List of public art in Cass County, Indiana

Transcription

Next on this weekís edition of heartland highways, weíre headed to Crawfordsville, Indiana, Frist weíll visit the Ropkey Armor Museum for a look at tanks, boats and more military memorabilia with their own special history. Then weíll stop in at the Rotary Jail Museum, the only museum of its kind with a cell block that still spins! Weíll also take a look at some of the other sights and sounds of Crawfordsville. Those adventures just ahead, so donít go away. [music] Welcome back to Heartland Highways, Iím Kate Pleasant, and Iím Lori Casey. This first story was the suggestion of one of our viewers, so we wanted to check it out for ourselves. This week weíre taking you to Crawfordsville, Indiana. Now while we were there, we discovered several art galleries, historic sites and museums which why Crawfordsville has been called the Athens of the Midwest. Today weíll take you on a tour of two unique museums. First, just outside of town we found a 50 acre site known as the Ropkey Armor Museum. Located here since 2004, the museum is the life-long collection of Fred Ropkey and it includes everything from armored vehicles, tanks, a helicopter, boats and more. When I was eight, my grandfather gave me my great-grandfatherís Civil War pistol. So, that started me off. That same year my dad brought me a War of 1812 sword, and that same year, now that I was primed, I went out and found my first sword. I still have those plus a lot more. (Narrator) And thatís no exaggeration. Take one look around the Ropkey Armor Museum and itís apparent that Fred has amassed an impressive and historic collection of armored vehicles. I bought my first armored car when I was in high school, and I graduated high school in 1948, and I think I bought this in ë47. Itís right back over here. And I used to drive that to school on occasions, and that was always a lot of fun. The girls liked going out on armored cars. In the earlier days of collecting, particularly of armor, which is a pretty elite type of collecting, not everybody wants or can afford what we have here. But the people that can, are very, itís a close nit organization, internationally. We know people all over the world, and they know us. But, um it's just one of those things that kind of gets out of control. (Narrator) The collection includes tanks from World War I up to the present time, armored support vehicles, a patrol boat, helicopter, motorcycles, a current issue marine assault boat, plus hundreds of artifacts, photos and memorabilia. One of the most common questions that Fred is asked: ìwhere did you get this stuff.î The answer: ìall over the world.î The tanks are all U.S. made but at some point in history were sold to other countries. Um, just to give you an example, if a lot of ours were used during World War II by various countries. And, and people are surprised when I tell them two of my tanks came from Brazil, South America. And by the way, I get Brazilians in here you know, and they are excited when they see that. Um, and itís because we furnished equipment to these countries, um to train with. We did the same thing with Canada. Um, so we sent these vehicles down there. The government bought them. Those governments bought them, and then at some time later on they were scrapped. And thatís when we grabbed them and so forth. (Narrator) Fred comes from a long line of proud military service on both sides of his family. He served as tank platoon leader in the Marines from 1949 to 1955, including the Korean War. His time in the military furthered his collecting interests. By 1982, he decided to turn his private collection into a museum with a mission to preserve and share military history. In 2004, he moved the museum from just outside of Indianapolis to rural Montgomery County, not far from Crawfordsville. It was truly defined guidance that I think brought us here. And um we love the people in this area. We love the people in Crawfordsville; they have done so much to be, to make us feel at home. (Narrator) A majority of the vehicles are housed under a new heated and air conditioned building. One thing that makes Fredís collection unique: all of the tanks and vehicles are fully operational. What we do here is make our stuff run. It doesnít take as much brains and effort to just paint it up pretty and sit it, and drag it around. Besides, you get a double hernia real fast trying to move a tank. So, we like them to go under their own power. (Narrator) In addition to making them operational, each piece is carefully researched and restored. Skip Warvel is the museumís restoration expert and curator. The process is documented through photographs, which are displayed throughout the museum. This little tank right here is known as the six ton U.S. made, the first, first American made tank. It was originally called a six ton, a special six ton tractor. It really isnít six tons; it weighs seven and a half, donít ask me where they got six tons. There are only two of these in operational condition. One is in Missoula, Montana and thereís this one. This is the finest one in existence. It drives; it does everything itís supposed to do. It was in such terrible shape, people didnít think it could be saved. But, the impossible we do right away; I mean the difficult we do right away, and the impossible takes a little longer. And this was six years. Luckily, we had, I had an original manual. And that meant everything, a World War 1 manual, yeah. Whatís really interesting about this is when you get into all the little um interesting things. They were not using radios; they were testing with radios during the First World War, but they were not successful. So the each tank carried two carrier pigeons, and your audience canít see it, right behind this tank is a hutch with two carrier pigeons uh, stuffed carrier pigeons, theyíve not been waiting to get out all this time. But, um, and, so when they were, the tank letís say with Patton in charge or whoever was on the line of departure ready to move out and smoke, they couldnít see anything, they would use the carrier pigeon. And hopefully it would get back before German some German saw it and shot it down, because that happened all the time. But itís that little interesting things that you find out about this stuff, that makes it more than just a big piece of metal. It makes it, uh its part of history. (Narrator) One piece in the collection thatís still a bit of a mystery is the yellow submarine. Weíre still determining exactly where that came from. Itís old. And we know that it came from Lafayette, Indiana where for years it sat in front of the along the levy, along the Wabash River. But, um, kids would climb on it, and stick beer cans in it and every opening, and try to get something in it, and scratch their names on it. And the city decided it was a liability, and so they sent it to Winskeyís Big Scrap Yard up in Lafayette, Indiana, and there luckily the nice folks that own that place didnít scrap it. It sat there and it took me about five years to negotiate a deal out with him, but they are wonderful people, and they saved it. And so weíre researching it, but itís a two man submarine. Itís a real submarine though, and itís old. We thought originally it may have been used in the Jules Verneís Twenty Thousand Leagues under the sea, but we havenít seen it in that, but it was something, but thatís part of the mystery. (Narrator) Because the collection is operational and the fact that Fred can actually operate these huge machines; Hollywood has called upon Fred to supply tanks for movies and television. His credits include The Blues Brothers, Tank and ER. I was on Daly Plaza during The Blues Brothers Chain Scene, and we tore up more stuff, but most of it wound up on the cutting room floor. There was so much carnage of vehicles getting torn up. We had a wonderful time, worked right with Belushi and Dan Ackeroid and um, and we had armored cars driving right down through Chicago. Itís a whole, thatís a whole another story. (Narrator) And speaking of stories, Fredís feels his collection is more than just supersized pieces of machinery and aircraft. Each piece has an important story to tell; of its mission and the people who operated it. This Vietnam era helicopter is a good example. It served three tours of duty when we checked the serial numbers, with a hundred and fourteenth in Vietnam. And we took that to Louisville, Kentucky for the um reunion several years ago and a lot of the surviving pilots and gunners and family members signed the inside of that. Which is again, is a very emotional thing, but some of those are signed by ìkilled in actionî family members. Um, there is a helmet in that that belonged to the door gunner who was shot through the face, shot right through the helmet here, came out the side. He survived, and heís been here, and he was with us down in Louisville. And he donated his helmet, which is in there, the original helmet that he was shot through. And again, that becomes very emotional, very personal, but itís it helps people uh release things and talk about them. Itís hard for me. (Narrator) What started with his grandfatherís Civil War pistol at age 8, today Fred Ropkeyís Armor Museum is a place that keeps military history and heroism alive for all who come here. This is a lot of work, a lot of money, but itís what I believe in. You know, you only go around once, so you might as well be doing something worthwhile. And Iíve done a lot of things, you know I was a salvage diver at one time, I served in the Marine Corps as a tank officer, um but Iíve done a lot of neat things, and but we believe itís important to share with the Veteranís and the Veteranís families. Since we were spending the day in Crawfordsville, we made our next stop at the Rotary Jail Museum in the downtown area. The historic jail, built in the late 1800s, was the very first of its kind built in the United States and is still one of the few of its kind that are still standing. I guess the best way to explain what a rotary jail is would be to think of a pie in which the pieces are jail cells and the whole thing turns, like a lazy Susan. The jail is very unique and some of the stories that go with it are even more so. So, sit back and enjoy as we take a spin with the Rotary Jail Museum in Crawfordsville, Indiana. (Narrator) Crawfordsville, Indiana, is widely known for its museums and art galleries. And this particular museum near downtown is bound to turn some heads. The jail was originally built in 1881-1882. It was the first rotary jail that was constructed in the United States, and so they were really taking a huge risk because this had never been tried before. It was a radical new concept, and it was based on the idea of railroad technology in terms of having a turn table, and that you have a jail that is built on a turn table. [Music] (Narrator) The design is unique and less than 20 jails of this kind were built, let alone survive today. And the Montgomery County Rotary Jail is even more unique as it has one feature that none of the other rotary jails that are still standing have. Itís the only one whose cell block still turns. If you think about a turn table or sometimes itís easier to conceive a Lazy Susan, and you have a pie on a Lazy Susan, you take the pie, you cut it into eight pieces, and each of those eight pieces is an individual jail cell. So, the basic idea was that you would only have one opening. So, people could only have access to go in and out of one of those pieces of pie or one of those cells at any one time. So, uh you would turn the pie then to whichever cell you wanted to get, and so that was the basic idea behind it. We were the only two-story that was ever built which means that basically you have uh two sets of cells that are stacked on top of each other, but itís all connected as one mechanism. So, when we turn it, weíre turning the entire mechanism. The weight of the mechanism is estimated to be between 15 and 30 tons. (Narrator) And as Tour Coordinator Rachel Kolcheck demonstrates, thatís a lot of weight to move manually! (Sounds of moving jail) Once you get the momentum going itís not too bad. (Narrator) So by now you may be wondering, why build a rotary-style jail? There were a number of reasons. One was in terms of the security of the Sherriffís staff. Um it was easy to not have as many people here, um you know the county wouldnít have to pay as many staff people because you could only let people go in and out of one cell at a time. So that was seen as a reduced staffing issue. Also, in terms of safety you didnít have to worry when you were letting people in and out of one cell about the people escaping from the other seven um on that level because um there was only one way in or out literally. And so that was one of the one of the main advantages. It was also seen as an advance in the humane treatment of prisoners at that time. Um prisoners in the cells had access to light. They had access to fresh air. There were windows that opened back then, and so that was a huge advance in terms of the way prisoners were treated at that time. (Narrator) And perhaps an expert in prisoner treatment in the jail is Elizabeth Shull, the jailís last matron before it closed in the 1970s. As the sheriffís wife, it was her job to cook for the prisoners and take care of any women or children that were brought in. Not only did she work at the jail, she lived in the connected residence too! Well, we moved into the jail, uh and my husband became officially the Sherriff August, 1, 1969. And I was the matron which meant I was sworn in as a deputy Sherriff, and I took care of all the food for the prisoners. I took care of any of the females that were arrested or if a law enforcement officer had to go pick one up they usually got me here at the jail and then we went out and picked up the female. And also any juvenile boys fourteen or younger were in my care. (Narrator) Itís safe to say that the Shullís living situation was unique, but Elizabeth says it was more normal than one might think and her four daughters even learned some lessons too. They will tell you if you talk with one of them it was their favorite place to live. They loved living here, and they learned some lessons living here. Um, Iíll give you one for instance was uh one of my daughters was unhappy with me because she wanted to do something and I said no. So she was sitting on the back step, outside the door pouting and one of the prisoners said hey little show girl who are you angry at today? And she said well my mother will not let me do something I wanted to do so Iím kind of pouting about my mother. And he said well let me tell you that you need to listen to what your mom and dad say or you may end up like me. So they did learn a few lessons. Well, lots of people thought it was scary and it was not. The girls knew right away that everyone here was locked up, and that there was a turn-key here every second of every day and night, and that they didnít have anything to worry about. So, it really wasnít scary. We felt very safe. Also, as we learned later that turn-key would give his life for any of us, so it was a good secure feeling. (Narrator) The jail transitioned almost directly to a museum just after is closed in the 1970s, but to get to that point took a great deal of community support. For example, the jail had been fixed in place for a long time and to get it spinning again took a lot of time and elbow grease. And of course, the original. The crank that was used to actually turn the jail, um you know that had been disabled in the 1930s because they, for security reasons basically. They had a number of injuries at that point and they needed to fix the jail in place. And so, there was a local resident who had the hand crank, and so um you know he he brought it back, and turned it in one day. Um in case we needed it; of course it was needed. Um, there were a number of people, of local businesses who contributed labor to get the facility working again and get the jail actually rotating. I mean, weíre the only one that still rotates, and that was because of the efforts of a lot of local business people in term of donating free labor as well as an engineering company in town who had worked to help maintain it for us. (Narrator) A full tour of the jail museum provides a comprehensive glimpse into what life was like for prisoners of a rotary jail and the sheriffís family that lived there too. Um, they get a tour of the residence, so they can see the first floor of the residence. We were the um first museum in the area and so when people were cleaning out you know parents, grandparents, attics, basements um they donated items here. And so we have a lot of items from local residents that theyíve donated over the years. So, we have furniture, art. We have a lot of clothing and hats on display. Women took very good care of their clothing back then, especially their fancy dresses and hats, so we have a lot of those on display. Um, we also have items from when the jail was actually being used as a jail in a collection. They also can take a tour of the jail, and the tour takes them from the top to bottom. So, they can see the first and the second floors and the individual cells. They can also see the third floor which was originally intended to be the infirmary. They cans see the basement and see the underneath of the turn table and how the mechanism actually works. So, they can see quite a bit when they come here. (Narrator) Since Crawfordsville is known as the Athens of the Midwest, there are plenty of other sights to see while youíre in town too. A few of the side trips week took included the Carnegie Museum of Montgomery County, the General Lew Wallace Study and Museum and Lane Place. The Carnegie Museum of Montgomery County is housed in Indianaís first Carnegie Library building. Opened in 1902, the building served as Crawfordsvilleís Public Library until 2005 when the library moved across the street. Owned and operated by the Crawfordsville District Public Library, the Carnegie Museum is an interactive museum of History, Science and Art. The two story building features six galleries with various themes and rotating exhibitions. Next we stopped at what is called Lane Place. The Henry S. Lane Antebellum Mansion and surrounding five acres serves as a village common in the center of Crawfordsville. Known as ìLane Place,î the site has hosed political rallies, civic events and annual festivals, in addition to serving as the summer home of the Montgomery County Civic Band. The site has Abraham Lincoln Connections and overlooks Pattison Pavilion and the Speed Cabin, a part of Indiana's†Underground Railroad heritage that is restored and available for tours. Our final stop during our time in Crawfordsville was to the General Lew Wallace Study and Museum. The museum is the site where general, diplomat, inventor and world-renowned author of Ben-Hur, Lew Wallace used as his personal study. The Museum houses personal artifacts from Wallace as well as his artwork, violins, inventions and library. There is also a display with memorabilia from various adaptations of Ben-Hur, including the 1959 Oscar-winning version starring Charlton Heston. The museumís three-plus acres provide an inviting place to sit and enjoy the peaceful setting or host an event with friends. There are many other museums and stops that could be made in Crawfordsville, weíd just recommend calling or going online first to make sure your stop of choice is open. If youíd like to purchase a copy of any Heartland Highways program contact us at 1-877-727-9348 during regular business hours. You can also visit our online store at www.weiu.net or mail in your order with payment to the address on your screen. DVDís are available for $25 each. Visa, MasterCard, discover or American Express are accepted. As we close today, we have a little extra video to show you. Wanting to see how easy it was to rotate the jail, Lori here decided to do it herself. Take a look. Not as easy as it looks! Thatís all the time we have, thanks for coming along with us to Crawfordsville, Indiana. If youíre in that part of the state, be sure to stop and check out the town, thereís a lot to offer. Weíll see you next time. Now you can watch Heartland Highways online anytime. Check us out on youtube.com/weiutv. Once youíre there just look for the Heartland Highways playlist which will take you to a list of full episodes from seasons 7 through 11. And if you subscribe to our channel, youíll automatically be notified of when new programs are available to view, so sign up today. [music]