Our Town: Seymour

With a colorful history, a vibrant downtown, and expanding industrial, service and cultural sectors, Seymour, Indiana is a town on the move. Its roots are in the railroad and its proximity to major highways continues to make Seymour an important transportation and industrial center. WTIU asked the residents of Seymour to share their story—the result is OUR TOWN: SEYMOUR, the third program in the station’s Our Town series.

OUR TOWN: SEYMOUR begins with a look at the town’s past including the machinations of Meedy Shields to make it a railroad intersection poised for growth, the exploits of the infamous Reno gang (perpetrators of the country’s first train robbery) and the influential German migration and heritage. The program then offers a look at Seymour Manufacturing, a niche business that has been in town longer than the telephone, visits the town’s famed Oktoberfest, and, later, the annual Seymour Car Show.

Additional segments look at manufacturer Aisin U.S.A., the influence of the local Wal-Mart Distribution Center, the Schneck Medical Center and the history of Freeman Field, an important Army Air Corp multiple-engine training center during World War II. Finally, no trip to Seymour would be complete without a visit to the renowned Larrison’s Diner, This Old Guitar music store, and the Southern Indiana Center for the Arts, created by the town’s favorite son—singer-songwriter John Mellencamp—and his family.

Bonus features include a segment on the Seymour Veteran’s War Memorial in Gaiser Park and a performance by Mike Gerth and the T.O.G. Band playing and singing John Mellencamp’s “Small Town.”

OUR TOWN: SEYMOUR was produced for WTIU by John Winninger with assistance from students in the Indiana University Department of Telecommunications and Executive Producer Gino Brancolini.