1234.

Get my shoes in.

Out the door.

Five.

I'm lost.

Six.

Seven.

Eight.

Feels great.

I'm gonna shine.

After I do what I'm gonna do.

I do it again.

Yeah.

Look at the sky with the beautiful color.

But never just for me.

You gotta share it with another.

I got to show, to give.

Let I want singing show.

Take a look and say a beautiful morning that turns into a beautiful evening.

And together make beautiful art.

And if you wanna see that, come along with me.

That's right.

Well, let treasure that's fairly new to the area is the Indiana Dinosaur Museum.

But there is much more than just dinosaurs here.

I have our friend Mark with us.

Thank you so much for joining us here today.

I'm experienced.

This is my first time being in this space and just walking in.

It is overwhelming.

It is beautiful.

I'm excited to see everything that you guys have to offer here, because it is more than just a dinosaur museum, right?

Well it is, it's a nature park, the Continental Divide Park.

It's the chocolate company which has been a traditional favorite for over 30 years.

And we have a bakery here and a restaurant and 100 acres to explore.

That's tremendous.

Oh my gosh.

And I'm so excited.

Dave and I get to be together today.

We're not always together, but today we're going to be exploring everything that you guys have here.

You know, the last time I don't not sure.

You're not the only person that does crazy things in this area.

Courtney likes to put like 90 Christmas trees in our house.

So that's the last time I actually got to see her was at our house for Christmas for those trees.

But you also, it seems like to do things that are fiscally responsible.

No, I'm just kidding.

Well, it's no longer than life.

Now, this this is wonderful.

And I came here recently with my daughter, who was two at the time, and my wife and the experience here.

It really is an experience.

That's something that you must have really put a lot of effort into.

Well, you know, people are paying for experience.

They call an experienced economy.

And we've kind of I've kind of developed that in South Bend with the assets we have, the Continental divide.

God put that here.

Yeah.

You know, so I didn't I just highlighted it.

And we have a trail now.

And the dinosaurs I dug up and God put them there too.

So was that the starting point for you or what made you decide on this space in particular, because you were already doing some of these things individually.

Right?

Right.

I was, you know, we had the dinosaurs for 30 some years.

We had the chocolate tour.

But then I developed this hobby of digging up dinosaurs.

And the mayor and the city of South Bend was they were incredibly supportive of this vision because tourism is a is a is an industry, you know, and so I put all three of them together.

And it seems to be I think it's going to be a national attraction, not just to regional one.

Yeah, I love that.

And how long have you been working with dinosaur fossils?

I mean, it's about 2000, 2001 quite some time.

I just found one that's new to science to really it's going to be named after me, I hope.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah.

Okay.

It's not just, you know, rubber Dinosaur Museum.

It's somewhere between entertainment and science.

That's wonderful.

So.

And there are real fossils here, of course.

Yeah, well that's real me.

No, but one thing I did notice as well.

And even today.

And it's not just a fluke, when we came in like the hospitality here, that's something.

As much as people will be impressed by the exhibits, I was equally impressed by the staff's enthusiasm for this.

Well, you know, part of I'm very proud to be from Indiana and Hoosier hospitality is something we were known for, and it's been watered down by, you know, people in our culture.

But I'm I'm very proud of Indiana.

And one of the great things we have is our personality.

We never had things like money.

So I don't know.

And again, obviously the Dinosaur Museum is part of the big attraction here, which we're going to head in their first.

Right.

So I think that's the first thing we should say.

And tell me a little bit about where it starts, because these doors are magnificent.

Well, it starts you know, I probably I learn by doing and I go to a lot of museums and gosh, they have great collections, but there's too much Latin and not enough entertainment.

So it starts with an inspirational film because science and dinosaurs should be inspirational.

So we start that way.

I love it.

All right, let's head in.

Let's go.

All right.

So, Mark, as you come in here, the first thing you're greeted with is a storyteller that works here.

Why was that important to get people into it?

Well, you know, a lot of museums have great specimens, but they're kind of devoid of people.

Yeah.

And so we wanted to tell the story.

So if you want, someone will just talk your ear off.

Yeah, I like it, but everybody seems so enthusiastic.

I know I mentioned that, but why this piece?

Why?

Why do you start this way?

Because obviously when you start, you want to make an impression.

Yeah, we want to make an impression.

And the dinosaur, you can reach out and touch it.

It's not on a, you know, on a on a podium.

But if you look behind us, the Turner quarry, for eight years, I found a sauropod, which is a long neck that's new to science.

And I want people to know that anybody can do this.

You know, I'm a non-degree professional, and I love long necks.

And so we started it out with a bang.

I like it.

And can you show me a little bit because this is let's go a little bit about your story and how you get started here.

Right.

And so the Turner Quarry.

So is that actually the name of the quarry?

Do you have a quarry?

That's the name of the quarry.

And there during the Jurassic period, there were huge rivers.

And a bunch of dinosaurs died in this one location.

And if you look in the distance there on that photo, that's Yellowstone in the distance.

Oh, wow.

I had one of the best views in the world.

Yeah.

And I dug there for eight years, and we found a dinosaur that's new to science.

Over a thousand bones.

Nice.

Can I bring my camper out sometime?

Yes you can.

You're on camera.

So.

Yeah, I mean Wyoming now, so you won't find me there.

Oh, okay.

So I won't find you here, but.

No.

So this is wonderful.

Which one is kind of like your.

Do you have, like, a pride and joy of things, or is it like, what was the first one you found or, you know, the first dinosaur?

And we're going to see her later on as Juliet.

She has skin on her.

Okay.

And it's kind of a rare thing.

And I'll let you see some of the skin.

All right.

Maybe we should just go have a look at that.

So.

Okay, before we go see the dinosaur with the skin, because that sounds cool.

We're so used to just seeing them in bone form.

Right?

We don't get to see.

Tell me about, like, some of these displays, like, so big, so bold.

Well, you know, we had everybody has trouble explaining time.

And so I thought if we did it in three stories that that whole design, there is three stories tall, but we've been the Earth's been around about 4.6 billion years.

We haven't been around that long.

No.

Even complex life is only the last 543 billion years.

And we get so caught up in our little 80 years, if we're lucky, right?

We get so caught up in everything and we're just we're all going to be extinct.

And then we all going to be dug up fast someday.

But we tell the stories of humans, too.

Yeah.

And we've been around about 7 million years.

Yeah.

Which we need to be cautious.

Have a caution.

You know, that's about how long every species last.

Yeah, yeah, we're about there.

I know that my daughter is favorite, and I know it's a favorite with the kid.

Is the sandbox over here?

You know, I said to her at one point, I was like, you know, we probably just could have brought you to a beach, you know?

But they do really do love.

You want to come over and look at that?

I do.

Yeah.

Well, that's one of our innovations is the, you dig, quarry?

Yes.

So we have the traditional.

Dig sites where kids can dig up bones, you know, and we have this sort of high tech one here.

They love that.

But this is an innovation.

So you guys, we actually have a real.

This is a real dinosaur footprint.

Oh really a real one.

Yeah.

Wow.

And you can dig.

You can.

Anywhere you dig.

You can find a fossil.

You'll find something.

Okay, let me have a look.

Let's see what you got there.

All right.

All right.

Let me see how even anybody can find a fossil.

Is that something here?

I don't know.

Is it small or is it big?

No.

You're going to have to.

I'm going to have to tell me.

All right.

I found one right here.

You found one already?

That is a shell.

I would have just thought that was a stone.

Is that.

How do you get good at telling the difference?

I don't know.

Now that's a stone.

Okay.

Like, as somebody who has a three year old, she loves getting her fingers in the dirt.

I mean, that's just something we're born.

We don't.

We don't do your laundry, though, and.

No.

You know, another thing we did, too is we have a mammal in each area so that you can compare and contrast.

Like in the long neck area of the sauropods.

We have a giraffe here.

We have a kudu.

So you can compare the horns of a modern mammal with those of a of a Triceratops.

It's great to show that it's like it's not just this distant thing, it's still part of it.

Well, you know, what I've learned is that life is a continuum.

You know, we see it as the segment.

It's not.

No.

And so that story just unfolds.

And the neat thing is, we're all we're all part of a small part of that story.

Yeah.

It's amazing to be alive.

Oh, it's such a gift.

I love it.

This is a model of a dinosaur.

A duckbill that I found.

That's the tail of the duckbill.

And we haven't started working on it yet, but it has bones on one side and skin on the other.

So.

And I'll show you a little bit of the skin that I found.

I bet the process to kind of get it out.

It must be just painstaking.

Well, there's we have to train someone, and very few people in the world even know how to deal with skin.

Only about 15 or 20 pieces of skin have ever been found.

Wow.

And I'm going to show you one of them.

But can you see it?

See down there?

The skin.

It's right on the crust.

You look white cells like little hexagons.

Yeah.

Scale it.

And so this is the tip of that tail.

Wow.

It's amazing.

And as you said, only 15 or 20 in the whole world have ever been found.

Yeah.

Is there, like, genetic testing then on that skin or, you know, genetic, but there's.

Yes.

I don't know if it's genetics, but there are leftovers where we may be able to tell the color of the skin, because these left over mineralized parts that were the colors of skin.

So I want to have eventually one of the world's largest collection of dinosaur books memorabilia and have a real research library.

Here's me.

Here's a picture of me hard at work, too.

Yeah, that was a natural pose.

Right.

You didn't know the camera was there?

That's just heavy.

But I know next we're going to head outside.

Because although there's a lot of magic in here, there's a lot of magic that's happening outside on a lot of acreage as well.

So.

All right, we're going to head outside with Courtney.

Okay, Mark, when you come to the dinosaur Museum, you might not be ready for a hike, but there is an opportunity to hike, right?

Oh, yeah.

We have about five miles of trails, and this one is where you start.

Your adventure begins, and you make a hike up to the Continental Divide.

It's 840ft above sea level, and you get to go through a prairie.

And we have buffalo and we just have some new babies, which is amazing because there aren't a lot of buffalo in Indiana.

Are they all?

There used to be.

You know, it's on our state symbol and our our state, our flag.

And we've forgotten that the prairies began here.

I think Indiana is kind of bad at telling its story.

The prairies actually began right in South Bend and extended out west.

Really?

Yeah.

There were Patch Perry's prairies here and the early explorers LaSalle and Charlevoix and all these guys mentioned the beauty of it.

So.

And you're bringing it back here?

Well, we're trying to bring it back.

You know, we drained a lot of the swamps, and this is our little way of developing in harmony with nature instead of the way we've traditionally developed and talk about that, because there's a lot that you're doing that is focused in the nature realm.

Well, not, I don't know, nature.

You know, we're going to continue to develop.

And I don't know why we can't develop a model where we give a leave a home for nature.

Yeah.

It's a very sustainable.

Like there's fox and deers and everything out here.

And we're connected now to the lighting bog.

And the governor has given us money to build the Continental Divide Trail.

And hopefully it goes all the way to to Potato Creek State Park.

And why is it important to focus on the continent?

Well, I don't know.

It's a tourist attraction.

It's it's something that's an asset that's, you know, undiscovered.

Yeah.

It's always been here.

And we just want to tell that story and do a little good for nature, too.

Now for the trail itself.

Is it all paved?

It's not all paved.

There are different surfaces.

So what kind of accessibility do we need to know of for?

Well, we have some accessibility but not complete okay.

So and we're and eventually pave it all.

But there's there's a little stretch of gravel.

Good for people to know.

All right.

We're going to head up towards it.

All right.

Let's do it.

Okay.

We are up the hill.

Move it into the Continental divide.

This is it.

Like, do I walk right here?

You're right on it right now.

And I'm, frankly, out of breath.

It's not too bad of a path for those folks who are coming up here.

This is doable.

It's manageable.

And mostly, at least as far as we've gotten here, it's easy to access to.

So, I mean, we're right here.

How many continental divides are there in North America?

Well, there are five.

And so we're just having a little informational, just like a national park.

There are five.

And we're here now in case you get lost.

Good to know.

And see this is worn down because everybody's going.

Everybody touches that.

They take their picture there.

You know this has been amazingly successful.

No one thinks of Indiana and thinks of the Continental divide.

It was just here.

And also, you know, our history in the city is tied to to all the glacial erratics that you see around here, the boulders, the Plymouth Rock was the grotto at Notre Dame, Tippecanoe Place, all of our famous buildings.

We have one of our big rocks at our home is one of them as well too.

And then we moved it from another space and and so many people.

So there's a, you know, history from ten, 13,000 years ago is told right here.

And we have a very neat puddingstone there, very rare today.

This comes from near Sault Ste.

Marie in Canada at a cliff.

And it was brought all the way to South Bend, Indiana, 352 miles.

Oh my gosh.

And it contains semi-precious stones.

And it tells the story of the glaciers coming from that Canadian shield.

Yeah.

So, I mean, this is an important space, especially for folks who are interested in science.

Yes.

Said that.

Wondered why the state didn't buy the property.

Well, I told him they could if they wanted.

If the price is right now, it's yours.

And it's for everyone to experience that, too.

All right, let's keep walking.

Oh, now I hike this in high heels so I'm sure anybody can make it up here.

But we're standing over the buffalo pasture, and I want to point out there are some new friends out here.

We have five new baby buffalo.

That's amazing.

It's part of a breeding program.

Yeah.

I think, you know, we want to we want to expand and really have a buffalo preserve.

Indiana Buffalo preserve here.

And this is just the modest beginning.

I love it.

Well, I want people to come see it for themselves.

Okay.

But I'm starting to get a little bit hungry.

So can we start heading towards the chocolate that I know you for?

There's a lot.

Yes.

Okay, let's do that.

So I'm now with Jennifer Small, who's the marketing director, and Jennifer, most people will know this organization from the South Bend Chocolate Cafe.

Whether it's the downtown location or one of your other locations.

But so this is obviously a big part of the Dinosaur Museum and this general area.

So.

So tell me what what you got going on here?

Well, this is very much like if you've been in one of our cafes, it's very much like that.

In theory, we have a lot of the same products and everything spread out a little bit different.

We have a wider menu for breakfast and lunch.

We have just some fun features with our largest wall of caramel corn and so many other little gift items we ship worldwide.

If you would like to send a gift to someone.

This is.

You can come here to just get your morning coffee, get treats and stuff.

Or we do have our chocolate museum, which is right behind the cafe here.

It starts through a big Mayan temple that you walk through.

It gives you some history of chocolate.

Then the whole process of how it's made and pulled from the cacao beans, and how it's processed all the way into making the chocolate that we know.

Is there an exhibit about how why it makes women so happy?

There is not, but there should be.

I mean, that's a part of the museum.

No it's not.

It could be.

We should probably look at that.

It should be.

Yeah.

And have the, like, five phases of the facial expression.

Like start the level.

Yes.

The more you know or how you can get out of certain things.

And so again obviously chocolate.

The South Bend Chocolate Factory and cafe is a big, you know, part of everything that's in here.

How far reaching is are these products.

Because obviously we know them is here in South Bend.

But are they shipped all over the country?

All over the world.

They are shipped all over the country.

We do have a customer internationally as well.

Yeah, we have quite a few wholesale customers that you can travel around the United States and you're pretty your odds are pretty high you're going to see us in a gift shop.

Yeah.

So yeah, we we traveled to all of our shows all around the, the year selling to our customers and to the wholesalers.

So.

And you mentioned the museum.

So tell me a little bit more about that.

Like we're out here right now because there's like about 50 kids in there right now.

And we didn't want to get them all on camera.

But tell me a little bit about the museum and what's going on.

Yes, the museum is very cool.

You start the tour through a Mayan temple, and we'll have a storyteller in there that walks you through the history.

There's a lot to look at, a lot to read, kind of learn about the whole process and then just some history.

There's a lot of old posters and advertising and all types of good things, and then it dumps you into the factory.

You take a full factory tour and then the back end of the tour.

There's a timeline of the history of chocolate.

It's very historical tours.

There's a lot to learn, and then you get some samples along the way, and it dumps you out with that and start with it.

Start with that next time, and then it dumps you into the outlet store, which dumps you.

I like the idea of just being thrown out into it, into it right at the end of the tour, which has a lot of our seconds, which are still amazing.

They just don't look as pretty, but no one cares.

So no, I know you mentioned here that you got the cafe for breakfast.

You like that, but you also have the public house which we're going to go to next.

So you do.

Yeah.

So there's right across the parking lot is another full service restaurant.

A little bit different menu than here.

Yeah.

But it's good you know.

Plus that is.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right.

We're gonna head over there now.

Now, I've been to the location downtown, but we are at the South Bend public house.

We are, which is right on property here in the Storm Museum, which is great because then if you're spending all day at the museum, you get that hunger.

You can just head over here.

And I see families here.

This is family friendly.

Very family friendly.

Yes, I love it.

Okay, we have to talk about the menu.

I know this is we're going to talk about this first because I know you are all looking at it as well too.

This is like one of your signature burgers.

This is the public house stacked burger that featured a little bit of breakfast.

Yes.

An egg over easy.

Egg, bacon, cheese and our famous upside down burger.

Upside down burger.

Okay, let me show you a little bit of that, too.

That means.

What is that?

What does that mean?

The bun is upside down.

The bun is upside down.

So it literally is when you grab it and bring it up to your mouth, it's right side up.

She know that's genius.

You guys think of all these kinds of cool things, but you guys also thought of a lot of really cool things in this space too.

We do.

It's very community friendly.

Has a little bit of a Studebaker history.

You'll see a lot all of our public houses.

We have a lot of photos of local celebrities, of them friends, neighbors.

I don't see my face.

Yes, we have to fix that.

So anybody that are has been close to us getting helping us through the years.

And so it's very cool to see some very familiar faces.

So that's a tribute to those who have along this journey.

Exactly.

Yes, I love that.

Now I see there is outdoor space here too.

Yes.

My favorite part of this is our outdoor dining.

We have several picnic table style with covers and there's little lights on the inside.

This is a very cozy, beautiful place out there to sit and have dinner and talk.

So for the dining here is it.

Lunch and dinner served?

It's lunch and dinner.

Okay.

And when are you guys opening to?

Do you have special summer hours or is it all year?

No, it's open all year round.

We open at 11:00 and then we close at 10:00 during the week.

Okay.

Awesome.

And I know I see a little stage over there.

We do.

We have some very awesome entertainment, usually Thursday through Sunday.

Okay.

You can check our Facebook page.

They'll do a weekly list of who's going to be here and when.

I love it, but a whole range of music, solo players as well as full bands that come here.

It's very timing.

You guys can sit outside.

You can sit inside.

We got to talk about the menu because I know we're just looking at one of these options, but yes, there's kids menus too, right?

We have a kids suites feature dino nuggets of course, but yeah, we have a smaller kids menu.

Burgers are definitely a popular item.

We have about eight different ones, I think.

Different toppings.

They're just amazing.

And they are.

They have a water line of sandwiches, dinners.

We have some pasta and some steaks, some appetizers.

We have a very popular Asian tot appetizer, which if you get a ticket to the museum, you get a coupon for a free Asian appetizer.

Oh, that's really good to come over here.

Yeah.

That's perfect.

That's perfect.

All right I'm going to try one of the fries because I'm a sucker for fries.

And I feel like you could dip your fries in the running edge.

Completely.

Can't.

Come on.

I'm a sucker for French fries.

These are delicious.

We have really good tater tots to.

The food is delicious.

I love it here.

I love the environment.

I love the colors and everything you guys have here too.

And I think next door, you guys also have the South Bend farm.

Absolutely.

And we can walk through that door to door right back there that you can walk right through and get to the to the farm, take this burger to go and we're going to head there next.

We're wrapping up our tour here of the Indiana Dinosaur Museum.

Now, South Bend Farms is still part of it.

When I walked in, I expected to smell goats or chickens or something like that.

But I'm overwhelmed with a bakery, if you will.

This is wonderful.

In here I can see plenty of things.

And there are samples.

Most importantly.

Yes, exactly.

What do you guys have to offer here?

When you come into farms, you will just be overwhelmed with the great smell of bread.

We make all of our bagels here for all of our cafes.

Okay.

And then so all of your breakfast sandwiches and lunch sandwiches, you can choose your own bagel flavor.

Everything is made in-house here and delivered right, right here in South Bend.

That's incredible.

If you visit one of our public houses, we have two locations in South Bend and one in Mishawaka.

All of the buns on our upside down burgers are made here daily as well.

That's what we're smelling.

And then, yes, we're smelling that.

And then also we do make our fresh donuts every day.

They're little.

They kind of taste like elephant ear, like a mini carnival donuts.

Mini carnival donuts.

Thanks for having some here for us to sample.

Can I grab that?

No, there isn't any.

There is.

Oh.

Oh, I was being sarcastic.

Sorry.

I didn't know there was actually any there.

So why do you, as a company, decide to, like, do this?

It's obviously a lot more effort to make your own bagels and your own buns.

Like, what's the vision behind doing that as opposed to just like, ordering them in from?

We're very focused on doing everything locally and having just everything locally sourced, doing things ourselves, having it to be the freshest as possible.

So we just have this old bakery on site and it's it's so amazing every day of what they're what the bakers are doing and having not their salsas and their salsas and jams.

Everything is really good.

Cherries their territory.

Damn good.

Cherries are a huge draw for us this year.

And yes, you can get a sample here at the At farms.

I don't know, this is PBS.

They might blur out that word or like this might be the first time experience Michiana has bleeps in it.

Like, you know, no one's get it.

And so, Courtney, how was the donut?

Well, the donor's delicious.

I'm a huge fan of carnival donuts, but they come in 12 or 24 packs, so I already looked that up over there.

So you can grab those donuts and get your coffee in the morning too, so which is great.

What time does this open?

We open at 9:00.

Okay.

Yes, but the cafe open at the cafe opens at seven.

And then you can also get fresh bagels over there as well.

But, yeah, you can stop here on your way out.

We got lots of items for gifting, which is very cool.

That's great.

And another added feature, all of our chickens on our property.

You can purchase farm fresh eggs here as well as the eggs.

And the public houses are used.

They're using the eggs using our eggs.

See, that's why when I walked into South Bend Farms, I was like, where's the chicken?

I was thinking, you guys have them here.

I actually have them up in the Continental Divide Park.

And what about the bison burger?

No, no.

Sorry, guys.

We we we keep those guys.

I'm sorry I said this with that, but this is great because everything that you guys have here, just to kind of wrap things up, this is a one stop place.

You can spend all day here.

You can come back multiple times.

You can grab your laptop and grab a coffee, grab some bagels.

Everything really is available here for you guys.

And I think that's kind of the intention for this space.

Very much so.

It's very meant for all ages, all budgets.

You can come here and like I said, get a coffee and go to work.

You can bring your entire family for the day.

You can hike in the trails for free and not two of them.

Like there's so many options here.

All price points, all age levels.

You can eat, drink, walk, have fun.

I mean learn like, there's just so much to do here.

And I know that there are events coming up so you can follow the several Facebook pages like the Chocolate Cafe.

Absolutely.

Indiana Dinosaur Museum, you can follow all of them and like movie nights and different events.

Exactly.

We have more events in the fall.

We had a Halloween event last year that we're going to do it again this year.

We have some Christmas events and so we do a lot.

And you guys have rental space available as well.

We do have rental space.

We do our own catering on site, so we can rent out something as small as a conference room to the public house, to the atrium, you know, whatever your needs are.

This is so great.

Thank you so much for sharing this space with us today.

This is my first time visiting.

I'll definitely be back.

Bring my family grandkids.

I hope you guys get the time to come on out here to the Indiana Dinosaur Museum.

It's right here in our town.

And Courtney, I'm looking forward to seeing you in person again at Christmas when I see all your Christmas trees.

Yeah, that's where we're not allowed around each other anymore than that.

Twice a year.

That's it.

Have a good one.

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