Hoosier History Live

During the 1860s and '70s, "colored schools" (the term used during that era) began to open in Indiana. State laws required Black students to be educated in schools separate from their white counterparts.

In 1886, the ceremony for the first graduate of Vincennes Colored High School in southwestern Indiana sparked a national controversy when whites boycotted the event, according to an article in the spring issue of Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History, the magazine published by the Indiana Historical Society.

The article's author is acclaimed journalist, historian and researcher Eunice Trotter, who will be Nelson's guest to share insights about the ways Indiana cities handled the education of African American youth during the late 19th century.

During the 1870s, the first African-American student graduated from a predominantly white high school in Indianapolis. Mary Rann graduated from Indianapolis High School (later renamed Shortridge High School) in 1876. While much about her background and the milestone event is unknown, "it did open the way for others," Eunice writes.

The high school graduation 10 years later of Vincennes resident Grace Brewer was much more widely publicized because of the boycott of the citywide commencement by many white residents. They included pastors of local churches and business leaders as well as their teenage sons and daughters who were scheduled to graduate from Vincennes High School.

Although Grace Brewer became the first African American to graduate from a high school in Knox County, Eunice writes, "Many local Blacks [previously] had received individual education through schools tied to churches and went on to African-American colleges before Brewer's time."

In Vincennes and other Indiana cities, Black families had been complaining about the inadequate facilities and resources at the "colored schools." In her commencement address, Grace Brewer courageously described many of these challenges.

Also in 1886, a Black student in the Ohio River town of Vevay had completed her high school studies at a white school, but school board members "refused her the privilege of graduating with members of her class," according to Eunice's article. In Washington, Ind., objections from white students to including a Black classmate in their graduation exercises meant that two commencements were held.

Our guest Eunice Trotter has had a long and distinguished journalism career that has included serving as the first African-American editor at the Indianapolis Star (her jobs included assistant city editor and assistant business editor) and a stint as publisher of the Indianapolis Recorder. In 2017, Eunice was inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame.

Although she grew up in Indianapolis, Eunice has deep ancestral roots in Vincennes. In 1821, her ancestor Mary Bateman Clark and an attorney sued her employer to gain release from a long-term "indentured servitude" contract that courts ruled was, in actuality, slavery. Eunice coordinated efforts to get a historic marker at the Knox County Courthouse in recognition of Mary Bateman Clark's precedent-setting case. In 2010, she discussed the landmark case on a Hoosier History Live show about slave trials during the 1820s in Indiana.

A bushel of challenges have confronted family farmers in recent decades. At the same time, farmers mаrkets have sprouted up in towns and neighborhoods across Indiana, the popularity of their "buy local" appeal undeniable.

Nick Carter, 38, is knee-deep in both family farms and farmers markets. He grew up on a multi-generational family farm near Russiaville; today, he lives with his wife and three young children on a farm in Marion County.

Nick, who will be Nelson's guest, is the CEO and co-founder of Market Wagon, a rapidly-growing, Indianapolis-based business that creates online farmers markets. The enterprise, which has created web-based farmers markets in more than 25 cities across 14 states, enables consumers to browse and buy online from growers and vendors in their region.

The rapid growth of Market Wagon has generated a flurry of media interest in the business. In interviews with the press, Nick has noted that, beginning during the 1970s and '80s, family farmers increasingly faced pressures to sell to corporations or consolidate. In other words, "Get big or get out," as Nick has summed up the dilemma faced by family farmers.

He told the Indianapolis Business Journal - which last month listed him among its 40 Under 40 roster of emerging young leaders - that his grandfather built the farm where he grew up. But his family's farming roots stretch even deeper: Six generations of his ancestors have farmed in the Howard County area.

During our show, Nick will discuss how the industrialization of farming has changed the ways that consumers purchase food.

He also will talk about the importance of locally grown food, which has motivated so many communities to establish farmers markets. In central Indiana, they include the Carmel Farmers Market, Broad Ripple Farmers Market, Garfield Park Farmers Market and the Original Farmers Market near Indianapolis City Market downtown.

"I think consumers are hungry to know where their food is coming from and how it's produced," Nick told Winsight Grocery Business, an online magazine that covers grocery retailers.

He has emphasized that Market Wagon isn't a competitor of farmers markets, but instead augments them by providing online access to consumers who are unable for a range of reasons - from proximity to schedule conflicts - to shop at a local farmers market.

Asked by the IBJ how he enjoys spending his downtime, Nick replied that farming is his refuge:

"When you spend your day in meetings, working on financial forecasts and meeting with investors, there is something therapeutic about shoveling manure out of a chicken coop, or weeding a garden bed, or picking sweet corn."

One persistent myth about Strawtown is that the village in Hamilton County near the White River came close to being designated the new state capital of Indiana more than 200 years ago.

Other myths involve Chief Straw, the supposed namesake of the village who has been described as an early Native American leader in central Indiana. Even though a 10-foot monument to Chief Straw was built in the 1920s in his honor, historians now doubt that he ever existed. The monument to Chief Straw, who was said to be a leader of the Lenape (or Delaware) tribe during the 1780s, is now on private property.

Still other myths concern a slaying in 1821 that probably was the first murder in Hamilton County. The victim, an early white settler of Madison County, was allegedly killed at a tavern in Strawtown by Native Americans during a clash with an ax-wielding mob of farmers. But historians now doubt several aspects of the narrative about the murder that have persisted for generations.

To sift myths from facts about Strawtown, Hamilton County historian David Heighway will be Nelson's guest.

David has been a guest on several other Hoosier History Live shows, including a program in 2017 about the violent early era of Fishers. David's popular presentations about the rough-and-tumble chapter in Fishers history of the 1870s continually surprise those who regard the suburban city as a sleepy farm town before its explosive growth in recent decades.

Strawtown certainly never has experienced booming growth, but it was a "lively place" during the early 1820s as a convenient stopping point for travelers, David says. Early businesses included taverns and a horse racing track.

Despite the bustle, David emphasizes the total lack of evidence that Strawtown ever was considered as the site for the capital when the southern Indiana city of Corydon, which was the capital when Indiana became a state in 1816, was deemed inconveniently located. State leaders ultimately chose the wilderness site that became the city of Indianapolis.

Notes and records from meetings of state officials - including a consequential session at the cabin of William Conner (the namesake of Conner Prairie Interactive History Park) - do not mention Strawtown, David says. According to persistent myths, Strawtown missed being designated as the capital by a single vote because one of the state commissioners decided to go fishing rather than attend a meeting.

"It's a cute story, but completely untrue," David emphasizes.

Along with other historians, he doubts the existence of Chief Straw. According to folklore, the chief established a Lenape village at Strawtown in the 1780s. (An engraved plaque on the base of the monument identifies 1787 as the founding date.) Those dates began to raise questions among historians, who note that, if Chief Straw truly had arrived then, he would have been one of the first Lenape leaders in the wilderness that eventually became Indiana.

In a 2014 show, Hoosier History Live explored Lenape heritage in the woodlands of central Indiana, which generally lasted from the 1790s until the 1820s. Sometimes called "the most-moved people in American history," the Lenape had been living in New York, New Jersey, Delaware and other east coast states prior to being shoved to the Indiana wilderness. During the 1820s, in what has been called a "forced migration," the tribe was moved from Indiana to Kansas - then, later, to Oklahoma.

Nelson's guests on that show included the executive producer of The Lenape on the Wapahani River, a documentary about the tribe's era in Indiana. "Wapahani" is a Native American name for the White River.

As we approach the 20th anniversary of the 9-11-01 terrorist attacks, this month marks another milestone involving Indiana Task Force 1, which was among 28 elite rescue teams dispatched to Ground Zero in New York City to search for survivors. Thirty years ago, in July 1991, Indiana Task Force 1 - which includes firefighters, emergency medical technicians, engineers, search-dog handlers and other highly trained specialists - was being formed to respond to catastrophic events.

Hoosier History Live will explore the aftermath of the attack on the Twin Towers in New York City, when 62 professional rescuers from Indiana and their support crew arrived at the still-smoldering ruins. Some of the Indiana Task Force 1 members were among the first "boots on the ground" from across the country at Ground Zero after the suicide hijackings of airplanes that crashed into the World Trade Center's 110-story towers.

To explore what unfolded - as well as earlier and subsequent missions of the Indiana responders since the formation of the task force - Nelson will be joined by two guests:

• Tom Spalding, who was the public safety reporter for The Indianapolis Star when he accompanied the Indiana task force to Ground Zero for an "up-close and personal" look at their overwhelming mission. Tom, who left the Star in 2011 to become a public relations manager, is working on a book that will include a chapter about Indiana Task Force 1's search efforts.
• And Dave Cook, a battalion chief for the Indianapolis Fire Department (IFD), who served a critical function with Indiana Task Force 1 at Ground Zero because of his expertise as a structural specialist. A Ball State University-educated architect as well as a firefighter, Chief Cook was a captain with the Washington Township Fire Department (before its merger with IFD) in September 2001. He joined the Indiana task force in 1995 and continues to be part of the professional rescue team.

At Ground Zero, some of the Indiana Task Force 1 members arrived amid still-smoldering underground fires. Several of the Hoosiers barely escaped being "burned alive" when a 50-foot wall of fire shot up during an underground search for survivors, our guest Tom Spalding wrote in a subsequent account for Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History, the Indiana Historical Society's magazine.

When the Indiana Task Force 1 rescuers returned to Indianapolis after their 10-day assignment at Ground Zero, they were greeted by a cheering crowd of 3,000 on Monument Circle. In downtown Indianapolis, a permanent memorial to the 9-11 victims was dedicated after the 10th anniversary of the tragedy.

Earlier that month, Tom Spalding was one of the guests on Hoosier History Live for a show marking that milestone. Since then, Tom has visited the National September 11 Memorial and Museum on the former site of the World Trade Center.

In addition to Indianapolis-based firefighters and emergency medical technicians, the Indiana Task Force 1 team members dispatched to Ground Zero included search dog handlers from South Bend, Fountaintown, Newburgh and Lebanon.

The beginnings of Indiana Task Force 1 can be traced to July 1991, a deadline posed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for teams across the country to submit applications to be part of the emergency response system.

During their mission in the aftermath of the 9-11 tragedy in New York, the Hoosier rescuers, along with Tom Spalding and other Indiana-based journalists, stayed in tents at the Javits Convention Center.

During our show, we will explore concerns about subsequent health problems experienced by some of the Hoosier rescuers. In sifting through the Ground Zero debris, they were exposed to fuel from the jets that struck the Twin Towers and other potentially toxic material.

"In the subsequent year, I thought the [Hoosier] task force members would become celebrities, but they did not," Tom wrote in his Traces account. "They simply returned to the old jobs they had left."

Last week, about 80 members of Indiana Task Force 1 traveled to Surfside, Fla., to help with search and rescue efforts after the collapse of a condominium building.

Although our guest Chief Cook is not among those deployed to the site of the tragedy in Florida, he has served as a structural specialist on more than 20 missions since he joined Indiana Task Force 1 in the 1990s. He is among only a few members who have been on the team since its earliest years.

Even specialists in African-African history could be forgiven for drawing a blank at the mention of the name of Indianapolis native James Baskett. In spite of being the first black male actor to win an Oscar - for a role in which he sang a song that also won an Academy Award - Baskett's place in the annals of African-American history seems to be largely forgotten.

That's because the role for which Baskett won his honorary Oscar was that of Uncle Remus in the much maligned, now virtually banned film Song of the South. The Disney musical was a modest hit when it was released in 1946, but changing sensibilities about race over the past three quarters of a century have made the film toxic to the image-conscious studio.

Disney chose not to release the film for home viewing during the 1980s VCR boom; nor did they cash in on a DVD release in recent decades. With the 2019 advent of the Disney+ streaming service, Song of the South once again found itself locked out of the Magic Kingdom.

And not without good cause. Film critics and historians have condemned the film's sweetly nostalgic portrayal of the social hierarchy of Reconstruction-era South. As Guardian film blogger Xan Brooks put it recently, "the film trades in a dubious form of myth-making - implying that African-Americans stuck below the Mason-Dixon line were a cheerful bunch who liked nothing better than going fishing, spinning tall tales and looking after white folks' kids."

The very title of the film and its focus on song can be viewed as perpetuating a racist myth. As 19th century abolitionist Frederick Douglass - who himself escaped slavery - commented, the singing of enslaved people in the Southern United States was not evidence of their contentment or happiness.

"It is impossible to conceive of a greater mistake," Douglas wrote. "Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy."

But does the film deserve to be virtually banned, especially when a novel like Gone with the Wind and its 1939 film adaption - with all their racial stereotyping, glorification of white privilege and perpetuation of the myth of the "happy slave" - are still held up as classics?

Does Song of the South have anything to offer the modern viewer? Does the legacy of Hoosier James Baskett deserve to be reevaluated?

These are the questions explored by Hoosier History Live associate producer and guest host Mick Armbruster in this encore of a show that first aired in January of 2020. Mick is joined in studio by two guests:

• Film historian Eric Grayson, who specializes in the collection and preservation of vintage films;
• and Ophelia Wellington, director of Freetown Village, a living history museum she founded in 1982 out of a desire to teach African-American history.

The show also looks into how Baskett's portrayal of the Uncle Remus character might teach us something about the role of folklore in African-American culture, and explore how the content of his tales - with their focus on the archetypal trickster Brer Rabbit - can be traced back to folklore found among native cultures in Africa.

And while the discussion may not leave listeners whistling "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah," we hope it does give them an appreciation of the legacy of Hoosier James Baskett and a more nuanced understanding of the film he starred in.

A fishing village founded on the northern shores of Lake Michigan during the 19th century and a Florida resort city on the Gulf of Mexico are miles apart both geographically and culturally, but share a distinction by virtue of their Indiana connections.

Hoosiers have long flocked to both towns as seasonal destinations, with the cottages of Leland, Mich., popular during the summer, while many "snowbirds" have escaped during Indiana's winters to Naples, Fla., or nearby locales including Marco Island and Sanibel, where thousands also have moved when they retired.

The entrepreneurial Ball brothers of Muncie and their families led the Hoosier migration to Leland during the early 1900s, followed by the extended family of Indianapolis novelist Booth Tarkington. A neighborhood in the village even became known as "Indiana Woods."

Although Naples also traces its beginnings to the 19th century, the influx of Hoosiers didn't begin until the late 1960s and '70s, when real estate developers targeted central Indiana residents with sales pitches about the construction of condominiums, apartments and houses. After retiring as a pro basketball player, Larry Bird was living in Naples when the Indiana Pacers reached out in 1997 and asked him to become the team's coach. Members of the Hulman family - long associated with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway - also are among Hoosiers who have owned or rented properties in the Naples area.

To explore the extensive Indiana links to Leland and Naples - both of which have neighborhoods listed on the National Register of Historic Places - Nelson will be joined by a guest who has deep connections to the two getaway destinations.

Indianapolis historian, educator and civic leader Jim Fadely plans to spend part of this summer in Leland for the 29th consecutive year. Jim, who is a former board president of Indiana Landmarks and the Society of Indiana Pioneers, is no stranger to Naples, either. The family of his wife, Sally, owned a condo there beginning in 1974; Jim and Sally Fadely inherited the residence and eventually sold it.

So many Hoosiers began spending part of the year in Naples and Marco Island during the 1970s that the former Indiana National Bank opened branches in the area. With an economy based heavily on tourism, Naples touts its "pristine white sand beaches," restaurants, historic Naples Pier and shopping opportunities.

Leland is more quaint and low key, noted for its historic cottages, cherry trees and vineyards, Jim Fadely reports. But he adds that in addition to the streams of Hoosier visitors and part-time residents, Leland has something else in common with Naples: the Lake Michigan water at Leland, which is on the Leelanau Peninsula, is aqua, just like parts of the Gulf of Mexico or the Caribbean Sea.

The harbor area of Leland, called the Fishtown Historic District, has "shingled shanties with a Nantucket or Martha's Vineyard look," Jim Fadely says, adding that an "understated aesthetic prevails in Leland." Susannah Mayberry, the great-niece of Indianapolis novelist Booth Tarkington, wrote about some of the area's Indiana connections in a book titled Of Love and Leland: A World War II Generation Memoir (1997).

For much of the early and mid-20th century, Naples and other locales south of Fort Myers on the Gulf of Mexico coast remained secluded. Visitors could travel to Naples only by boat until train lines arrived in 1927. Later during the 1920s, the Tamiami Trail road was built across the Everglades and connected Naples to Miami.

Since the 1970s, new construction has continued at a rapid pace in the Naples and Marco Island area. With the influx of Hoosiers to the region, many Indiana-based organizations, including the Indiana University Alumni Association, have established chapters in Naples.

Not only did he recover from a harrowing helicopter crash that almost struck Speedway High School in 1977, he also had to cope earlier that year with the suicide of his mentor, Sid Collins, the original "Voice of the Indy 500" on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network.

Veteran motorsports broadcaster Paul Page - who was inducted into the IMS Hall of Fame last month - will be Nelson's guest to share insights from his eventful life, including his close friendship with three-time Indy 500 winner Bobby Unser, who died in May at age 87. Unser periodically had been Paul's sidekick in the broadcast booth on both radio and TV.

Paul, 75, who semi-retired in 2016 but still can be frequently heard on the airwaves (sometimes billed as the "Voice Emeritus"), had a multi-faceted career that stretched beyond commentating about auto-racing and other sports. As a news reporter in April 1968, he was standing only a few feet from Bobby Kennedy when he made a historic speech in Indianapolis about Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination.

These episodes - including his stint as a licensed paramedic (he participated in many emergency runs) - are described in Paul's new autobiography, Hello I'm Paul Page: It's Race Day in Indianapolis (Cardinal Publishing).

The book opens with the plummeting of the helicopter - a news chopper for WIBC Radio - in 1977 with Paul and two others aboard. Although all of them survived the crash of the aircraft onto the football field at Speedway High (the helicopter narrowly missed the school building), Paul suffered severe leg injuries and endured a long recovery.

After his return to broadcasting, he landed gigs with national TV and radio networks - including NBC Sports, ESPN and ABC Sports - and covered sports ranging from fencing to Sumo wrestling.

First and foremost, though, Paul always will be identified with motorsports broadcasting, particularly the Indy 500, which, he writes, has been his "obsession" since he first visited the Speedway as a 15-year-old in 1960.

His enthusiasm has never waned, even during the 1973 race, generally considered one of the most disastrous in Indy 500 history. With massive crashes, two driver fatalities (as well as the death of a pit crew member) and weather delays that meant it took three days to complete, the 1973 race is described in Paul's new book. He also writes about his unexpected friendship that developed four decades later with the daughter of driver Swede Savage, who was among the 1973 fatalities. Paul escorted Savage's daughter, Angela, when she visited the Speedway in 2014, including to the site of her father's horrific crash.

During our show, Paul will discuss the 1973 race as well as his interviews with iconic drivers, including four-time winner A.J. Foyt, who is renowned for being, as Paul puts it, "intimidating." But he also describes episodes - including an incident that unfolded at Foyt's ranch in Texas where Paul was a houseguest - that demonstrate the driver's compassionate side.

In 1977, Paul and a colleague discovered the body of his mentor, Sid Collins, who had taken his own life. During the early 1950s, Collins had developed the concept for the IMS Radio Network and was able to convince long-time Speedway owner Tony Hulman of its merit.

In his book, Paul praises Hulman (1901-1977) for his kindness. He also celebrates the inclusive spirit of the Indy 500:

"It's a place for everyone: the wealthiest sponsors, owners and stars; the middle-class ticket holders, and the blue-collar fans in the infield."

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June 12, 2021

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Columbus, Ind., in Bartholomew County, south of Indianapolis, is known as a "Modernist Mecca" for its striking examples of midcentury architecture, which draw visitors from far and wide. The nearby small town of Hope in the county's northeast Haw Creek Township is much less well known, but has its own distinctive cultural heritage, which we explore in this encore of a show that originally aired in September of 2016. The show is guest-hosted by Hoosier History Live producer Molly Head.

Hope was founded in 1830 by Protestant Moravian Martin Hauser. Like many persecuted religious minorities seeking autonomy and religious freedom, Moravians moved into different parts of Europe and on to America, where they settled mostly in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. German was the language spoken by Moravians coming to America.

As Hope was originally founded, the church owned and ran the town. Somewhat similar to social experiments in New Harmony with communal property, the "congregational town" concept ended in Hope in 1837 when the town was opened up to individual property ownership, and non-Moravians also were allowed to settle there.

Some early residents of Hope were descendants of the settlers of the ill-fated Moravian Mission that operated near Anderson, Ind., along the White River, from 1801 to 1806. The mission's purpose was to bring Christianity to the Native Americans in the area. The mission members and its Native American "converts" were met with strong resistance by local tribes, and in particular by The Prophet, or Tenskwatawa, the brother of Shawnee leader Tecumseh. The Prophet, full of his own religious zeal, carried out "witch hunts" against converted Native Americans, and the Moravian missions in the area eventually disappeared.

The Hope Moravian Church, founded in 1830 and originally housed in a log cabin on the town square, remains the only Moravian Church in Indiana. Many of its traditions continue today, such as display of the "putz," or elaborate Christmas scene in miniature, in the church at Christmastime, the tradition of hanging Moravian stars, and the making of Moravian sugar cakes, a type of sweet, raised coffee cake widely sold at local festivals.

Since the 1830s, Hope Moravians have also gathered in God's Acre, the historic section of the Hope Moravian Church Cemetery, for the Easter Sunrise Service, which includes a trombone choir and a processional by all church members that involves singing songs and watching the sunrise.

Molly's guests include two retired Hope elementary school teachers who also are great storytellers: Barb Johnson and Beth Newman. Both Barb and Beth have taught 4th-grade Indiana history and also have played the role of schoolmarms at the Simmons School, which is a brick one-room schoolhouse that was moved from its original location in the country to the back yard of the Hope Elementary School in 1989. Guests Barb and Beth are also involved in the Yellow Trail Museum, the history museum located on the town square. Much of downtown Hope and surrounding residential areas is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Editor's note: Since the original airing of this show in 2016, Barb Johnson has passed away.

Brownsburg resident Bob Palma has a nine-car garage that houses his treasures: a 1973 Mustang convertible; four 1964 Studebaker Daytona models; a 1956 Packard Clipper hardtop and other cars manufactured more than 40 years ago.

As Hoosier History Live explores the world of Hoosier car collectors like Bob, we won't focus exclusively on "classic" autos; that term has a specific, limited definition with some clubs for owners and enthusiasts, often referring to cars manufactured before the late 1940s.

Instead, with Bob as our guide, we will take a broad look at Hoosier owners and clubs (or local chapters of national groups) with a span from Model A Fords (the Model A was a successor in the late 1920s of the innovative Model T) through enthusiasts of Corvettes, Mustangs and other cars designed in the 1960s and '70s. Bob is a life member of both the Studebaker Drivers Club and the Antique Automobile Club of America.

Where do owners get replacement parts? How do they buy and sell? And with automobile technology having advanced so much in recent years, why do they prefer to hit the road in cars that initially rolled out of showrooms many decades ago?

There are more of these enthusiasts in Indiana than you may assume. The Indiana Region Classic Car Club of America, which was founded in 1959, has more than 125 members who own Duesenberg sedans, Stutz roadsters and other cars made in Indiana during the 1930s or earlier; a 1932 Cadillac, and a 1937 Packard convertible, among other prized possessions.

That group meets monthly, as does the Mustang Club of Indianapolis. About 205 owners of Mustangs and related Ford Motor Company products participated two years ago in the club's Race to Indy, its major annual event.

At least half a dozen Corvette clubs - including Corvette Indy - can be found in Indiana. An online registry of car clubs on the Old Cars Only website lists dozens of other car collector groups, including Indiana chapters of a national club for Model A Ford enthusiasts.

Our guest Bob Palma is the technical editor of Turning Wheels, the monthly magazine of the Studebaker Drivers Club, which has about 10,000 members. Bob, who also is a columnist for Hemmings Classic Car magazine, was a guest in 2020 on a Hoosier History Live show that explored the Studebaker brothers and the company they founded, which became the largest employer in South Bend until the last car was made there in 1963.

Bob is retired from a career that included teaching auto mechanics at Arsenal Technical High School in Indianapolis and editing textbooks. He emphasizes that obtaining replacement parts for older model vehicles is easier than many people assume.

"You can even buy a complete, brand new reproduction of a 1957 Chevrolet or 1969 Camaro body if you want," he reports.

Many of the car clubs in Indiana organize events such as caravans (sometimes called "parades") of owners' vehicles for trips across the state - and beyond - to see notable collections and visit historic sites.

Despite the implications of the "Race to Indy" title, the annual event organized by the Mustang Club of Indianapolis is not a competition. It's a stationary car show that's been held for more than 40 years and includes a silent auction that benefits charitable organizations.

When you want advice about the problems that invasive trees and plants can cause in Indiana, whom do you consult?

For Hoosier History Live, the obvious choice is the Hoosier Gardener, aka Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp, the award-winning, Indianapolis-based journalist and president of GardenComm: Garden Communicators International. An Indiana advanced master gardener, Jo Ellen will be Nelson's guest to share advice about Bradford pear trees and other non-native, invasive trees and plants that are damaging the state's environment. She also will offer advice about alternatives to planting "invasives," which have been displacing native species.

Among the culprits are Bradford pear trees - which began blooming in mid-April, with distinctive white blossoms - and other ornamental pear trees. Jo Ellen also has written a blog post that warns about the problems caused by a popular groundcover in many Hoosier landscapes known as the "winter creeper." She explains that invasive species often have a "growth habit that out-paces and disrupts native species."

A front-page article in the Indianapolis Star last month describes Bradford pears as nearly ubiquitous in the state now, with their early blooming "giving them an advantage over native species and allowing them to take their resources... Invasive plants are wreaking havoc on Indiana's ecosystems."

And the Bradford pear trees aren't the only problem. Jo Ellen notes the Indiana Natural Resources Commission has put together a list of terrestrial plants designated as pests. Several varieties of honeysuckles, including shrubs and a vine, are on the list of plants that are prohibited from being sold or planted.

Referring to the planting of Bradford pear trees, Jo Ellen says, "This is an example of good intentions gone bad... These trees have escaped our landscapes and now displace native trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals, which disrupts the ecology."

Jo Ellen, a garden coach with an all-season container planting business, co-teaches the City Gardener Program with a Purdue University-Marion County horticulture extension educator. Nelson plans to open the phone lines early during our show so listeners can call in with gardening questions. Jo Ellen also is the owner of Write for You! LLC, a freelance writing and editing business.

Jo Ellen's Hoosier Gardener blog posts are available as an email newsletter.