Indiana Forgotten and Lost Places

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  • trucker777

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    WESTVILLE
    Hello INGO! This thread is for those of us who enjoy getting out and exploring Indiana and learning about the history of this great state.
    So if you know of any interesting geological sites, ghost towns, general all around interesting areas, locations of stories of lore, and historical sites... please share them here!
     

    rex soldier

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    You need a book called " United States Treasure Atlas Volume 4 " has all sort of cool **** in it for ghost towns and old stories of treasure.
    Then cross reference with some old maps and you can have some fun all summer long.
     

    trucker777

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    2016-02-03-10-15-15--649073510.jpeg
    Here's a lesser known forgotten place from Westville, IN right off Main St. In town. It was a stop along the Lincoln Funeral Train enroute with the body of President Lincoln to Illinois.

    The plaque reads:
    HISTORICAL MARKER
    ON MONDAY MAY 1, 1865 SHORTLY BEFORE 8:00AM THE TRAIN BEARING THE BODY OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN STOPPED BRIEFLY AT THIS SITE. THIS MARKER, ERECTED BY THE WESTVILLE WOMEN'S CLUB, HONORS THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THIS EVENT.

    ...the tracks and station are long gone now, but you can still see where the tracks once were in the small area that has been made into a park.
     
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    trucker777

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    You need a book called " United States Treasure Atlas Volume 4 " has all sort of cool **** in it for ghost towns and old stories of treasure.
    Then cross reference with some old maps and you can have some fun all summer long.

    Thank you, I will check into it. I already have "Weird Indiana" from the Weird U.S. series... . I'm hoping with this thread to find/inform fellow history buffs and explorers of the lesser known, off the beaten path, away from mainstream local places that everyone sees daily but doesn't really ever think about! Thank you for your input!
     

    Tactically Fat

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    Geological sites in Indiana? Not many, but the impact site in Kentland is certainly one of them. Overturned strata for the win!

    Unfortunately, there's not really much you can actually "see" due to the site being a monstrous crushed stone quarry. But some quick Googling of the subject will bring up numerous hits to peruse.

    Also of note in IN: World-famous museum-quality crinoid fossils from Montgomery County.

    Plenty of karst features in Indiana as well, but gotta get to US 50 and south in order to partake (generally speaking)

    Other than those few things, Indiana is, generally speaking, rather geologically boring.
     

    Alamo

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    When I was growing up in Nashville Indiana, as part of a Boy Scout project I cleaned up some brush and weeds growing around the grave marker of a Revolutionary War soldier buried within the bounds of Nashville. It was in the wooded area within the triangle formed where Jefferson Street merges with Van Buren/State Highway 135 on the north side of Nashville. There is a ridge that separates Jefferson and Van Buren streets, and the grave stone was located on top of that ridge. If you go to google maps and enter "301-499 Jefferson St N, Nashville, IN 47448" it will show you the area.

    This was probably in the early 70's and I do not recall who owned that property or the name on the grave stone, and wonder if it is even still there. Maybe one of you current Brown Countians, or someone who wants to make a road trip, might wish to investigate.

    I have not thought of this in years -- probably decades -- but when I saw the title of the thread it was the first thing that popped into my mind.
     

    eldirector

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    My wife and I love tracking down oddball locations. Not exactly "forgotten and lost", but still fun to find.

    A few I can think of:

    Tulip Trestle is kinda cool.
    Solsberry, IN - America's Longest Railroad Trestle, Formerly
    If you wonder around on the back roads nearby, there is a little artist's house with a spoon dragon and "bigfoot". Pretty funky.

    Milltown, Indiana's Shoe Tree
    Milltown, IN - Shoe Tree

    There USED to be some pretty large boulders about 20-30' up in a couple of trees, on a trail near Yellowwood Lake. Gobbler's Rock:
    Unionville, IN - Gobbler's Rock-in-Tree (Gone)
    Supposedly another set of rocks in trees, on private property, just north of there. I've not trespassed to confirm.
     

    eldirector

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    Oh, I just remembered another one (thanks for mentioning "the Ohio River", mkgr22):

    Marble Hill - unfinished nuclear power plant
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marble_Hill_Nuclear_Power_Plant
    My dad did a bunch of the electrical design work in the support buildings. Too bad the project was moth-balled. Not sure how much is left of the site. About 10-15 years ago, you could still see the fooling towers.
     
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    My girlfriend is from Loogootee and swears she visited a site on the White river just outside Shoals where Dillinger and his gang hid out, it's an old jail and is now on private property. We tried to find it once, but she couldn't remember exactly where it was. We wandered around in the woods up and down the river but never found it.
     

    GodFearinGunTotin

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    Mitchell
    How about the Jug Rock down at Shoals? Or the Devil's Backbone in Lawrence County and the Big Tunnel down at the bottom of the hill? I read one time, at the time they were considering Madison as the capital of Indiana, the town of Bono, along the White River in Lawrence County was also considered. There's not much to see now, just some old, delapedated old homes, and a little country church.
     

    Porter

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    Jul 24, 2014
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    I was just going to say the jug rock I think it's very cool but I have taken friends past there after telling them about it and all I get is. "So.... that's it?"
     
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