RENARTWLK Phase 2

Given the weather, a decent number of people attended the RENARTWLK meet and greet on Thursday evening. After people mingled for a while, Ryan Musch gave a presentation outlining what the plans are for this summer's mural week. He began by recognizing the late Bob Lewis (d 2014) for his vision of public art that planted the seeds for the mural walk. Plans for murals had been drawn up several years ago but it was Main Street Rensselaer's decision to put murals on the wall by the river that was the spark the led to the 2019 murals in the alley.

This year the goal is to have five outside artists do ten works, one major and one smaller work each. The goal is to saturate the two alleys that already have murals. Bigger cities may have more murals, but none have the concentration of murals in a small space that Rensselaer may soon have. Mural week this year will be from June 28 to July 4 and there will be more structure to the week. There is a goal of having some kind of small event on each of the days or evenings of mural week that will allow locals to be involved in some way.

The budget for mural week is $30,000. About half has been raised. Last year 88 people donated and the hope is that at least as many will this year. If you want to know more, go to the Rensselaer Art Walk website and subscribe to their e-mails. (There will be a dance party in April as a fund-raising event. Details here.)

Wednesday night was bitterly cold and the sky was exceptionally clear. I took advantage of the clear sky to check out Orion, one of the most recognizable constellations in the winter sky. The star Betelgeuse has been in the news because it has faded considerably in the past couple of months. Astronomers are not sure what that means but some are hoping that it might go supernova. Betelgeuse seemed to be a bit brighter than its neighbor Bellatrix, but normally it is much brighter.

Wednesday's Rensselaer Republican had an article about Indiana farmers getting into the hemp business to produce CBD oil. While scrolling through microfilm this week, by chance I happened on a another article (and picture) about hemp in Jasper County. They were in the September 27, 1943 issue of the Rensselaer Republican. The caption on the picture said that the building was being built by the Defense Plant Corporation and would be operated by an agency of the Commodity Credit Corporation.  Hemp was being grown to make rope because the pre-war sources of rope fiber had been cut off by the Japanese. The article said the best hemp was 7 to 8 feet tall and 3 inches in diameter. There was a tract near Remington of 4,000 acres devoted to growing hemp.

There was no mention of where the building was being built, but I assume it was near Remington. Does anyone recognize the building? Is it still standing, and if so, what is it being used for today? The war-time hemp production left a legacy of ditch weed in Jasper County that resulted in sustained efforts to eradicate it.

Finally, the Indiana Colts have announced that Rensselaer won the vote for a Colts Fan Fest.

Update: A comment from the Facebook link to this post:
Lanny Sigo: The Hemp plant was directly south of Remington, later to become Vermont Marble Plant, Remington Forge, and now OMNI Forge. Come to the traffic light at 231 & 24, go south out of town, it is on the east side of the road. My Dad, Art Sigo, talked about the Hemp Plant in his book, Born at the Right Time. (1994)