The third leg of the Wabash River Group project was the observation of the aesthetic aspects of the Wabash River. In this project, everything — from the water to the cities on the water to the people who have lived on the river all their live — was recorded in a way that is honest in it’s presentation of the world of Wabash in a format akin to the traveling journals of Lewis & Clark. However, the written form of the journal on the river is also highly articulated in some events to pay special attention to certain characters and experiences.
Three Wabash men paddled the Indiana length of the Wabash to not only write about the experience but to study its history and biology.
The output of this project takes form on paper and in the classroom. All the experiences and logs about the river have been compiled into a journal in publish-ready format if the opportunity came about to have the journals published. There is and will be presentations for elementary school students to hear stories about the river and engage the students to speculate about the beauty of the river and give them a sense of pride about the state that they live in.
The Wabash River has the potential to affect anybody who gives her the time of day by water or shore. The Lilly Endowment has made it possible for one traveler on the river to record the breath and pulse of the river and reiterate her simple lessons and plain truths to other people who wish to know more about the river or have the minds open to become fascinated with the Wabash. Sunrises on sandbars, torrential river rain, whitetail deer and the most hospitable people in the world are aspects of the river and distinctively Hoosier. Like the mother-of-pearls lying sparsely across the bed of the Wabash, the experiences on the Wabash were rare jewels in the landscape of America.
Twigg '08 is a religion major from Indianapolis.