Vigo County parks superintendent recognized for woodworking skills
Terre Haute Tribune-Star, August 29, 2001
By Peter Ciancone

Keith Ruble got caught up in a lifelong hobby when he was a kid, walking the woods near his home in Dearborn County.

"I made my own bow out of osage orange and my own arrows. They weren't what you'd call good arrows, but I made my own," he said, sitting in one of two rocking chairs he keeps in his office. Ruble has been the Vigo County Park and Recreation Department superintendent since 1973.

Since that time, Ruble's interest in woodworking has expanded to everything from small bowls to log cabins and earned Ruble a new award at the Indiana State Fair. The award, called the Indiana State Fair Masters, honors those individuals who excel at traditional arts. Ruble is one of four winners in this first year of the award, which was inaugurated by the State Fair Board and the Bloomington-based Traditional Arts of Indiana.

"Lots of people came by to bow down and call me master," he said. "I'd tell them, 'Get out of here.' It was funny."

"Nominations are accepted for any person who has developed a skill that has been passed from generation to generation, something that has been passed from one member of the community to another," said Bobbi Bates, Special Events Coordinator for the Indiana State Fair. "It could be anything from making tortillas to log cabins."

Other winners are George Harrell, Master Wool Grader from Johnson County, and the Schuman sisters, Mary and Nancy, Master Bakers from Marion County.

Ruble, now designated Master Bowl Hewer and Log Cabin Builder and Restorer, said he learned his crafts from several others and picked up a few things from books and on his own.

He credits Max Miller, then a Purdue extension agent, for inviting him to the Fair in 1975 and getting him started on the road to building log cabins.

"It was funny to me that Purdue had to come to get an Indiana State [University] boy to show them how to build a cabin," he laughed.

He also credits Elsworth Christmas with helping get him started on that first effort building a cabin at the pioneer village on the fairgrounds.

Working only during the days when the fair was on, it took 34 days over a three year period.

Since that time, Ruble has built many other buildings there and in Vigo County parks, often hewing the logs by hand and notching them as a pioneer might have done 200 years ago.

Ruble also extended his woodworking hobby into bowl and barrel making, when Bill Day, a farmer from West Lebanon, and Edison Clark piqued his interest. Ruble's bowls come in all shapes and sizes, in many different types of Hoosier wood. There are maple leafs, rectangles, shapes of Indiana and Illinois next to ovals and hearts.

A master wood worker needs more than a knowledge of tools. Different types of wood are better suited to some uses than others, and being able to assess the wood's condition makes a big difference, too. His favorite wood to work with is cherry.

"It's the most beautiful wood to finish," he said. "It gets darker with use."

Ruble said activities, such as woodworking, can be beneficial in today's society. He suggests everyone find an activity they enjoy.

"This life today is so stressful," he said, rocking quietly in his chair. "I see lots of people who get time off and don't know what to do with themselves."

"I work right in my living room," he said, pointing to a picture on his office wall and describing how he spreads out a bed cover to catch the chips. "My wife is very understanding."