Description

Travel with Bennett-Watt and discover the Amish town of Shipshwana, Indiana, where you can visit the third largest Amish population in America.

Transcript

Discover the Amish Town of Shipshwana Jim Watt: The northern part of Indiana is a vast expanse of flat farmland devoted for the most part the corn, popcorn. This is the popcorn capital of the world. More than 254 million pounds of one of America’s most popular snacks are grown here. In this region lives the third largest population of Amish, a very closely knit religious proof of German-Swiss ancestry. Publicly they’re most distinguished by their transportation as during motorized wheels they traveled the horse and buggy or bicycle. Traditionally, Amish life centers around low-tech farming with horse drawn implements. On Tuesday and Wednesday in Shipshwana, a local Amish staff the auction and flea market cause thousands from surrounding communities and states. An entire industry of restaurants, inns and hotels catered to tourists who are here to enjoy not only the bazaar and varied flea market items but exposure to the regions far its Amish population. The auction band is squaring animals from local farms are bought and sold and what brings most of the Amish to town. At the flea market you can buy just about anything from old golf clubs to bird houses. Female: Oh we’ve got chests, covers, and we got some mannequins. Everybody is finicky. We’ve got a bike. Everybody needs bike. It’s just for ourselves really and it’s for the house and the cottage. Jim Watt: Indiana is the RV capital of the world, more than 50% of the world’s $14 Billion RV revenues come from the region here at el carte. The work force, local amusement because of highland prices and difficulty in making and speak in low tech farming had made the transition the local RV factories with their high quality craftsmanship and work café. It’s not unusual to see Amish buggies and bicycles for that side of plan making modern RV’s. Al Hesselbart: As early as 1849, Indiana and specifically the orchard area where we are, was being described as the trailer capital of the world. The industry grew here at Indiana as World War II veterans start to raise families and look for inexpensive ways to travel and have vacation. They began hooked in a trailer behind their car and taking golf to leave and it just has grown exponentially since then. Until today there are millions of people vacationing in their own little box on wheels and hundreds of thousands who lived full time in their home on the road. What we have here in this museum today is a collection of 26 villages RV’s beginning with the recognized oldest star be in the world, a trailer produced in 1913 and basically telling the evolution from that first steel and oil cloth covered up until the time of the production of the first Winnebago Motor Homes in the mid 60’s. This early chassis motor home shows the evolution from pickup mounted slide in campers as they grew became mounted directly to the chassis of the pickup and they vowed into the days take sea motor homes. This track trailer is very early example of the products of the Jacob Company. It actually uses the fortieth unit that they produce when they started production and shows how much fun a family could have camping in the wilderness. This small track trailer is designed to sleep eight. This 1940 red new moon trailers are very interesting story. The boatman family purchased this unit for full time living in 1940 and lived in it until mom died in 1988, 48 years later. In there 48 years of living in here the boat needs actually trades nothing from the original. It still has only one cold water tap, the same floor and countertops that were there and kind of what it was purchase in 1940 out there and the cook stove still burns gasoline as it’s fueled for cooking. This little rain shortcut trailer from 1954 is actually the very first RV. I’ve already used the expression slide out for an expandable bed. This 1934 covered wagon brand trailer is really a demonstration of state of the art of the middle 30’s. It’s a Masonite exterior but the interior is totally mahogany, walls, ceilings, cabinet tray and everything. It has leaded glass kind of closets. It builds in secretary with etched smear and a tile at the bathroom. This late 60’s slide in front camping unit is a demonstration of the larger prep campers that were being produced in the late 60’s and early 70’s. This carries at 11 foot match to slide into an 8 foot pick up kit. This 1967 Winnebago motor home is the start of the modern era. It was the first of the units that moved from the custom made very expensive motor homes for the real rich to the assembly line produced cookie tattered flight motor homes that made them affordable through the average family. This original unit was kind of some mistakes Winnebago when they first started out. Be sure it’s produced on a six cylinder single whirl field chassis which did the work very well. It was changed partly through the first year, two of the eight powered chassis. There’s a very rich history a whole lot of companies have come and gone and change the other things. This weighing, turning company later became the weighing school bus manufacturing then thousands of their units carry kids to school. The Shipshwana movie “The Long, Long Trailer” put out in 1954 was a major boon in marketing and promotion for the RV industry even though the trailer that they told in the movie was actually designed to be a whole nomadic travel trailer. This thing that we call RV today begins with people like Daniel Boone and David Crockett. The Winnebago vans who took off through the wilderness on their own and worldwide for the gypsies in their care vans pulled by horses throughout Europe. It was all the same. The enjoyment of our surroundings, we enjoy Mother Nature, the urge to explore the travel on. We’re doing that 200 years later in luxury houses that we drive down the road but it all started with these little boxes that we display in this museum.