By Brian M. Boyce
TERRE HAUTE — Folk music set the stage for a road trip through history as viewers of “Movers and Stakers” got a taste of Hoosier history Wednesday at the Indiana Theater on Ohio Street.
“There’s so much more personality on the old highways,” said Ball State University professor Nancy Carlson, who wrote, produced and directed the film “Movers and Stakers: Stories along the Indiana National Road.”
Funded by grants from the National Byways Program of the Federal Highway Administration and Ball State, Carlson and her students spent two years producing the film which tells the tale of the old Indiana National Road, now known as U.S. 40.
The first federally funded interstate highway stretching from Cumberland, Md., to Vandalia, Ill., construction on the road was first commissioned in 1806 by President Thomas Jefferson. The film focuses on the 156-mile segment between Richmond and Terre Haute.
The film’s name, “Movers and Stakers” refers to different types of people who built Indiana up from its days as part of the old Northwest Territory during the country’s pioneer era.
Some staked their claims and built their homes here, others remained movers in search of greener pastures west, viewers are told while watching the film.
And along the way, history was made.
“The older I get, the more I like history,” Carlson said before the free local screening.
The finished film contains 13 stories of historical figures impacting the road. Seventeen more could have gone into the film, but cuts had to be made somewhere, she explained.
“We loved doing the documentary,” she said.
Hopeann Hintz, a Ball State junior majoring in broadcast journalism, spent two semesters helping bring the story from raw videotape to finished product.
“I learned a lot,” the Plymouth native said. “It makes me feel kind of special.”
Outside the doors, artist Mary Ann Michna had samples of her work on display.
Michna has worked out of Terre Haute since 2000, and said her work focuses on the “disappearing America”, such as the small towns along U.S. 40.
“I really appreciate the quirkiness of Terre Haute,” she said, explaining she enjoys the individuality of small towns and locally owned and decorated businesses.
Carlson said she will screen the film in more towns along U.S. 40 before wrapping up back in Muncie at Ball State.
Brian Boyce can be reached at 812-231-4253 or brian.boyce@tribstar.com.
Check it out
• For more information on the film, visit www.moversandstakers.com. Information on the artwork of Mary Ann Michna can be found online at www.maryannmichna.com.
