Hunting for 'Harry' in Indiana, but Not Getting Far

You can tell something is going on in Crawfordsville, Ind. But only a precious few of the 15,000 residents here will tell you what it is.

You can see them talking among themselves, huddled on the sidewalk or attending a furtive rendezvous in a city park, whispering like spies from the old Eastern Bloc.

Watch Dean Reynolds' report tonight on "World News with Charles Gibson."

What exactly is going on here?

"Well, Dean," said Mayor John P. Zumer, "I guess I would just say that that's privileged information."

Actually, we have kind of an idea. A July 5 Publishers Weekly story reported that the final volume of the "Harry Potter" series is being printed in Crawfordsville at the R.R. Donnelley plant in town.

According to the article, the printing of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" was being conducted under the strictest security so as not to irk the book's publisher, Scholastic Books, and author J.K. Rowling.

Nobody wants anybody getting an advance peek, and everyone associated even peripherally with this publication seems to have taken an oath of silence worthy of the mafia's omerta.

'No Confirmation'

The town's willingness to cooperate is understandable, given the fact that Donnelley's is the town's biggest employer.

"Have they asked you to keep it quiet?" I asked Zumer.

"Well certainly I have had many discussions and I would just prefer to keep the content of those discussions between myself and management," he replied.

I tried the president of the local Chamber of Commerce, Dave Long -- to no avail. "No confirmation," was all he would say.

Undeterred by the tight-lipped locals, we kept going and wandered over to the impressive Lew Wallace museum. Gen. Wallace is the author of "Ben Hur," one of the earliest and bestselling novels of all time. He wrote it in Crawfordsville in the latter part of the 19th century.

At the museum, Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko said Rowling probably owes a debt of gratitude to Wallace, a trailblazer in the marketing of his works.

But what about this "Harry Potter" printing thing, I pressed. Is it true?

"No one has seen it except those who work there and those who work there are mum," she said.