I found the solution here.
https://forum.nginx.org/read.php?11,3810
Near the end of the post user barszcz had the response that helped me.
In order for the autoindex to function the niginx configuration needs to have the root location in the server block. As originally setup, It’s currently tucked into the first location / statement only.
I added another root location reference as suggested near the top of the server block and it works now.
Maybe something that the dev’s might want to look at.
-Mark