2. This line follows Houchins Ditch, part of a 17 mile section
of new
channel created for the Patoka River and completed in 1924. The
county-funded
dredging project began in 1917 and sparked controversy among landowners
along the Patoka
in both Pike and Gibson Counties. Two barges, one moving east
from Wheeling,
the other west from Winslow, met near this point as the project was
nearing completion. One of the barges was abandoned in the
vicinity.
Remnants of it may still be found. (See ? below.)
3. Remains of the massive embankments that carried the W&E Canal across the Patoka bottoms are in good shape through here. Solid line indicates the presence of Canal embankments that are still in good shape. Broken lines mark areas where the Canal path is no longer visible.
4. Bill McCoy, manager of the Patoka River National Wildlife Refuge, delivered an offer to purchase to Bill Hughes day(s) before he passed away. Hughes' heirs returned the offer unopened. Current owners names?
4A. The Ropp bottoms, part of the Ropp farm. Section in purple marks land used for cultivation. The section near and above the Patoka River South Fork (original Patoka River channel) is wooded wetland. Value approximately $1200 per acre.
Text regarding our efforts to protect this area is linked here.
More maps of this area.
The Patoka River National Wildlife Refuge and Management Area.
All features in Red are currently under consideration as resources to be
included in a Rural Historic District nomination to the National Register of
Historic Places.
| 5. Off the map north is the Ropp farmstead.
Logan Public
Cemetery (a.k.a. Simpson Cemetery) is just northwest of the Ropp
farmstead.
Graves of seven children and grandchildren of Underground Railroad
"conductor,"
Bazil Simpson.
6. The northernmost bridge (Pike County #81) was built to cross Houchins Ditch in 1924. It is a metal camelback through-truss bridge. 7. The southernmost bridge (Pike County #246) was completed in 1884, to replace a wooden covered bridge. It is a pinned, Pratt through-truss bridge made of wrought and cast iron. This bridge marks the northern edge of the former village of Dongola, a once-thriving canal town with more than a dozen streets, a school and several commercial buildings. The village was also a center of Underground Railroad activity. 8. Site of the W& E Canal's Patoka River
aqueduct. The Canal
embankments are still about 30' above water level through this area and
in excellent condition.
|
9. Completed in 1936, Hwy. 57 was constructed on top of
the Canal from
this point to the top of the map. The berm and
towpath
were pushed into the Canal bed to fill the prism, and create a raised
bed
for the highway. The highway is still 20 feet above water level
here.
At the point where the Canal turns veers off to the southwest of the
highway
there is an historical marker that is planted in the middle of the
Canal
prism. The marker is approximately 10 feet above the highway bed,
on ground that would have been under 4-1/2 feet of water in 1853.
Highway 57 crosses Houchins Ditch and the Patoka River South Fork
on
two bridges built at the time of highway construction in the 1930s, but
upgraded in 1996. They are not under consideration as potential
historical
resources.
A. The Patoka National Wildlife Refuge owns
what is shown
in the yellowish color of "A". This is shown on all of the mapping we
have seen of The Tier 1 EIS, but when Bernardin, Lochmueller and
Associates provided the State of Indiana Geological Survey their
digital mapping of this area this piece of property mysteriously disappeared. ?. This indicates an area off the map believed by
some to be the
common grave of many Canal laborers who died in one of the cholera
epidemics
of the early 1850s. Closer yet is the site of a slough full of
cat
tails where local oral tradition has it that slaves hid while waiting
to
cross the covered bridge at Dongola at night on their Underground
Railroad
trip north. This is also thought to be the area where one of the
two barges that dredged the Patoka
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