Moment of Indiana History
podcasts Archive
October 29, 2007
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Central State Hospital
For Hoosier storytellers with a taste for the macabre, the Central State Hospital is a familiar theme. The defunct institution on the near-west side of Indianapolis treated and housed many of the state’s mentally ill for almost 150 years.
October 22, 2007
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Stepp Cemetary
While ghost-trackers in Evansville keep on the lookout for the Lady in Grey, an apparition in different attire haunts the imagination of paranormal investigators in central Indiana. A spectral Lady in Black is said to lurk in the Stepp Cemetery, located deep within the Morgan Monroe State Forest, south of Martinsville.
October 15, 2007
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Willard Library Ghost
Among the landmarks that figure prominently on an Indiana ghost-tracker’s map is the Willard Library. The stately brick edifice in downtown Evansville has such a reputation for paranormal activity that the library, in partnership with the Evansville Courier and Press, has installed surveillance cameras or “ghost cams” in the reportedly haunted rooms.
October 8, 2007
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Frost Is on the Punkin
As the days grow brisker and the leaves take on brilliant hues, many Americans of a certain generation are wont to characterize the season with an expression born in Indiana. “When the frost is on the punkin” is the opening phrase of a classic poem by James Whitcomb Riley.
October 1, 2007
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Casket Manufacturing
During the late 19 th century, southeastern Indiana came to specialize in an industry it still dominates. Its forests supplying the raw materials and a concentration of German immigrant artisans providing the craftsmanship, the area became known for furniture manufacture.
September 24, 2007
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“Doc” Counsilman
When considering people with Indiana ties who hold a record for having crossed a body of water, Amelia Earhart’s is one name that comes up. The first woman to make a trans-Atlantic trip by plane taught for a time at Purdue, which also financed the Lockheed Electra in which the aviatrix ultimately vanished.
September 17, 2007
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Stone Age Institute
When reflecting on Indiana history, we most often consider the last two centuries—only occasionally delving into the century or two prior to that. In 2003, however, Indiana distinguished itself as a preeminent location for the study of pre -history.
September 10, 2007
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Amelia Earhart and Purdue
The year after Charles Lindbergh made the first flight across the Atlantic, Amelia Earhart followed suit. Although she’d had a pilot’s license for five years by 1928, Earhart lacked the training necessary to fly the plane herself during that maiden voyage; but made history nonetheless as the first woman to fly across the Atlantic as a passenger.
September 3, 2007
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Coal Mining
In August 2007, amidst hourly updates on the fate of six coal miners trapped by a Utah mine collapse, word of another mine accident emerged—this time from the Hoosier State. Three workers in the Gibson Mine descending into an air shaft they were building fell more than 500 feet to their death when the bucket lowering them was somehow upset.
August 27, 2007
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“Big Dave” Van Buskirk
A family graveyard in the northwest corner of Monroe County, Indiana serves as the final resting place for two veterans of the American Revolution. While their legacy endures, their physical presence would almost certainly have been overshadowed by that of a Civil War soldier also buried in the Buskirk/Abel/Wampler cemetery. David Van Buskirk, better known as “Big Dave” or the “Big Lieutenant,” was reportedly the tallest man in the Union Army.
