Hoosier State Stories

Evansville at War: The Indiana City That Built the Ships

During World War II, Evansville became one of Indiana’s most important home-front cities. This week on Hoosier State Stories, Mike and Kylie tell the story of how a southern Indiana river city helped power the war effort. From factories converting to wartime production to the Evansville Shipyard building LSTs on the Ohio River, this episode looks at the workers, welders, women in factories, long shifts, and local pride behind one of Indiana’s biggest World War II contributions. Far from the ocean and far from the front lines, Evansville helped build the ships that carried the fight overseas.

City Spotlight: Vincennes, Indiana

This week on Hoosier State Stories, Mike and Kylie head west to Vincennes, one of Indiana’s oldest and most important cities. Set along the Wabash River, Vincennes was shaped by Indigenous history, French settlement, frontier trade, the American Revolution, and Indiana’s earliest days as a territory. From Fort Sackville and George Rogers Clark’s 1779 victory to Grouseland, Vincennes University, and the George Rogers Clark National Historical Park, this City Spotlight looks at how a small western Indiana city became one of the starting points of the Hoosier story. Indiana history did not begin in Indianapolis. In many ways, it began farther west, along the Wabash, in Vincennes.

The Bottle Born in Terre Haute

One of the most recognizable shapes in the world has an Indiana connection. This week on Hoosier State Stories, Mike and Kylie tell the story of the Coca-Cola contour bottle and the Terre Haute glass company that helped create it. In the early 1900s, Coca-Cola needed a bottle that stood apart from copycats, something people could recognize by touch, even in the dark. From the Root Glass Company to Earl R. Dean, the cocoa pod inspiration, and the 1915 patent, this episode looks at how a simple bottle became a global icon and a piece of Hoosier design history.

City Spotlight : Elkhart

Welcome to the first City Spotlight bonus episode of Hoosier State Stories. This week, Mike and Kylie head to Elkhart, a northern Indiana city shaped by rivers, railroads, music, manufacturing, sports, and reinvention. From its early formation near the St. Joseph and Elkhart rivers to its rise as the Band Instrument Capital of the World and the RV Capital of the World, Elkhart has always been a city built around movement. They also explore the city’s sports identity, from North Side Gym and Elkhart High School to the Elkhart Express, Elkhart County Miracle, and Riverview Park softball tournaments. Plus, they look at modern Elkhart through landmarks like The Lerner Theatre, Wellfield Botanic Gardens, the RV/MH Hall of Fame, and companies like NIBCO and THOR Industries. Elkhart is more than one label. It is a working city, a maker city, a sports city, and a community still shaping its place in Indiana today.

Levi and Catharine Coffin: Indiana’s Grand Central Station of the Underground Railroad

In the years before the Civil War, an ordinary brick home in Fountain City became one of Indiana’s most important stops on the Underground Railroad. This week on Hoosier State Stories, Mike and Kylie tell the story of Levi and Catharine Coffin, the Quaker couple whose home became known as the Grand Central Station of the Underground Railroad. From late-night arrivals and hidden danger to the courage of freedom seekers and the quiet work of helping people move north, this episode looks at how one Indiana house became a place of hope, risk, and resistance. Courage does not always look loud. Sometimes it looks like a door opening in the dark.