start on this trail and go to trail four. trail four and the pioneer village to the right
which is where we're gonna go. so we're gonna head this way. this must be the beginning of
the pioneer village. that says no pets beyond this point. this is called the village ordinary.
i think this is normally where you'd get concessions but they're not open right now.
what was the village ordinary back in the old days honey. yeah it's like where you would go
to find a place to eat and it also applied to the inn or the tavern. and then it said during
the 1800s though american travelers then began using the french word hotel. normally though you
can get food and drink here. as tim tracker says not a cloud in the sky. shout out to tim tracker.
this is the first structure we come to. so what is this. this is where the weaver would be.
there's a loom there where they sit and make rugs or whatever. this is called the warping board.
this gentleman looks like the supervisor. and he's not too happy about their work.
work faster. this is the sheek's house. it was built by george sheeks. about 1816.
that's him. he looks friendlier. there's mr sheeks. you know he looks friendlier.
and a broad ax that would be used to help build a log home. and some of the materials of the person
that would be making the rug. that's a pretty cool fireplace back there. this is the next house.
ew it's huge. see what it says. it is a granny white house. a pioneer home
raised april 14th of 1824 restored in 1931.
wow look at that craftsmanship. there's granny's bed.
and then a trundle bed underneath it that they could pull out. there's a fireplace. they made
they made rugs too. granny white. yeah she was born in 1785. died in indiana at the age of 94.
look at that quilt back there. that's beautiful. and the quilts on the bed.
so they walked over here to eat. like was this part of granny's house too. why she was rich.
this is a big house. usually they all lived in one room house. this must have been where they
cooked the food at that fireplace. there's some of the dishes back here in the cabinet.
there's their table they sat at. seated five. this is the building that's called the leather shop.
yeah you see the shoe. let's see how it stitched together. you probably need this to stretch the
leather out. then you put it under the form. help uh just to hold it and like stitching it.
and help form it. i made some of the smaller items on the table here. oh cool though.
that you can kind of feel. the pig leather being most common.
and they had a lot of pigs in that village here. i like the cup. yeah you wouldn't think of a cup
out of leather. what did they put inside or is it. they would coat it with a tree pitch or a beeswax.
okay. and it would seal it and make it watertight. wow and the buckets too. so have you worked here
quite a while. um no this is my first season here. and we heard this weekend was the opening weekend.
awesome we came at the right time. yeah. so then are you guys open until labor day or how late
in the summer are you open. we'll be here until like october or so. okay. and they have a uh
christmas event that will come back um candlelight tours. oh neat. it's a huge turnout. and this
is the grist mill. that is pretty cool looking. looks like the sluice there that brings the water
that powers the wheel. and this is really nice here. very pretty again. with the
water rushing down. water is coming down pretty fast here. a lot of rapids. goes under the bridge
and out that way. this is just a really nice spot. the grist mill isn't working. but imagine
what this was like when the water was running on it. that would have been pretty cool to see.
that goes a long way.
that building is about three stories high. and this is where we've been already over there.
and here's the inner workings of the mill. all the gears that were turned by the big wheel.
this looks like spare parts here. here's some of the early hoosier
tools they used. that was used to harvest clover seeds. candle molds for tallow candles.
this was a grain bin. and in here is also the printing press.
they'll take the wall out and deliver this four to five ton shaft. is that original to the home
building. no that was put in in the 1950's. tree was about 150 years old when they put the shaft
in. are they talking about this. they're gone, but they're they're already
trying to set the shaft. so yeah they are working on it. i was told at least a year. so
and the good thing is we are uh we are going to start up our distillery. so we are going to start
making whiskey this summer. so they're going to get the mill going again. they're going to fix it
and actually going to have a distillery. they're going to make their own whiskey.
and there's an upstairs. we're going to go up there.
it's like a museum.
war and weapons smold rifles and swords.
signal flare cannon. this is some of the work that the cobblers did.
making shoes. children's shoes. baby shoes. and even wooden shoes. some interesting stuff here. things
from the lifestyle of people back then. some things you might find in a pioneer school in indiana.
the major denominations were methodist baptists and presbyterians. things they made with tin and
pewter. i don't know from. glasses. treen ware. i didn't know what that was but it says the word
treen comes from the old english pronunciation of the word trees. all this was made out of wood.
and an exhibit on the politics. they've got a picture when lincoln was dying.
and they're showing abraham lincoln here because lincoln did live in indiana for a little while.
and there's a third floor. yeah watch your step on the stairs. donna says they're really thin. yeah
like i have a size nine foot and it's not even big enough. these were some of the original owners of
spring mill. the last hamers of spring mill. so this family was very important to the development of
this area. this is the meeting house. we think maybe they might have had church in here this morning.
we're gonna look inside and see what we see. oh yeah they could have. there's a piano or organ.
and a lot of pews. i bet that's where they did have it. even a chandelier up there with like
real candles in it. services are 8:30 to 9 every sunday morning, may through october.
wow so if you live in this area you should definitely come out here at 8:30.
or if you're staying at spring mill inn come out here and you could get back in time for breakfast.
it says non-denominational by the lawrence county ministerial association. huh so maybe
all the pastors take a turn. and up here is the blacksmith shop.
and over here is like a barn where they keep their farm implements. it's like a covered carriage.
almost like a little two-person stagecoach. and an open carriage covered wagon.
that looks like something you'd use to grind the grain. and here's another wagon. some type
not sure what all this machinery is for. oh there's a grinding wheel probably of some
kind. here's the blacksmith shop. it is closed right now. out to lunch. that is a cool looking
old building. and it has a horseshoe over the door open to the top. and that means good
luck. and here's a view of the pioneer village from the corner where the blacksmith shop is.
so we're going to head on this way. tiny little waterfall. and the water feeds on down that way.
spring house erected 1840. the spring was underground here.
oh maybe they came here to get their water who knows. whatever. keep things cold here.
several rooms in this house. maybe more than one family.
yeah big fireplace. maybe this is a sitting room and a desk. what is this.
well i guess this is a thing. people throwing money on this bed
in this room. that's funny. they do need donations. but that's good.
yeah i guess they can keep that as a donation. i'm gonna go up the stairs and see what's up here.
these are bedrooms. it's the regular bed and a trundle bed that pulls out from underneath.
and a baby bed. and there's a connecting hallway here and another bedroom with a spinning wheel.
and a rocking chair. this looks like it was the owner's house here. it's nice and big two-story. hi
donna. do you wish you lived here. you wish you had something to drink. and there's an open garden area.
you guys have any questions about the village, i'll answer any questions that you have.
that the mill over there the corner is rounded off. that is because we used to have 350 head
of hogs that ran free through the village. and they all scratched their behinds in that corner.
and they did they rub the corners really really smooth on the mill. that's so strange. the reason
we had a grist mill wasn't just to grind corn for the farmer, we had the grist mill to get
9 to 16 percent of their corn as their fee for grinding.
and then we took it to the distillery and made whiskey. when they built that mill, that
mill was built in 1817, i actually think it's kind of a miraculous thing. now when they built
that mill they started construction on it in may and they were grinding corn for farmers in october.
the thing that i think is so amazing about that is back then in 1817 the only place you could go
to get good grindstones was marne france and so they got their grindstones from marne france.
and somehow they could get on a ship, get to france, get the grindstones get them back over here
bring them from the east coast. and i don't know if they did it up riverways or how they did it,
but they brought them here and had them in place and ready to grind in less than six months.
they do have a little mercantile store where you can buy souvenirs and
different things. candles. some candy. let's get some of the peppermint. pioneer village was really cool.
they have a distillery, the grist mill, blacksmith shop, a leatherworks place and lots to look at.