in it.

Um, if you want a white piece, you spray the mold with a white gel coat, if you want a graphic you actually mask of the mold in the shape you want the graphic to be, spray one of the colors, pull the tape up, and the mold is exposed so you can apply the other color.

(Narrator) Layers of fiber glass sheets are laid into the mold against the gel coat and resin is applied.

Next, the foam core layer goes in, followed by more fiber glass.

This layering process gives the boat strength and durability, yet is lightweight.

Because the entire process is a race against the clock and can be quite hectic at different points, Chetís wife Lela plays an important role.

And finally the moment of truth arrives when the finished boat pops out of the mold, revealing the color and design for the first time.

After all the boats heís made over the years, itís ironic that Chet currently doesnít own one for himself.

Itís like the cobbler with no shoes, you know.

I almost had one but the one was going to sale in the regatta, sold it 2 weeks before the regatta.

(Narrator) The rigging, mast, sails and covers are also put together in the shop.

While the entire boat is fiberglass, there are still two piece made of wood, the rutter and the tiller.

The finished boats have been sold to customers around the country to people looking to race or pleasure sail.

Two people normally sail the boat, but uh, we regularly single hand them.

Itís not real hard for one person to sail, unless itís real windy.

You can sail 4 people comfortably.

I think one time we had 11 people and a dog on board.

We probably shouldnít have.

(Narrator) The second weekend in June is the annual Riviera Regatta, so it was the perfect time to see the Y-Flyers in action.

All the major fleets generally have an annual event where they invite everyone else.

A big event, just a fun way of doing things.

Over the years, thatís developed into uh, what they call, the MAC, the Mid-America Cup Conference.

Uh, so if you attend at least 3 of the 6 regattas during the season, you can qualify for the overall championship, and they score your best 3 regattas, the best races, the best 3 youíve done.

(Narrator) Sailors from a number of states came to compete with most of the boat having been made by Chet.

In a race like this, where each boat is the same, it becomes a test of sailor and crew.

Itís the guy with the big picture, uh, that can take it all in and has the experience and has the ability to handle the boat in that condition, and put together all the details.

Uh, whether itís knowing what your competition is going to do in a given situation or knowing uh, what to expect the wind to do, or uh, positioning yourself to take advantage of the opportunities available.

(Narrator) Since he started racing, Chet has won a number of national and international Y-Flyer races.

In 1971 at age 17, he won the international championship.

Oh, I think Iím competitive, yeah, uh, I may have slowed down a little bit, but Iím not farÖIím not far off the pace.

(Narrator) More than winning a race, what brings these people together is a love of sailing that can be enjoyed by people of all ages and walks of life.

I think what keeps people especially in Y Flyer class, gets them coming back, is the other people.

Itís just a great group of people, nationwide.

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Looks like itís time to sail away for this week.

If you would like to see full episodes of our show from this season or previous seasons, go to our YouTube page at www.youtube.com/weiutv.

Weíll see you next time.

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