It's Spooky Szn: IN Paranormal Activity

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📜 This Week in Indiana History 📜

First Parke County Covered Bridge Festival Is Held (1957)

The first Parke County Covered Bridge Festival took place in 1957, created to celebrate the county's 31 historic covered bridges and to unite local communities. Originally organized by a group of local women, the inaugural event was a small, three-day gathering attended by approximately 250 people.

Since then, the festival has expanded significantly into a major 10-day annual event held every October across nine Parke County communities. Today, it stands as the largest festival in Indiana and one of the largest in the United States, drawing over two million visitors each year. The modern festival features dozens of vendors, local arts and crafts, guided tours of various towns, and showcases of local craftsmanship. While it has grown massively in scale, the festival continues to honor the heritage, spirit, and community focus of the original 1957 celebration.

The 2026 edition runs Oct. 9–18. You can learn more about it here!

📰 Hoosier Headlines 📰

How Indiana Celebrated Caitlin Clark’s First Nike Shoe

On the same day Caitlin Clark’s first Nike shoe dropped globally, the Indiana Fever were eliminated from the WNBA playoffs in a winner-take-all Game 3 in Las Vegas. But that didn’t slow down the shoe celebration in Indiana.

The Fever loss also allowed Clark to be the guest picker on College Gameday in Iowa City, where her Iowa Hawkeyes fell to the Ohio State Buckeyes 31-14.

How Northeast Indiana Got Businesses to Help Pay for Daycare

Childcare isn’t affordable for everyone, which is why state leaders are looking to employers to help with those expenses. (FPI News)

Data Center Guardrails

A national coalition of AI companies, labor unions, and investors is launching a campaign calling for tighter guardrails on new data centers while pushing back against local moratoriums. (FPI News)

58,000+ Hoosiers Could Lose Medicaid Coverage

Indiana officials said more than 58,000 people could lose insurance through the Healthy Indiana Plan in 2027 because they are not meeting the state’s new Medicaid work requirements. Here are more details. (Mirror Indy)

2026 Super Kid Competition: Meet Asher Bentz

Asher Bentz, 9, is from Columbus, Indiana, and has made it into the Top 15 of the 2026 Stan Lee’s Super Kid competition.

He loves Spider-Man, has a huge heart for helping other people, and dreams of being a real-life superhero who makes a difference.

Asher regularly looks for ways to help others. He brought bottled water and popsicles to people experiencing homelessness during hot weather, donated food and money, put books in Little Free Libraries, and enjoys reading to younger kids. He genuinely believes that being a superhero means helping people and doing what you can for the greater good.

You can vote for Asher to be the next Super Kid here!

Rapid Fire

What are the five largest counties in Indiana? WATCH

What are the five youngest counties in Indiana? WATCH

Where are the five best tenderloins in Indiana? WATCH

🍂 Hope for All Seasons

It’s that time of year in Indiana when you don’t know if you should leave the house wearing a sweater, a bathing suit, or a poncho.

And unpredictable fall weather can bring some pretty unwanted home surprises—flooded basements, broken furnaces, leaking pipes, and more.

Good thing our friends at Hope Plumbing, Heating & Cooling are ready to help with whatever Indiana weather throws your way. And we guarantee they’ve got a coupon for whatever season decides to show up that day.

Even better: Book your next home service appointment with Hope, mention “Get Indiana,” and they’ll give you a FREE membership for a year.

That membership helps make sure you’ve got Hope for all seasons, all year long.

Call Hope Plumbing, Heating & Cooling and start saving today → (317) 807-6728

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City Methodist Church

Built in 1926 in Gary, Indiana, the City Methodist Church was once one of the most impressive religious buildings in the Midwest. Then it abruptly closed its doors in 1975. What happened? (Get Indiana)

Constitution Elm

In the small town of Corydon, there’s a historic tree that helped earn a place in the story of Indiana’s birth as a state. Here’s why you should visit. (Get Indiana)

What’s your Hidden Gem? Submit here to have it featured!

Events This Week in Indiana

West Side Nut Club Fall Festival – Franklin Street in Evansville – Thursday–Saturday, Oct. 8–10 - For the fourth year in a row, Evansville’s Nut Club Fall Fest was voted as the #1 fall festival in the United States. Plus, Nate Spangle and Co. will be there today recording a LIVE Get IN. Podcast!

Morgan County Fall Foliage Festival – Downtown Martinsville – Thursday–Sunday, Oct. 8–11 - This four-day fall celebration features carnival rides, food vendors, live entertainment, a parade, contests, and fun for the whole family. Details

Harvest Homecoming Festival – Downtown New Albany (Floyd County) – Thursday–Sunday, Oct. 8–11 - One of southern Indiana's largest festivals wraps its finale weekend with a parade, 300+ booths of food and crafts, live entertainment, and family activities along the Ohio River. Details

Headless Horseman Festival at Conner Prairie – Fishers – Thursday–Sunday, Oct. 8–11 from 5–10 p.m. - This family-friendly fall tradition features narrated hayrides, the galloping Headless Horseman, a corn maze, pumpkin patch, apple cider, s'mores, and 1836 Prairietown by lantern light. Tickets

Heartland Film Festival Opens – Multiple venues across Indianapolis – Opens Thursday, Oct. 8 (runs through Oct. 18) - The 35th annual Heartland Film Festival screens 100+ independent, documentary, and narrative films from around the world with filmmaker Q&As and nightly events. Tickets

James Whitcomb Riley Museum Home Tours – 528 Lockerbie Street in Indianapolis – Friday–Saturday, Oct. 9–10 (by reservation) - Guided tours of the preserved 19th-century home of Indiana's "Hoosier Poet" in historic Lockerbie Square, available for its final month of 2026 tours. Tickets

Ed Sheeran: LOOP Tour – Lucas Oil Stadium in Downtown Indianapolis – Saturday, Oct. 10 at 8 p.m. - British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran brings his LOOP Tour to downtown Indy for a career-spanning performance from "Shape of You" to "Azizam." Tickets

Broad Ripple's Oktoberfest – The Vogue Theatre Back Lot in Indianapolis – Saturday, Oct. 10 - The Eight Eleven Foundation's popular Oktoberfest returns to Broad Ripple with local bites, biergarten drinks, a lively kids zone, and live music featuring Clayton Anderson, Midnight RedEye, Dog Will Hunt, and Polka Cola. Details

The Nightmare Factory Wabash – Wabash – Friday–Saturday, Oct. 9–10 (continues every Friday and Saturday through Halloween) - This premier haunted attraction features five attractions and 68,000+ square feet of pure terror, making it the biggest and scariest haunt in the region. Tickets

Hanna Haunted Acres – Indianapolis south side – Thursday–Wednesday, Oct. 8–14 (open daily through Nov. 1) - This long-running haunted attraction returns with six reimagined, scarier-than-ever haunted attractions, bonfires, food trucks, and a midway. Tickets

Disney's The Lion King (National Tour) – Murat Theatre at Old National Centre in Indianapolis – Thursday–Wednesday, Oct. 8–14 (continues through Oct. 18) - Broadway's longest-running production of The Lion King continues its Indianapolis run. Tickets

👏 1 Big wIN 👏

The losing streak is over.

For the first time in 1,043 days, Purdue won a game in Big Ten play by defeating Illinois 24-17 in Champaign on Saturday, bringing the Cannon Trophy back to West Lafayette. It was the Boilermakers’ first Big Ten win since they beat Indiana for the Old Oaken Bucket in 2023, snapping a 19-game conference skid.

See how the Boilermakers got it done and who’s on deck for Purdue. (Get Indiana)

🎧 The 130-Year History Hiding Behind the Rathskeller  🎧

🎙 On today's show I sat down with Craig Mince, president of the Athenaeum Foundation, about the Athenaeum (often known as the Rathskeller) and its evolution from Das Deutsche Haus, founded by pro-democracy German Turner gymnasts committed to "sound mind, sound body."

Craig explains the building's 1894 east wing (gym, Rathskeller) and 1897 west wing (parlors, ballroom, 400-seat theater), its open membership model, and its role in early physical education training.

Our conversation covers name changes during anti-German sentiment, long-running German heritage events, and how a $6 million Lilly Endowment gift led to forming the nonprofit foundation in 1991 to save the building.

Craig details today's operations, including the Turner Gymnasium with 900+ members, Coat Check Coffee, theater restoration plans, and major events like St. Paddy's Day and Germanfest, and shares local ghost stories and overnight paranormal hunts.

If you like this episode and want to hear more Get IN. episodes where I interview Hoosiers making a difference, visit getindiana.com/podcast.

You are going to learn about:
- The Purpose, History and Evolution of the Athenaeum
- Athenaeum Festivals, Traditions and the Rathskeller
- Ghost Stories and Paranormal Activity at the Athenaeum

Listen on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube!

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