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Beginning in the mid-1990s, a group of Orange County citizens wearing orange T-shirts encouraged Indiana lawmakers to grant a gaming license to French Lick. Above, some of the “Orange Shirts” pose for a photo at the Statehouse (l-r): (front row) Betty Oakley, Mary Gilliatt, Geneva Street, Rep. Tom Saunders, Willa Sanders, and Leon Sanders; (back row) Debby Gilliatt, Vicky Perambo, Adina Cloud of the French Lick Springs Resort, Steve Ferguson of Cook Group, Tina Conner of Historic Landmarks, and Jack Carnes. | Photo from the Carnes Family Collection

How Orange T-shirts Helped Revive Gaming in French Lick
Laurie D. Borman and Carol Johnson
Beginning in the 1990s, a group of Orange County citizens traveled multiple times to the Indiana Statehouse to encourage lawmakers to grant a gaming license to the town of French Lick. Limestone Post and the Southern Indiana Business Report look back at those early days and how gaming today has affected the town and its citizens. Read the article by Laurie D. Borman and Carol Johnson.
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Bloomington high school student Hazel Hammerstein founded the nonprofit Indiana Prevention Project. Above, Hazel and her sister’s mural for the Montana Meth Project, which inspired Hazel to start a similar project in Indiana when she and her family moved back to Bloomington. | Courtesy photo

‘Paint the State’ Anti-drug Mural Contest Started by Local Student Registration ends August 30
Hiromi Yoshida
Bloomington high school student Hazel Hammerstein founded the nonprofit Indiana Prevention Project to spread the message about the dangers of drug use. She and numerous supporters are running the Paint the State mural contest. Registration ends on August 30. Read about Hazel’s project, as well as the contest rules and timeline in this article by Hiromi Yoshida.
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Monroe Lake is “the source of our drinking water, a destination for many outdoor activities, and home to a wide variety of critters and flora,” writes Michael G. Glab. This year marks the 60th anniversary of its dedication, and many events are planned to commemorate it. Above, swimmers enjoy the beach at Fairfax State Recreation Area. | Limestone Post

Celebrating Monroe Lake’s 60th Anniversary Series of events and programs planned for lead-up to October reception
Michael G. Glab
We couldn’t imagine living without Monroe Lake, writes Michael G. Glab. The reservoir is “the source of our drinking water, a destination for many outdoor activities, and home to a wide variety of critters and flora.” This year marks the 60th anniversary of its dedication, with many events planned to commemorate it. Read Glab’s article, featuring Interpretive Naturalist Jill Vance.
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Josie Leimbach (left) and Lynae Sowinski met in Bloomington and got married in 2017. Their journey to parenthood has been similar to that for heterosexual couples in many ways, but the journey has also been more difficult emotionally, physically, and financially. | Courtesy photo

Celebrating Diverse Families: Our Journey to Queer Parenthood
Lynae Sowinski and Josie Leimbach
Preparing to have a child is similar in many ways for queer couples as for heterosexual couples, write Lynae Sowinski and Josie Leimbach, who got married in Bloomington in 2017 and now live in Georgia. But in a variety of ways, their parenthood experience has been different — and emotionally, physically, and financially more difficult. Read about their journey to queer parenthood.
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Otis, a 25-foot-tall sasquatch at Patoka Lake, has become a tourist sensation in Orange County, drawing tourists from across the state and beyond. He was completed in April 2023 by the Bear Hollow carving team (pictured above, with the big guy). | Photo provided

‘Otis,’ the Orange County Sasquatch Sensation The giant carved beast has even landed on the cover of Indiana’s official tourism magazine
Carol Johnson
A 25-foot-tall sasquatch at Patoka Lake has become a sensation, drawing tourists from across the state and beyond. The shaggy beast — named Otis and made from poplar, white pine, and other materials by the Bear Hollow carving team — adds another attraction to Orange County’s tourism, which is “a major driver” in its economy. By Carol Johnson of the Southern Indiana Business Report.
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The co-founders of new theater company Eclipse Productions want to provide additional opportunities for local actors. Their second production, “A Streetcar Named Desire,” opens May 9 at Ted Jones Playhouse in Bloomington.

‘Laugh, Cry, Sweat’ with New Theater Company Eclipse Productions And keep up to date with other area theater
Hiromi Yoshida
A new theater company, Eclipse Productions, is taking Bloomington theater in a new direction, writes Hiromi Yoshida. Co-founders Konnor Graber, Kate Weber, and Jeremy J Weber want “to take chances and to push the boundaries of the craft.” Their second production opens May 9 at Ted Jones Playhouse. Plus, keep up with other theater companies in our area.
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Mark Stosberg (left) and Taufique Hussain on Maple Grove Road during a recent 21-mile run (which Stosberg says became a 26.7-mile run). | Limestone Post

Why I Found Myself Running 50 Miles Alone in the Wintertime
Mark Stosberg
One recent winter, Mark Stosberg set out on a 50-mile run. He wasn’t racing in or training for an event, so at some point he had to answer the question, Why keep going? To test his physical and mental limits? To satisfy a primal instinct? Or was it therapeutic in some way? Sit back and relax as Mark runs through these questions.
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Some visitors enjoy New Harmony, a “wonderfully preserved” town along the Wabash River in southwestern Indiana, for its unusual history. Others are attracted by a more spiritual connection. (center) Interdenominational Roofless Church, (clockwise from top left) Harmonist Labyrinth, cabin at Harmonie State Park, Working Men’s Institute, Yellow Tavern, A.C. Thomas House (courtesy photo), and Atheneum Visitor Center. | Photos by Laurie D. Borman

Travel with Laurie: Historical and Spiritual New Harmony, ‘a Thin Space’
Laurie D. Borman
In Laurie D. Borman’s second travel piece for Limestone Post, she takes us to New Harmony, a town along the Wabash River in southwestern Indiana. Some visitors enjoy the “wonderfully preserved” town and its unusual history. Others are attracted by a more spiritual connection. As one shop owner puts it, “This is a town you feel.” Click here to travel with Laurie to New Harmony.
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The “Sense of Place” project in Rachel Bahr’s English 11 class at Bloomington’s Academy of Science and Entrepreneurship began in 2016 with a Limestone Post article written by Sarah Gordon about the original, iconic Chocolate Moose building on South Walnut, which was demolished and replaced with student housing. When possible, students have trekked to the new Chocolate Moose as they contemplate what a sense of place means to them. | Courtesy photo

Bloomington’s 2023 ASE English Students Share Their ‘Sense of Place’ ‘Where You Aren’t Afraid To Be Yourself’
Academy of Science and Entrepreneurship English 11
Since 2016, students in Rachel Bahr’s English 11 class at Bloomington’s Academy of Science and Entrepreneurship have made immersive audio tours about their “sense of place,” someplace they’re personally or sentimentally connected to — or simply “where you aren’t afraid to be yourself.” And they graciously share their videos with Limestone Post’s readers. Click here for ASE’s 2023 “Sense of Place” videos.
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[Photo Gallery: 20 photos]: Legislation recently introduced by Sen. Mike Braun would double the size of the Charles C. Deam Wilderness Area by Lake Monroe and convert another 29,000 acres of Hoosier National Forest into the Benjamin Harrison National Recreation Area. This photo was taken from the Hickory Ridge Lookout Tower, which stands 133 steps above the Deam’s Terrill Ridge, a thousand feet above sea level. Built in 1939 to identify forest fires, the tower is a popular destination due to its magnificent 360-degree view of the Southern Indiana forest. | All photography in the gallery above by Steven Higgs

On Saving the Deam Wilderness and Hoosier National Forest | Photo Essay Deep Dive: WFHB & Limestone Post Investigate the Hoosier National Forest
Steven Higgs
“In wildness is the preservation of the world,” wrote Henry David Thoreau in Walden in 1854. Now, in this photo essay, journalist and photographer Steven Higgs considers Thoreau’s declaration vis à vis the Deam Wilderness Area in the Hoosier National Forest, especially in light of proposed legislation that would double the Deam’s size. Click here for a Deep Dive into “the Hoosier.”
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