At the south end of what is now SR 135 is the town of Mauckport. This town was the terminus of one of the early (as in 1820’s-1830’s) state roads in Indiana, the Mauck’s Ferry (now Mauxferry) Road, connecting Indianapolis to the Ohio River west of Louisville. When the Indiana Toll Bridge Commission (ITBC) was created in 1940, as mentioned in the “Bridge at New Harmony” post of 10 January 2020, it was planned to build a bridge crossing the Ohio River at Mauckport.

The building of the Mauckport bridge was debated across the state. It was also caught in a Catch 22 situation from the very beginning. The ITBC would build the bridge, as long as the Indiana State Highway Commission (ISHC) improve SR 135 to Corydon. The ISHC didn’t see the need to improve the road there until the bridge was built.

The pending construction was already approved by government entities involved. Not only did this include the State of Indiana and Commonwealth of Kentucky, but also the United States Federal government in the form of the US Army Corps of Engineers, a requirement for all bridges across the Ohio. Construction was also encouraged by the United States Army.

Then, the pending location of the bridge was debated, as well. There was some question whether the structure should be built at Mauckport or at Evans Landing, just west of West Point, Kentucky. This question came up surrounding the US Army and its desire for a bridge over the Ohio River. The Army saw a bridge somewhere around here as a necessity for transportation between Fort Knox, Kentucky, and Fort Benjamin Harrison. The Evans Landing location was researched as it was closer to Fort Knox than Mauckport is. The difference, in the eyes of locals, is the fact that Evans Landing was connected by county roads, while Mauckport already had SR 135.

Editors of newspapers got into the fray when it came to building a bridge on the Ohio River. One local paper even started their editorial as follows: “Metropolitan daily newspapers too often make use of their editorial columns to comment on matters about which they are either wholly uninformed or in which they are careless with the truth.” (Source: Jackson County Banner, 14 January 1942) The Banner editorial staff takes to task the their counterparts at the Indianapolis Star. The Star took the stance that “a bridge at this point has not been contemplated by any authorities, hence, the defense angle to the current agitation seems far-fetched.” Unfortunately for the Star editors, such a claim was not quite true.

As far as connecting the two forts, “It has long been recognized that the ‘bottleneck’ between Ft. Knox and Ft. Benjamin Harrison is a tortuous and narrow entrance to Louisville, through either bridge, and the vast difficulty of traversing her crowded streets and finally the exit through 18th street, the narrow, crooked and cobblestone paved ‘Dixie’ highway that leads to Ft. Knox.” An addition point made by the newspaper was that “the growing conviction that a new Army camp will be built in Bartholomew county, add to the importance of this bridge and Highway 135, which would serve this new camp, without further damming up traffic on the already congested Highway 31.” This made the bridge very important in the defense of the United States, or so it was argued.

Ironically, that Army post in Bartholomew County would cut a big section out of the original state road connecting Indianapolis and Mauckport.

And yet, the bridge wouldn’t be built at that time. In October 1948, the bridge, as well as bridges at Lawrenceburg, Cannellton, and Mount Vernon, were still being planned by the ITBC. But the Mauckport span was being mentioned in an article concerning the moving of the Lawrenceburg bridge from a paper project to surveyors being sent to look into the route for that bridge. (Source: Jasper Herald, 23 October 1948) It seems that such a view might have been a bit premature. The bridges over the Ohio River at Mauckport, Cannellton and Lawrenceburg were still being studied in 1959. The difference with the Lawrenceburg bridge would be that, according to the Columbia City Commercial-Mail of 23 July 1959, was to “be studied as to feasibility and benefits as a possible part of the interstate highway system by-passing Cincinnati.”

The Mauckport project came up again in 1960 when it was announced that the bridge would be financed through the use of tolls. This seems strange in the grand scheme of things, given that the bridge had been in planning stages since 1939 by the Indiana Toll Bridge Commission.

Groundbreaking for the new Mauckport span was set for 8 August 1964, 25 years after first mention of building the bridge. The contract for the construction had been let a week earlier, when R. E. Daily and Long Land and Equipment Company of Detroit was the low bidder. The ceremony was held at 10:30 that morning, with the governors of Indiana and Kentucky in attendance. 300 other distinguished guests were also invited. It should also be noted that the groundbreaking for the Cannellton bridge had already happened on 13 July 1964.

Dedication ceremonies for the “Matthew E. Welsh Memorial Bridge,” the official name of the Mauckport span, was held on 29 October 1966. The problem was that weather conditions, and shortage of supplies, had caused the delay of opening of the bridge to traffic. This would change on 19 November 1966. The bridges at Cannellton and Mauckport cost around $11.6 million, with $5.4 million coming from a bond issue, the rest being paid for by Indiana cigarette taxes.

By 1987, the bridge toll was 60 cents. This was expected to last another two to four years until the construction debt was paid off. 1989 saw the governors of Indiana and Kentucky meeting about assorted bridge projects over the Ohio, with the possibility of a maintenance agreement being made to remove the tolls from the Cannellton and Mauckport spans. The tolls on the Mauckport span would be removed on 24 August 1992.

In the last post, I covered a lot of the history of interurbans in general. Today, I want to focus on electric traction in Indiana. The thing that should be pointed out here is that it is difficult to separate the electric street cars from the interurbans in this state. They go hand in hand…and, actually, one company would own both in some cities. Again, the big one would be the Terre Haute, Indianapolis & Eastern, which owned numerous interurban lines and the city street railways in Terre Haute and Indianapolis.

Electrification of railways came to Indiana in 1882 with the attempt at a change over with the South Bend Street Railway. It didn’t go well. The electricity dissipated to ground faster than the power plant could supply it. The officials in South Bend didn’t give up. They tried again on 15 November 1885. This time it was successful, to a point. The street car actually moved…using electrical power. But the amount of power needed made it economically a failure. In 1886, the electric cars were put away, replaced with the mule cars that had been in use for years.

Two years later, Terre Haute would have its first electric street car. 30 August 1888 was the day that an electric car operated on the Lafayette Street Railway. Less than a decade later, electric street cars were running in Terre Haute, Vincennes, Evansville, Indianapolis, Richmond, Kokomo, Fort Wayne, Anderson, Muncie, Elwood, Columbus, Logansport and South Bend. The real yardstick about the success of the electric traction car was the number of miles of track. For instance, 1893 track mileage included 173 miles of electric lines and 92 miles still serviced by mule. Change those numbers to 269 (electric) and 29 (mule) for 1894, and you get the idea that mules were on their way out for good.

As mentioned in the last post, the first two interurban lines were the Brazil Rapid Transit Company (1892) and the Union Traction Company (1898). Between 1895 and 1900, more cities came onboard with electricity for their street car systems: Washington, Madison, Hammond, East Chicago and Whiting. On top of that, another intercity electric railway would be built between South Bend and Elkhart.

1900 would be the big year, though. From the very beginning of the year, 1 January 1900, the first traction car would operate from Greenwood to Indianapolis, a total of 12 miles. This line is still memorialized with the names of city streets in southern central Marion County (and at least one place in Johnson County). But other lines that would open in that year included connecting Terre Haute to Brazil, Indianapolis to Greenfield, LaPorte to Michigan City, and Aurora to Cincinnati. By the end of that year, electric lines totaled 678 miles in Indiana. Mule miles totaled 7, with 13 cars, in all of Indiana.

Nearly 200 traction companies, whether interurban or street railways, were ultimately operating in the state. Another 250 were working toward that status, but never actually made it. Economic recessions stopped most of those companies in the planning stage. Also along the way, there were labor difficulties, injunctions by other companies trying to do the very same route, and troubles with gaining access to towns (franchise rights), among other problems. Problems with the steam railroads, and the electric roads crossing their right of ways, would end up with a lot of time lost in litigation that usually would go the way of the interurban companies. The loss of franchise rights caused laborers hired by the interurban company to fight with police and firefighters in a large street brawl. In the end, the line went through when 1,000 residents of the city got together and worked to end a lawsuit by the city of the interurban company because of that fight.

The worst day in the history of interurbans in Indiana was 21 September 1910. Seven miles north of Bluffton, near the unincorporated village of Kinsgland, at shortly after noon, a wreck on the Fort Wayne & Bluffton would take the lives of over 40 men and women, mostly from Bluffton. “Indiana never had such a disaster on any of its lines of transportation before. It is the greatest disaster in the history of electric railways in the world.” (Source: Muncie Evening Press, 22 September 1910) Where the wreck happened was a curve that was “hidden by small woods that run down to the track, so that one motorman can not see another approach.”

The wreck was that of a small car heading north along the line and a heavy special car heading south. The northbound car was, at one point, known as #233 on the Industry line of the Muncie Street Railway. By all accounts, it was no match when it came to colliding with the big, heavy, interurban car coming the other way. The only instructions that the southbound car had was to clear the line for regular cars. This didn’t happen. Fred Corkwell, motorman of the southbound car, either didn’t see or outright disregarded orders with regards to the northbound car. The Muncie Press reported, the day after the wreck, that 40 people were killed, with eight people injured. Of those eight, four, including Motorman Corkwell, were listed as “probably will die.” In the end, 42 people died as a result of the wreck.

One head on collision in Illinois stopped a plan to connect Terre Haute to Charleston and Mattoon, Illinois, by forcing the line between Charleston and Mattoon, owned by the Central Illinois Traction Company, to become one of the first into receivership. This was due to damage claims for an accident that cost the lives of 18 people and injured 50 others.

One of the first signs of the financial instability of the interurban companies reared its ugly head during World War I. Costs of materials and labor were increasing, but the electric traction companies could not raise fares, as most of them were set by city franchise agreements. One company in Indiana would not survive the upheaval. More on that later.

On 21 November 1928, Rose Polytechnic Institute lost the President of the school, Frank Caspar Wagner, when he drove his car into the path of the Terre Haute, Indianapolis & Eastern train while leaving the school. Wagner was trying to cross the THI&E tracks to turn onto National Road (US 40) from the West drive into the school grounds. The train hit Wagner’s coupe at more than 40 miles per hour. It took over 100 car dragging yards for the motorman to finally stop the train. The irony of the accident is that the West Drive was created due to a member of the faculty of the school being killed, in a similar manner, by trying to the leave the school grounds using the Middle drive. Dr. Shelton Johonnot was killed in 1924 at a crossing that did not have enough visibility.

Many think that the Great Depression was the major impetus for the downfall of the interurban network in Indiana. While that is mostly true, the first line to have been abandoned happened on 3 November 1917 when the Goshen, South Bend and Chicago called it quits. The GSB&C was actually owned, at the time, by the Gary & Interurban Railway Company. “The public service commission of Indiana, in an order issued here Thursday, wiped away the last vestige of the fantastic dream that years ago promised to develop into a New York-Chicago ‘air-line’ electric railway project that would make possible a ten-hour, direct, high speed electric railroad between the two great cities of the American continent.” (Source: South Bend News-Times, 2 November 1917) The IPSC pointed out that there would be no hardship with the abandonment of this line. The area was well served by railroad lines out of Chicago.

1930 saw the creation of the Indiana Railroad, described as “one big traction empire.” (Source: Terre Haute Tribune-Star, 7 September 1969) Before the Terre Haute, Indianapolis & Eastern became officially part of the Indiana Railroad, the company had abandoned 188 miles of traction line in late 1930. In 1931, the Indiana Railroad dropped another 70 miles of line. 1932 saw the loss of another 205 miles. Sleeper service, which was a service that started in Indiana on the interurban connecting Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio, in 1903, was cut from the Indianapolis-Louisville trains. This was one of the last such services in the entire country.

The Indiana Railroad found itself in big trouble. While it was abandoning lines all over the state, the company did place 35 new cars to limited service from Indianapolis to both Fort Wayne and Louisville. The economic recession of the period hurting the company stability was compounded by a six week strike by Indiana Railroad employees. The company would end all rail operations in 1941.

Also before the entry of the United States into World War II, the end of local electric street car service occurred in Terre Haute, Vincennes, Evansville, Anderson, South Bend and Mishawaka. Indianapolis would end electric street car service when the College Avenue line ran its last cars on 9 January 1953.

“Electric traction is defined as any means of transport in which vehicles are powered by electric motors supplied with electricity from relatively distant power generation stations.” (Source: Terre Haute Tribune-Star, 24 August 1969, pp 72) It makes sense that this article, and the three following, came out in the Terre Haute newspapers. The center of Indiana’s interurban service was owned by a Terre Haute company (Terre Haute, Indianapolis & Eastern).

One would think that Indiana would be the leader in interurbans. Well, unfortunately, Indiana came in second when it came to mileage to Ohio, which actually had 800 more track miles. But, the term “interurban” was first created by Anderson Lawyer Charles L. Henry, a former Indiana State Senator and member of the U. S. House of Representatives. But the interurban did catch on quickly, especially in Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa, Utah and California. At one point, the interurbans were the fifth largest industry in the United States. But, with the creation of tax supported highway departments across the United States, the major draw of the interurban would go away…as would the companies that provided the service. To a certain extent, the irony was that the interurbans (and steam railroads, for that matter) were helping support, through their payment of taxes, the competitor that would kill them both.

History shows that the first rail cars being powered by batteries in Vermont in 1834, and the first electric traction cars shown off in Berlin in 1878 through a third rail. There were plans to provide power through the two rails that made up the roadbed. Some problems that could not overcome included short circuits in the rain (or snow) and shocking passengers and horses crossing the line. 1885 saw the introduction of overhead power lines and a trolley pole to provide power to the traction motor. This was the last item to create both the street car service (up to this point being dragged around, especially in Indianapolis, by mules!) and the interurban service to come.

The first interurban in America, after a solid start in Europe, connected Newark to Granville, in central Ohio, east northeast of Columbus in 1889. By 1916, the interurban network, although it really couldn’t be called that directly, in the United State hit its peak at around 16,000 miles, with 2,000 of those in Indiana. (Put that into perspective – between Indiana and Ohio, that was 4,800 miles of interurban track. Meaning one-third of all of the interurban tracks in the entire country were in these two states.)

Now that the history of how we got to interurbans in Indiana is taken care of, let’s focus on the state. Indianapolis, and to a certain extent Terre Haute, were the center of the Interurban in Indiana. “From Indianapolis, interurban lines radiated to every major community except Bloomington. There was no interurban service to Vincennes or Madison, or from the Calumet Region south to the Wabash River.” (Source: Terre Haute Tribune-Star, 7 September 1969, pp 25) Systems in Ohio and Indiana saw the advantage to connecting to one another fairly early, with the most known of these connections linking Indianapolis, through Richmond, to Dayton, Ohio. Because of these connections, and the Winona Railroad route, it was possible to travel from Ohio to Chicago, via Indiana, using interurbans.

Out of Terre Haute, interurbans connected to Brazil (and from there, Indianapolis), Clinton, Sullivan and Paris, Illinois. Fare were 25 cents (to Brazil or Clinton) and 35 cents (to Sullivan and Paris). There were many rural stops, as there were on all such routes. Most of those were numbered, and those numbers were used far past the end of the interurban era. Trains typically ran at 25 miles per hour, with some running around 50 miles per hour or so.

The “Highlander,” a service of the Terre Haute, Indianapolis & Eastern between the title cities, accomplished that trip in 2 hour and 5 minutes. This would be the fastest connection, at the time, between Terre Haute and Indianapolis. Most of the cars along the THI&E could run 55 miles per hour, handle 50 passengers, and have baggage areas of around 50 square feet.

The center of interurban transportation in Terre Haute, unlike in Indianapolis, still exists. On Wabash Avenue, between Eighth and Ninth Streets, is a building marked “Terminal Arcade.” That would be the center of both interurban and street car traffic in Terre Haute. It should be noted that, according to the Terre Haute Star of 27 October 1949, the “Terminal Arcade” building was, at the time, owned by Anton Hulman, Jr. By the time of the articles in 1969, that building had been taken over as the Greyhound Bus station in the city.

Terre Haute traffic, in 1920, included 73 trains coming into the city on a daily basis, with 8,000 passengers being served. Adding the 15 million yearly street car passengers, using Terre Haute’s 50 street cars on 30 miles of track, and Terre Haute was quite the passenger center.

Interurbans were not immune to the treatment received by the steam trains. Such is the case for the THI&E train running from Indianapolis to Martinsville on 30 January 1923. Two armed bandits stopped the train near Maywood, robbing the passengers of around $1,000 in cash and valuables.

The same man that created the word “interurban” also came into the ownership of the Anderson mule car street car line in 1891. The next year, the mules were gone with electrification. He then decided “to promote a network of lines connecting various cities of the Indiana gas belt.” (Terre Haute Tribune-Star, 7 September 1969) He went on to form the Union Traction Company.

The title of first interurban line in the state is debatable. It depends on the size of the towns connected, really. The Brazil Rapid Transit Company, opened on 16 July 1892, connected Harmony to Cottage Hill through Brazil. This 4.5 miles of track could be considered the first. However, Union Traction Company, on 1 January 1898, opened between the cities of Anderson and Alexandria. Some people consider this the first true interurban, since it connected two cities.

This is the first of two articles about this particular subject. Part two will include the expansion of interurbans in the state, and the decline between 1930 and 1946, when the Evansville & Ohio Valley was converted to trucks and buses. Depending on how one looks at it, either the Evansville & Ohio Valley or the Chicago, South Shore and South Bend were the last interurban lines in Indiana.

George Edward Kessler. The man had such an effect on transportation in Indianapolis that his name is memorialized along a boulevard that stretches across Washington Township, and then ducks into Wayne Township. He was one of the foremost landscape architects in the United States. But some of what Kessler, at least in Indianapolis, is known for wasn’t his original idea. Kessler made it work…and made it real.

Kessler was born on 16 July 1862 in Frankenhausen, now in Thuringia, Germany. By the time he was three years old, his parents had moved to the United States. He and his family lived in New York and Dallas, Texas. He would go back to Europe to train at the Grand Ducal Gardens in Weimar in 1878. He then went on to further training at Charlottenburg Polytechnium and University of Jena.

His first work in the United States was in Kansas City, Missouri, where he designed the park and boulevard system for that city. In 1904, he worked on the layout for the grounds of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1910, that city became his home base and home town until he died.

Kessler came to Indianapolis in 1908, when he was hired by the Indianapolis Board of Park Commissioners as a landscape architect. His plan of creating parks throughout the city, and then connecting them with sweeping boulevards, was presented in 1909. Kessler would not be the one to recommend White River and Fall Creek Parkways, those predate his even coming to Indianapolis by over a decade. His plan was more inclusive than those prior. While earlier plans included White River and Fall Creek, he wanted to add Pleasant Run and Pogues Run to the boulevard system. Most of the park system would be linear parks, between boulevards on both sides of the stream.

The one exception is what would become Pleasant Run Parkway. That boulevard connected Garfield Park (more on that park later!) to Pleasant Run Golf Course via Margaret Christian Park and Jamison (now Ellenberger) Park. Some of this boulevard would be difficult to complete due to some railroads being in the way. Pleasant Run Parkway crosses under the Pennsylvania Railroad Louisville line at Garfield Park with that bridge being specifically built for that purpose. Crossing under the Indianapolis Belt Railroad north of Garfield Park also had overpasses built for both the north and south drives, although the construction of those bridges is very different on both sides of the creek. The crossing of the NYC and the second crossing of the Belt were bypassed by not building the parkway next to the creek. The last railroad underpass was actually built as a bridge over the creek, with the road crossing Pleasant Run as the PRR and B&O crosses over Pleasant Run, and the parkway.

Kessler did have some work on Indianapolis parks other than the boulevard system. Going back to Garfield Park, Kessler was responsible for adding the Sunken Gardens and the bridges that dot the landscape of the park. Anyone that has memories of “Ticklebelly Hill,” thank George Edward Kessler.

The Park Plan that included White River and Fall Creek started with the hiring, by the Commercial Club (now Chamber of Commerce), of landscape architect Joseph Earnshaw in 1884. Earnshaw’s plan to build winding boulevards along the two major waterways in the city, from Washington Street to the State Fairgrounds, was shot down almost immediately. The big factor was cost. Another factor was, quite understandably, that the entire city would have to pay taxes for the building of these parks, but the north side would have those parks. This caused some misgivings by those on the south and west sides. The essentially same plan was put forth by the firm Olmsted, Olmsted and Eliot. Cities of 100,000 were allowed at this point to create a park department. That didn’t last long.

The parks and boulevards plan stagnated until 1907. The next year, Kessler was hired. Kessler took the plans that were brought up since 1894, expanded them with plans for Pleasant and Pogues Runs, and finally came up with a plan to only have people directly affected by the park system to pay for it by creating separate taxing districts.

From 1908 until 1915, the Parks Department retained Kessler and his firm. In that time, Kessler designed and worked on his plan. In addition, his firm was contracted for work on University Park (1915), Garfield Park (1915) and Riverside Park (1916). The last task brought to Kessler and his firm was a parkway on the north side of the city. Kessler recommended a parkway stretching from Fort Benjamin Harrison to Eagle Creek. What would be built would be a winding road along the Cooper Road corridor on the westside, east along the 56th and 59th Street corridors across Washington Township to west of Fort Harrison. This new boulevard was completed in 1929.

George Edward Kessler died 19 March 1923 at St. Vincent’s Hospital after surgery for kidney disease. The Indianapolis Star of 20 March 1923 states “he was engaged a few months ago by the board of park commissioners to develop along broad lines a comprehensive plan of boulevard construction and extension in this city. Plans for the first until of this program, the Fifty-sixth street boulevard from Fort Harrison to Big Eagle Creek, were announced only recently by the park board.” Indianapolis doctors were sent to St. Louis, were Mr. Kessler lived, to check on him as he was reported very sick. He arrived in Indianapolis on 12 March, and was put into the hospital almost immediately. When the new “56th Street boulevard” was completed six years later, it was named in Kessler’s honor.

Another of his last projects was to create a plan for Fairview Park. This job was contracted by the trustees of Butler University, since Fairview Park would be the future home of the college after it moved from Irvington.

George Kessler was not only instrumental in planning in Indianapolis, he had designed parks and boulevard systems for: Memphis, Tennessee; Cincinnati, Ohio; Cleveland, Ohio; Denver, Colorado; Dallas, Texas; El Paso, Texas; Syracuse, New York; Mexico City, Mexico; as well as numerous other cities. Not only did he create beautiful parks and parkways in Indianapolis, he was also instrumental in the “set back” rule of buildings on Monument Circle, meaning the higher the building, the further it sits back from the street. This is most obvious in the Circle Theater building.

For clarification: I will be referring to the railroad subject of this post at the “Monon.” This is despite the fact that it did not officially become the Monon until 1956. Prior to that, it had an assortment of names. The longest held was that of the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville, a name that it used from 1897 to 1956. For the ease of writing, every reference to the line in its history will be that of Monon. I wanted to make sure that I made it clear that I know that wasn’t always the case. In my defense, it only took the name Monon because that had been its nickname for years prior to it becoming official.

In 1971, the last Class I railroad based in Indiana was sold to interests in another state. The Monon was merged with the Louisville & Nashville. There were some that questioned how long the Monon could have survived in the railroad world of the 1960’s and forward. While the railroad connected three major cities (Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville), it had the disadvantage of running mainly north and south. This limited traffic along the line. Also, since the L&N bought the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, Monon’s competitor, Monon management became very worried about their place at the railroading table.

But this post is about what happened to the Monon, especially after the merger. The Louisville & Nashville would, in the same year of merging with the Monon, be completely purchased by the Seaboard Coast Line (itself a merger of the Seaboard Air Line and Atlantic Coast Line). The end of the L&N happened in 1986, and the technical end of the SCL would happen with the creation of CSX in 1986.

Perhaps the most well know part of the Monon, at least in Central Indiana, is that of the Indianapolis mainline connecting Monon to Indianapolis through Monticello, Delphi and Frankfort. Most of the southern end of this line is now known as the Monon Trail, a walking and biking path from almost downtown Indianapolis (10th Street) to Grand Park in Westfield (191st Street), with another section starting at 216th Street for 3.5 miles to Sheridan.

The parts of the old line that would become the Monon Trail were abandoned in sections by the railroad companies that would possess the right to do so. The Louisville & Nashville started the ball rolling in 1974 with the abandonment of the line from Indianapolis’ 17th Street (MP 181.0) south to 10th Street (MP 181.7). This was followed, in 1976, with the abandonment from 17th Street (MP 181.0) to 22nd Street (180.48). This would be coupled with the abandonment, by the Norfolk & Western, in 1974 of the Muncie Division tracks from Indianapolis 10th Street to Indianapolis 13th Street. This disconnected both the Monon (L&N) and the Nickel Plate (N&W) from downtown Indianapolis. At 10th Street, both lines connected with the Penn Central’s “Bee” Line.

The big blow to the Monon Indianapolis Line would occur in 1984 when CSX, now owners of the old Monon, filed for and received the permission to abandon the line from Frankfort (MP 137.5) to the end of line at Indianapolis 22nd Street (MP 180.47). This would set the stage for the Monon Trail in Indianapolis which came about around 15 years after the trains had officially stopped running.

But CSX would abandon a lot of the old Monon over the years. Most of the Monon Indianapolis Line finally came to an end in 1993. In 1992, the section from MP 137.5 (Frankfort) to MP 112.22 (Delphi) was officially abandoned. This was followed the next year with the abandonment from Monticello (MP 98.0) to Delphi (MP 112.22). An industrial track at Monticello (MP 88.33 to MP 98.00) would be abandoned in 2014. The rest of the Monon Indianapolis Line, known to CSX as “0QA,” from what I can tell, remains in service as of the beginning of 2020.

In a previous post about the Bedford & Bloomfield Railroad, I had mentioned a branch line that connected the Monon main to Victoria. I never gave the name of that branch. It would be the Indianapolis & Louisville Railway. When it came under the Monon sway, it was called the “I&L Branch.” This branch was 42 miles of track, from Wallace Junction to Midland. The Louisville & Nashville abandoned that branch in 1981. They also abandoned the last remaining six mile section of the B&B branch, from Dark Hollow to Bedford, in 1981.

The Monon had a branch line from its main at Orleans connecting to French Lick, West Baden, and Paoli. This line, consisting of 18.88 miles of track, was abandoned in two parts: MP 18.88 to MP 8.88 (French Lick to Paoli) in 1976, and 7.08 miles of the remaining 8.88 miles to Orleans officially removed from Louisville & Nashville inventory in 1981.

A major section of the original Monon mainline to Michigan City was the last section (not chronologically, but in terms of this post) to be removed by the Louisville & Nashville. 1980 saw the end of the Michigan City branch from Michigan City (MP 60.03) to Medaryville (MP 15.16). That was nearly 45 miles of track, on a right-of-way in use for 125+ years that was removed in one fell swoop.

The northern end of the line, at Michigan City, was sold to the Chicago, South Shore & South Bend. This included 2.3 miles of track and an industrial track at Michigan City. The 2.3 miles of the Monon Sub at Michigan City was abandoned by the CSS&SB in 1990. The industrial track followed in 2001.

The rest of the old Monon line that was abandoned (after 1945…more on that later) was done by CSX. The last 1.74 miles of the French Lick branch at Orleans was abandoned in 1990. The “Monon Michigan City Branch,” although it hadn’t reached that town in years, was shortlined from MP 15.16 to MP 14.79 in Medaryville. I don’t have a time period on that shortlining.

The northern end of what CSX called the Monon Sub, located on the line from Chicago to Monon, was abandoned in 1985 from MP 19.746 to MP 20.706 in Hammond. Most of the original line is still in service from Monticello to Hammond.

CSX called part of the original Monon mainline the “South Monon.” That line was removed from service in pieces. 1994 saw the end of the line from Bloomington (MP 222.5) to Bedford (MP 245.0). Gosport (MP 203.1) to Cloverdale (190.0) was removed in 1995. Abandonment was applied for, also in 1995, between Bedford (MP 245.0) and Mitchell (251.7). The track, according to Google Maps, is still in place between the last two points. Two years later, the track from MP 203.1 (Gosport) to MP 213.41 (Ellettsville) was abandoned. The section from Ellettsville to Hunters, west of Bloomington, was shortlined around this time. The last of the sections abandoned by CSX of the old Monon mainline occurred in 1999, which saw only included .35 miles of track in Cloverdale.

All of the above information was taken from the Indiana Department of Transportation Railroad Abandonment List. It includes all abandonments and shortlines applied for from the mid-1970’s to around 2012. It makes for an interesting read.

But there were two other sections of the old Monon line that occurred long before L&N merger. First, as mentioned in the Bedford & Bloomfield post, that line, from Dark Hollow to Switz City, went by the wayside in 1935. Another section, also taken from the same Society of Indiana History Enthusiasts post that led to the B&B Branch post, was the original Monon mainline from near Harrodsburg to Clear Creek through Smithville and Sanders, south of Bloomington. This original line contained very steep grades, up to 2.27% (a change of 2.27 feet for every 100 feet traveled). The bypass would be built through the Clear Creek valley, allowing for smaller grades. When the bypass was built, the original main became less used. A bridge washout in 1941 led to even less traffic. This caused the Monon to apply for, and receive, permission to abandon this line in 1945.

Happy New Year 2020 to all of my readers. Today, I want to do a sort of non-transportation related post. Sort of. Since this blog started on 9 February 2019, ITH has had 279 posts with 20,085 views from 13,171 viewers. Of those, I have had 13 posts that counted over 300 views each. Some made it into the thousands. I proudly present the “Indiana Transportation History Top 10 Posts of 2019.”

Yes, most people would have done this yesterday. One big blow out for the last day of 2019. I wanted to give one last day to the past before we move onto 2020 proper. I would love to say there are big changes coming this year. Doubt it. This blog has always been a “screen capture of a rampant mind,” i.e., whatever catches the short attention span at the time. There are times when I can write an entire week of blog entries in one sitting. There are other times when I can’t think of an idea to save my soul. Doubt any of that is going to change in 2020. But I love doing this…and won’t change THAT until I can no longer do it.

Not included in this Top 10 is the homepage of the blog, that in itself has had almost 2000 views.

Number 10: Marion County Interurbans, and Their Remaining Property Lines

18 September 2019: This post focused on little sections throughout Marion County that still show property lines that are still in place 70+ years after the downfall of the Electric Traction companies. Places such as Acton, the Indianapolis Museum of Art property, and a strange straight line connecting Washington Street and Rockville Road were covered.

Number 9: Michigan Road at Logansport

2 October 2019: There have been a lot of questions about the routing of the original Michigan Road through the city of Logansport. I tried to put some of them at rest through the use of maps of the time.

Number 8: Interurbans in Marion County, Where Were They?

30 August 2019: Indianapolis was the interurban capital of at least the state of Indiana. But where were they located? Using maps from 1917, I showed them all.

Number 7: Why Do Indianapolis Street Numbers Start at 9?

10 June 2019: In the beginning, Indianapolis didn’t have numbered streets. When they started adding numbered streets, it started at First Street. In 1894, that changed when First Street became 10th Street.

Number 6: The Cloverleaf Interchanges at US 40 and SR 100

20 November 2019: In 1956, a cloverleaf interchange was built at East Washington Street and Shadeland Avenue (US 40 and SR 100). But it wasn’t going to be the only one. There was also supposed to be one built at West Washington Street and High School Road, the original SR 100.

Number 5: Road Trip 1926: SR 37

30 November 2019: Part of the “Road Trip 1926” series, this post showed the path of State Road 37 on 1 October 1926, the day that all state roads in Indiana were renumbered.

Number 4: Indianapolis Track Elevation

7 October 2019: Vehicle traffic in Indianapolis suffered quite a bit due to the large number of trains coming into the Hoosier Capitol. This all changed starting in the early years of the 20th Century when the city decided it was time to start getting railroad tracks off of ground level…also replacing some ill fated fixes.

Number 3: Dandy Trail

24 September 2019: Designed as a road trip around the city of Indianapolis, before SR 100 was even thought of. Parts of the tour still exist, although the section that has the name has mostly been flooded by the creation of Eagle Creek Reservoir.

Number 2: Why are the exits on I-465 where they are?

8 July 2019: Every exit on I-465 was set up for a particular reason. This post covers those reasons.

Number 1: 82nd and 86th Street Before SR 534 (SR 100)

20 September 2019: This was, by far, the most popular post of the year, with 1,451 views. People have asked why Indianapolis’ 82nd and 86th Streets are connected in the way they are. And it wasn’t the creation of SR 534 (which became SR 100) that put these two roads together. It had been done in the 1800’s. Using older maps, I showed how it happened.

I want to thank each and every one of you that have taken the time to visit my labor of love in 2019. I hope you continue to visit in 2020! Have a safe and wonderful New Year from all of us at Indiana Transportation History!

If there are topics you would like to see covered here, drop me a line at the ITH Facebook Group. I have many resources at my finger tips, and hopefully, I can nail your idea down!

When the Indiana State Highway Commission was recreated in 1919, the subject of funding came up in a hurry. A big part of that was the fact that many people thought that the whole concept of a highway commission was counter to the Indiana Constitution of 1851. (See Indiana State Highway Commission, and Its Delay for more information.) But the Federal government was passing out money for highway systems throughout the country. But only if the state had someone to give the money to…as in, a highway commission. So state funding would be important, and a state highway commission to receive matching Federal funds was as important.

In 1953, ISHC Chairman Albert J. Wedeking gave an address at Purdue University outlining funding and expansion of the state highway system. “There is nothing wrong with our highways that money can’t cure,” he stated. He then went into the history of funding of the ISHC.

“Then in 1919 a state tax of 10c per $100 of taxable property was added and the new Highway Act provided that all funds collected from motor vehicle registrations and license were to be used for the development of the highway system. These funds became available for our use in 1920.” This provided the first funding to the commission, but it was not nearly enough for what that commission was charged to do.

In 1923, the first gasoline tax was implemented by the state legislature. This tax was two cents per gallon. Keep in mind that gas prices were a lot lower then…as far as actual price, not adjusted for inflation. The legislature then decided that starting on 1 October 1924, the ISHC would have to give the counties $1 million a year to upkeep local roads. Again, this was found to not be enough to support both the ISHC and local governments when it came to road maintenance. The gasoline tax was increased to three cents a gallon.

The gasoline tax went up again in 1929, with the legislature approving a four cent per gallon levy. Of this, the ISHC would receive three cents, with the rest being passed onto local governments. That four cent per gallon tax was still in effect when Mr. Wedeking gave his address in 1953. Another adjustment by the legislature in 1932 required that two cents of that gas tax was to be provided to the local governments, reducing ISHC’s share by one-third.

“Then came the depression when all units of government were hardpressed and the legislature passed an act that transferred two million dollars from the State Highway Fund to the General Fund.” This took a big bite out of the ISHC at a time when it could have used it the most. Offsetting this was the Federal Government and its assorted alphabet agencies set up to help people get some sort of work. There were projects all over the state that would be helped through these agencies.

“In 1937, an act created the Motor Vehicle Highway Account, and to this account were credited all registration fees, fuel taxes, license fees, weight taxes, etc. After deducting the expenses of collection, a small appropriation was given to the Department of Public Safety for policing the highways. $1,250,000 was given to cities and towns, one-third of the remainder for counties; and the balance went to the State Highway Commission.” It is unclear how much they actually pulled in for this fund.

More legislation taking money away from the ISHC was passed in 1941. “In 1941 legislation was enacted that continued to divert $1,250,000 to the State General Fund, and increased the share for cities and towns to $3,000,000 and gave $12,000,000 to the counties with the State Highway receiving the remainder.” The diversion to the State General Fund was removed in 1943, but all other recipients would receive totals laid out in 1941.

The Second World War would be detrimental to this funding scheme. Gasoline rationing reduced the amount of income for the State Highway Commission from $22,111,801 in 1941 to a low of $13,533, 969 in 1945. The state found itself not doing a good job with the funding that it had. Between rationing and material needed for the war effort, the state highway system suffered.

Emergency funding acts were passed by the state legislature in 1945, providing the ISHC a much needed shot in the arm. These acts would provide 63% of the money from the above funding sources to the ISHC. But this was changed again in 1947 by temporary legislation. Again, in 1949, a new law provided that 15% of the funding would go to cities and towns, 32% to counties and the remaining 53% to the ISHC.

All this while the State Highway Commission Act of 1919 required that commissioners lay out a state highway system that connected all county seats and all towns of 5,000 or more population. To this end, 3,191 miles of roads were under the ISHC responsibility at the end of 1919. As funding was expanded, by 1929 the ISHC was responsible for 5,065 miles. This increased to 9,769 miles by 1939 and a decade later, in 1949, it had increased to 10,529 miles.

As the state miles increased, the number of miles maintained by counties, cities and towns went down. Keep in mind that originally the ISHC had no responsibility for state highways in towns of 3,500 population or more. With the state take over of these routes, local maintenance went down again. But not the amount of money passed to those local entities.

“Only the increased volume of traffic has enabled the State Highway Commission to function at all.” Truck traffic was increasing at that time. But it was also brought up that it was easy to see that roads that were built in the 1920’s wouldn’t be able to keep up with traffic volumes of the 1940’s and 1950’s. Part of this was realized due to the fact that weight limits of trucks were being increased consistently over the years.

“In those early days gravel and macadam roads were often regarded as a luxury and the State Highway Commission was besieged to build any kind of a road that would take the communities out of the mud, and many existing county roads were taken over for state maintenance to comply with the law.”

“Funds were limited and the Commission had to spread itself thin in order to keep the entire state satisfied.” Wedeking went on to point out that the early roads were not built for the heavy volumes and high speeds of the state highway system in the 1940’s and 50’s. It started with roads being covered with dust preventatives, since gravel and macadam roads couldn’t just be reconstructed with the same materials. Then, later, better paving materials became common.

The entire content of this post came from the Bedford Daily-Times Mail of 16 April 1953.

Here at Indiana Transportation History, we have extensively covered interurban transportation facilities radiating from Indianapolis. Indianapolis was clearly the leader in the electric traction. But other cities in Indiana did have a collection, although smaller, of electric traction lines radiating to other points. Today, I want to focus on Fort Wayne, Indiana’s second largest community.

As one can see from the list to the left, from the 1910 Fort Wayne City Directory, there were five companies serving the city.

The first company on the list, Fort Wayne & South Bend Traction (FW&SB) was granted a charter to access the city in March 1906. This access was allowed along the traction route of the third on the list. This brought the FW&SB into the city along “Leesburg Road, past Brookside and Lindenwood cemeteries and connecting with the West Main street tracks of the city traction company.” (Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, 27 March 1906) The company was granted that franchise for a period of 35 years. Another stipulation in that franchise was that it would carry no freight into Fort Wayne. “A spur will be built at the Nickel Plate crossing and freight can be delivered to that road.” Work on the route hit full stride in 1907. It started by connecting Syracuse to Nappanee. From there, Fort Wayne would be connected to Syracuse. The road would then leave Nappanee for Elkhart, and hence to South Bend.

The Fort Wayne, Van Wert & Lima (FWVWL) had its articles of incorporation put together on 1 August 1902 (Fort Wayne News, 1 August 1902). Capital stock in the amount of $2 million were to be issued for the construction of the line. The new company would take over an already issued charter, one for a line from New Haven to Fort Wayne, to continue its way paralleling the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago (Pennsylvania) to Lima. The company started condemnation proceedings (Fort Wayne Daily News, 9 December 1902) of a strip of ground 49.5 feet wide for the right of way for the route. This strip was to be taken from the Olds’ Addition to the city of Fort Wayne. That addition had just been created.

The Fort Wayne & Wabash Valley, also mentioned above, was created to connect Fort Wayne to Logansport. It started life as the Fort Wayne & Southwestern Traction company. That company was granted access to Fort Wayne in November 1900. Those access rights were passed to the Wabash Valley Line in May 1905. At the time of the transfer, the franchise required the removing of the old Southwestern tracks starting at Main Street on Fulton Street, then along Brackenridge Street, then Fairfield Avenue to Creighton Avenue. Also, tracks in Taylor Street, from Broadway to Fairfield, were to removed.

The listed Muncie, Hartford City & Fort Wayne started in 1901. The line connecting the three title cities was incorporated into the Union Traction Company, which owned and operated the line from Indianapolis to Muncie via Fort Benjamin Harrison and Anderson, starting in May 1903. This allowed direct connection between the two largest cities in the state. George F. McCullogh of the MHC&FW announced the sale of the line to Union Traction. He then left the company immediately, becoming President of a new traction line leaving Fort Wayne.

That new company was to be called the Fort Wayne & Southern. That line’s name wouldn’t stay that way for long, being changed, by the time of franchise issue, to the Fort Wayne, Bluffton & Marion. The Muncie line, mentioned above, had already connected to Bluffton. The Fort Wayne & Wabash Valley then organized the Fort Wayne, Bluffton & Marion as a counter to the Muncie line/Union Traction. The two companies surveyed an almost identical route between Bluffton and Fort Wayne. The conflict between the two companies came to an end when the Fort Wayne & Wabash Valley ended up owning both lines. (Fort Wayne Weekly Sentinel, 30 August 1905)

In the end, all of these lines would be abandoned through the 1930’s, going the way of most of the other traction lines in the state. Most fell under the sway of the Indiana Railroad (1930). The last train left Indianapolis, for Fort Wayne, on 19 January 1941, along the Muncie line. Service would be replaced by bus.

Christmas Eve, 1883. Louisville, New Albany & Chicago (LNA&C) train 4, a passenger train running from Chicago to Louisville, near Salem. The locomotive and the tender crossed a bridge over the Blue River. Two cars in the middle of the train didn’t make it. In the end, nine people died in the resulting wreck.

Brief history of the railroad. The LNA&C was one of the core parts of what would eventually become known as the Monon. The founding company was the New Albany & Salem Rail Road, chartered on 8 July 1847. The company would buy the Crawfordville & Wabash on 17 June 1852, having been chartered on 19 January 1846. By 1854, the two sections of the company would be connected when the line was built between Salem and Crawfordsville. The company that existed at the time of the wreck was the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railway, created from the merging of the previous LNA&C and the Chicago & Indianapolis Air Line Railway. (More detailed history can be found at The Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville Railway and The Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville Railway, Part II.)

The wreck of the number 4 occurred near daybreak. The area had been blanketed by over 30 hours of “continuous and heavy rains.” (Indianapolis News, 25 December 1883) The train was travelling at 40 miles per hour when it started across the rain compromised bridge. The abutments of the bridge had been undermined by the flooding. This caused the structure itself to be greatly compromised.

As stated before, the locomotive and tender made it across the bridge. The combination baggage, mail and express car, along with the Gentlemen’s car, fell through the bridge and into the stream below. The other two cars, the ladie’s and buffet cars, stayed on the track. Unfortunately, the horror would not end there.

The cars that fell into the water were not completely submerged. The part that wasn’t under water caught fire due to upsetting the stoves used for heating. Within 15 minutes, the entire train had been burned to the ground. The result was six people reported killed at the time, with three people missing. The engineer of the train, John Vaughan of New Albany, was reported to have “received injuries that will prove fatal.” Baggageman Charles Sanford, again of New Albany, was carried into the flood.

Four people were burned beyond recognition. They were believed to have been a passenger from Quincy, Indiana, one of Salem, and two from Chicago. A farmer from Washington County, Indiana, Boone Thompson, and a German Methodist Minister, John Heifrich, were also among the first reported dead.

The next day, the body of what was reported to be that of J. M. Whaling was found one mile below the wreck in the Blue River. His body was identified by a pass in his pocket purchased on 22 December for travel from Chicago to New Albany and back. No one on hte train recognized or even knew much about the man. (Indianapolis News, 26 December 1883)

The Indiana State Sentinel of 26 December 1883 reported that “the details received here are of the most meager description, but all reports agree that six, perhaps seven persons killed, and seven or eight injured.” The resulting information from the Associated Press at the time was as follows: “Chicago, Dec. 24. – Information has been received that the Louisville passenger train over the Louisville, New Albany and Chicago Road, which left here last evening, was ditched near Salem, Ind., but further particulars are not yet obtainable.”

The report in the Columbus Republic of 26 December 1883 simply stated “a horribe (sic) railway accident occurred near Salem, Ind., on Monday morning. A bridge was so washed by the floods that it went down with a passenger train killing nine persons and seriously wounding as many more. The wreck immediately took fire and made the scene additionally horrible.”

Further details about the train and the accident location come from the Waterloo (Indiana) Press of 3 January 1884. That paper reported that the death toll was actually seven, not nine as reported the week earlier. “The place where the accident happened is the bridge over Blue river. The stream is a narrow one, and in the summer time is an insignificant brook. The speedy melting of snow and heavy rain following had swollen it to undue proportions.” The bridge, it was stated in this report, was over a chasm of forty feet in height. The shortness of the bridge, only being about 1.5 passenger cars long, is what caused the last two cars on the train to stay on the track. “The train consisted of a baggage car, smoking car, ladie’s car, and the Pullman buffet car Escaria.”

While the route was out of commission, trains were being rerouted along the Ohio & Mississippi (became part of the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern in 1893) from Louisville to North Vernon, then west to Mitchell, where it met up with the tracks of the LNA&C.

Today, I am going to let the Indianapolis City Directory entries speak for themselves.

Indianapolis. One of the largest interurban centers in the United States. So much so that the parent company of the Indianapolis Street Railways company built what would be the largest traction terminal in the country. But before that was built, the many traction lines that were completed to Indianapolis boarded in assorted places around downtown Indianapolis.

1904 was the last year listed in the Indianapolis City Directory where traction company stops and offices were all over the place. Ahead will be a list of traction companies…some of which never really came into being. But, they are listed in the city directory.

In my many trips to South Bend, and with my love of the Pennsylvania Railroad, I have made it a point to pass by the old Vandalia Station at Main and Bronson Streets. The station served the area for almost a century.

South Bend, while one of the biggest cities in Indiana, seemed, to me at least, a rather strange place to have an end-of-line terminal. The Vandalia (later Panhandle/Pennsylvania) came into South Bend and ended at the station…just shy of the New York Central tracks that run through the city. The railroad would serve industries in South Bend, but it always seemed strange that there would be only one way in and out of the city.

As it turned out, it was another quirk in Indiana’s railroad system and corporate consolidation of such.

It all started in 1869. Three railroads were chartered that would form the backbone of the line. On 1 February, a charter was issued for the Crawfordsville & Rockville Railroad. 11 days later, a charter for the Frankfort & Crawfordsville was awarded by the Indiana General Assembly. The third company would be the Logansport, Camden and Frankfort, chartered on 13 May 1869.

These three companies would build very little track before they were consolidated into a new company: Logansport, Crawfordsville & South Western Railway. Letters of Consolidation was actually started on 5 November 1869, but weren’t filed with the state until 2 February 1871. This railroad company would complete construction of the line from Rockville to Logansport between 1871 and 1875, opening it in sections. But the Logansport, Crawfordsville & South Western would only last four years after the line was completed to Logansport. In November 1879, the railroad would be sold and given to another company.

The railroad’s new name was the Terre Haute & Logansport (TH&L) Railroad. Shortly after appearing on the scene, the Terre Haute & Indianapolis (TH&I) agreed to an operating agreement of the line. This connected the TH&I to the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis (Panhandle) to two points: Logansport and Indianapolis. The TH&I had been originally chartered as the (potential) Terre Haute & Richmond under acts of the General Assembly of 24 January 1847. Three days shy of three years later, the name became official. As it turned out, the idea of the section from Indianapolis to Richmond had been dropped from the company’s plans rather quickly. But it wasn’t until 6 March 1865 that the name was changed to Terre Haute & Indianapolis.

The TH&I, while operating the TH&L, extended the line to South Bend by 1884. The extended line would connect Logansport through Culver and Plymouth to the St. Joseph County seat.

But the line wouldn’t actually stop at South Bend. In 1890, a railroad, called the Indiana & Lake Michigan Railway, was built out of South Bend to the west, turning north outside of Lydick. This line would go to St. Joseph, Michigan. This would allow coal from Western Indiana, along the TH&I, to be carried by the trainload to coal barges at Benton Harbor, Michigan, to be shipped to the east coast. (Source: The Pennsylvania Railroad in Indiana, William J. Watt, pp 89) The Terre Haute & Logansport leased the line, with the lease dated 04 June 1889. The line opened on 04 August 1890. Between May 1892 and January 1893, the company ran a ferry from St. Joseph to both Milwaukee and Chicago.

Both the Terre Haute & Logansport and the Indiana & Lake Michigan fell into receivership in November 1896. As a result of the reorganization, the TH&L lost its lease of the I&LM. Due to this, the I&LM ended up being leased by what ended up falling under the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, part of the New York Central in Indiana (prior to the Big Four consolidation). This line would be abandoned in 1942.

The Terre Haute & Logansport Railroad became the Terre Haute & Logansport Railway. This company was created, officially, by the state of Indiana on 30 November 1898, after being sold at foreclosure. This company would still be leased by the Terre Haute & Indianapolis.

So, where does the name Vandalia come from? Well, on 1 January 1905, the following companies were consolidated to become the Vandalia Railroad Company: Terre Haute & Logansport; St. Louis, Vandalia, & Terre Haute; Terre Haute & Indianapolis; Logansport & Toledo; and Indianapolis & Vincennes. This created a system that spanned from St. Louis to Indianapolis, South Bend to Vincennes, and east to Butler from Logansport.

The major owners of several railroads, the Pennsylvania Lines West of Pittsburgh & Erie, under the auspices of the Pennsylvania Company, would continue to consolidate properties. First, the Vandalia and the Panhandle were consolidated to become a larger Panhandle. This would not affect any operations into South Bend. The line’s existence would continue into the age of Penn Central. According to Indiana State Official Highway maps, the line would be truncuated to Culver in 1976 (1977 map is source). Penn Central had put in for abandonment of the line from Logansport to Culver, though, in 1974. But that section of the line would still be on maps, listed as Conrail, into the 1980s.

In the early 20th Century, most roads in the United States were still gravel, at best, and dirt roads that turned into muddy messes at worst. But that was changing with the Good Roads movement. Today, I am going to do something that I have only done with the “Road Trip 1926” series: use images to pass along information. Today, I am using the Indianapolis Star of 31 August 1913 to show a road trip from Indianapolis to Madison and back.

The layout of the article matches Trip books of the day, giving mile by mile detail of the route and things found along the way. It makes for an interesting read. It leaves Indianapolis along the Michigan Road (Southeastern Avenue). The trip comes back from Madison along the Madison State Road. The trip detail ends at Columbus…but gives directions on how to get back to the Circle City.

Vincennes. One of the original towns of Indiana, predating even the Indiana Territory. Its location had been on the beaten path of transportation since before the arrival of Europeans with the buffalo creating a path from the Falls of the Ohio at Louisville to what would become Vincennes. As Indiana came into being, Vincennes became the seat of justice for Knox County (the only county in the Illinois/Indiana/Michigan sections of the Northwest Territory for several years before the creation of Wayne County with its seat of justice at Detroit).

With its importance in the state of Indiana determined, Vincennes became a meeting place of roads, railroads and canals. Roads, for instance, connected to Evansville, Terre Haute, Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. With the creation of the Indiana State Highway Commission in 1919, Vincennes was served by state roads 5 and 10, with a connection available to SR 12. With the Great Renumbering, SR 5 became US 50, SR 10 became US 41 and SR 12 became SR 67. All three roads are upcoming posts in the “Road Trip 1926” series.

The ISHC has, throughout its history, attempted to make road transportation in the state as quick and safe as possible. Also, because routing a state road through a town makes the state responsible for that city street, the ISHC, and now INDOT, does its best to eliminate this confusing series of responsibility. If a town can be both connected to the state road system and bypassed at the same time, state officials are for this.

And hence, Vincennes would be bypassed, if possible. As it turned out, it was. It was already mentioned that Vincennes was at the junction of two major US routes (41 and 50). It started in 1960, when the states of Illinois and Indiana planned a new US 50 bridge over the Wabash north of Vincennes. “The announcement (of the new US 50 bridge) appeared to be an attempt to help soothe the feelings of Vincennes area residents who have been unhappy with highway planning.” (Indianapolis News, 17 February 1960) “Federal authorities are scheduled to approve a new Interstate 64 expressway route soon that will enter Indiana near New Harmony instead of Vincennes, as originally planned.”

By 1964, the US 50 bypass of Vincennes was completed. US 41 still connected through the town. It was soon after this that the US 41 bypass would be started. The ISHC construction program for 1965-1967 included plans for the US 41 bypass and reconstruction from US 50 south to Decker. The interchange at US 41 and US 50 was under construction be that time.

It would be the summer of 1969 when US 41’s replacement through Vincennes would be complete. Part of this had been planned to be completed by Thanksgiving, 1968, even though the contract, let in January 1968, had a completion date of Thanksgiving, 1969.

State Road 67 was cut back to connect to US 41 north of Vincennes in 1964. Prior to this, the two roads used separate paths to get into the city, connecting near downtown.