Across Indiana
Crafting Coffins
Clip | 6m 45sVideo has Closed Captions
Dave Stoelk takes a trip to some of Indiana's finest casket makers to make a purchase of a lifetime.
While it's debated what happens to our consciousness after we pass, one thing is for certain: our body remains, and it has to go somewhere. Luckily for us Hoosiers, we have a few local options when it comes to coffins and caskets we can be placed in for our final rest. In 1994, Across Indiana producer, Dave Stoelk, explored the casket and coffin building business located right here in Indiana.
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Across Indiana is a local public television program presented by WFYI
Across Indiana
Crafting Coffins
Clip | 6m 45sVideo has Closed Captions
While it's debated what happens to our consciousness after we pass, one thing is for certain: our body remains, and it has to go somewhere. Luckily for us Hoosiers, we have a few local options when it comes to coffins and caskets we can be placed in for our final rest. In 1994, Across Indiana producer, Dave Stoelk, explored the casket and coffin building business located right here in Indiana.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipWell, here, just put your face over here.
Oh sure, sure.
Now see how nice that is?
Well that's very nice.
That feels good, doesn't it?
Doe it feels very nice.
But we never put you in a caske like that so back of your head.. “Death, not space”, someone once said, “is the final frontier”.
And unlike any other frontier, it's the one we all have to go to.
It is, as you see, it is sof and in a lot.
Thats very nice.
Want that effect for their loved ones.
And wherever we go, it's clear that at least a physical part of us stays behind.
Our remains.
As long as humans have lived, they have mourned those who no longer live and have taken great care to rest them i some sort of Earth bound vessel.
It's what being human is all about.
Coming from the Latin word humus, meaning soil, it's an act of compassion which transcends every culture on eart and has roots in Hoosier soil.
People in Batesville, Indiana, have been crafting coffins for over 100 years.
The Batesville Casket is known worldwide and shipped just as far.
The casket industry stretches across Indiana, employing craftsmen and women who shape the features of the casket as they would any fine piece of furnitur used here in the living world.
Now, these are cast.
They're molded, put together, and then put on to the unit.
Bob Beach of the Klute-Beach-Hen Home in Richmond, Indiana, sells caskets made of onl the finest hardwoods and metals.
This is a solid cherry.
Now, if you'll notice down here, this is the thickness of the wood.
His caskets are made there in town at the J.M.
Hutton Company.
One of the many coffin manufacturers in the Richmond area.
They've been making coffins in the time honored fashion since 1845.
Bob, all this is fine, but do you have anything in cardboard?
No, we do not put any cardboard on the floor.
This type material is a wood cellulose type product that's very, very strong and makes a fantastic casket.
Elder Davis is another one of the casket manufacturers located in Richmond.
Although they stand out a bi in this traditional community, Richmond seems to be a substantial hub for this type of activity an has been for many, many years.
Probably 40 or 45 years now.
And, our products are much diffe Different because unlike their m and bronze counterparts the Elder Light casket is made out of corrugated fiberboard, as they say in the industry.
Although you and I might call it cardboard, and I think we're in a generation where people are used to things being different and they're used to new technology.
An entire generation has grown up drinking light beers and light colas.
Why not make that final purchase a light casket?
An elderly Elder Davis offers an entire line of corrugated fiberboard caskets, all of which serve the same function as the conventional variet and look every bit as beautiful.
Great looks, less filling.
This is a wood material that's optically embossed.
It's applied as a laminate over wood cellulose.
It makes a very lightweight product and very strong.
It's the same paradox aeronautical engineers face lightweight construction versus strength.
There are some skeptics out there that say this won't hold or this type of thing, which as you can see, it's quite strong.
We've done this experiment many times.
So see, what they did here is they have the 1,250 pounds of concrete blocks.
Cinder block.
Yeah.
Now, would you stand underneath your own caskets with 1,200 pounds of cinder block?
Sure Would you be willing to do that?
Sure.
Boys, bring out the cinder block.
Still, Bob thinks the majority of us will stick wit the traditional style caskets.
It's just something we're use to.
And we just stay with them.
I guess it's like you get, You start out, your mother starts you out on Quaker Oats.
You're going to eat Quaker Oats the rest of your life.
Okay, so, yes, but some of us have moved on to high fiber breakfast cereals and to fiberboard caskets.
Gerald won't release any sales figures.
However, a walk through Elder Davis's gigantic factory gives you some indication of their product success.
A few years ago, not too many years ago.
In fact, we're in a very much smaller building than this, and, we're in 18,000ft.
And now, having been in the 97,000 square foot building for three and a half years, and realizing we've got to move again is, testifies to the growth of this opportunity we have with this type of product.
One of the most appealing features of the Elder Lite is that, quite frankly, it's light on the pocketbook.
Their casket is sold at funeral homes for anywhere between $700 and $1000, considerably cheaper than the customary casket.
And then included in this price is all of our services.
Oh, and the Elder Light is a specimen of political correctness, in that it has the environmentally conscious consumer in mind.
Cardboard is, after all, biodegradable, and a particular selling point of Elder Davis cremation caskets.
No harmful emissions.
Finally, a casket the Earth can truly accept.
This particular unit is, one that we're very proud of and that it has the best of interiors with your sunburst interior.
Do you have a stereo in this model?
A stereo?
I'm just kidding.
Finally, there's at least on feature which Elder Davis offers that the traditional casket makers can't match.
Pound for pound.
But you get into your heavier units, of course.
Like your hardwoods, your coppers, your bronzes.
There could be a heavy person on it.
You can hear the six pallbearers grunt.
The obvious benefit o the Elder Light is that, well, it's light.
Yes.
This product weighs about 70 pounds.
Wow.
So it's very friendly to the pallbearers, so to speak.
Probably could almost carry yourself, could you?
Not quite.
Well, let's hope not.
No, that would be something.
That would be a real treat.
For more Across Indiana stories, go to wfyi.org/acrossindiana
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