mileage
73 RENSSELAER station, 619 N. Cullen Street. Elevation approximately 655. Rensselaer
is the county seat of Jasper County, and was named after the town’s founder, James Van Rensselaer of New York. Van Rensselaer
operated a grist-mill and founded the town in 1837. Rensselaer is the home of St. Josephs College. St, Josephs was founded
in 1889, and is affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church.
A large quarry south
of downtown mines limestone and dolomite from the Silurian-aged Wabash Group, which is approximately 150 ft thick in the quarry. Fossil brachiopods, bryozoans, corals, and cephalopods have been found in this quarry.
75 Cross the channelized
Iroquois River. As we head east from Rensselaer, we are traversing a very flat area underlain by ground moraine deposits composed
of Pleistocene-aged Trafalgar Till.
77.5 Pleasant Ridge on the left (eastbound). The town was established in the
a870’s and named after the “pleasant” views from the area. The ridge itself is a ground moraine composed of Trafalgar Till.
80.5 McCoysburg. This town was named after a local landowner, Alfred McCoy. The town was established in 1877. We are
entering a small prong of the Fair Oaks Dune Plain again (see MP 57 above), as small dune features are again visible on either side
of the railroad.
82.5 Enter WHITE County. This county is named after Colonel Isaac White, who was born in 1776, and
who was from Illinois. White served in the Illinois Militia, and later in the Indiana Dragoons. He was a friend of President
William Henry Harrison, and fought against the Shawnee Chief Tecumseh in the Battle of Tippecanoe. He was killed in the battle
in 1811 (see MP 114 below). White County was organized in 1834.
83.5 The small community of Lee is adjacent to the
railroad on the left (eastbound). This village was established in 1883, and is named after John Lee, the President of the Indianapolis,
Delphi, and Chicago Railroad. Lee also established a grain market in the area.
We are still traversing the southern prong of the Fair Oaks Dune Plain.
89 Pass through the town of Monon,
and make a sharp bend to the right as we switch onto the former Monon Railroad line, formerly the New Albany & Salem Railroad,
and now a part of CSX Transportation. This town was platted in 1853. The town was originally named New Bradford by James
Brooks, who platted the town. The name of the town is a Pottawatomi word for “swift running,” which was applied to the nearby
Big Monon and Little Monon Creeks. There were formerly 2 large Monon Railroad yards in the town.
89.5 To the left
(eastbound) is a quarry, in which Silurian-aged limestones and dolomites are mined. The thickness of glacial deposits above
the Paleozoic bedrock formations in this part of Indiana is generally less than 50 ft.
91 Along either
side of the railroad here are more small dune deposits of the Fair Oaks Dune Plain.
93 Between here and
Reynolds, we will be traversing mixed sand dune, glacial till, and lake bed deposits. The flatter areas are composed of lake
bed sediments overlying glacial till of the Tipton Till Plain. The lake beds were deposited at the edge of the Huron-Erie Ice
Lobe as the glacial ice was stalled while retreating, and the edge of the ice lobe blocked the natural drainage of the lake to the
south and southeast. When the ice finally melted, the lake drained and much of the former lakes beds were covered by wind blown
sand.
94 Cross Honey Creek, another channelized agricultural ditch.
96-97 Reynolds. This town was named after Benjamin Reynolds, its founder. The town was founded in 1854. In recent years,
Reynolds has been attempting to become a “bio-town” which subsists on locally-produced alternative energy sources for vehicles, such
as ethanol and bio-diesel.
98 According to Camp and Richardson (1999), we are now traversing primarily
lake bed deposits overlying glacial till of the Tipton Till Plain.
99 Pass through the community of Smithson. The community was formerly named Wheeler, after Hiram Wheeler, who built a tile factory in the area in 1879. The present name
of Smithson honors Civil War veteran Bernard T. Smith, the son of Abel T. Smith an earlier settler.
100 Cross Big
Creek, another channelized agricultural ditch. We are traversing very flat lake bed deposits now (see MP 93 above).
102 We are crossing a small end moraine now, which is barely perceptible from the railroad. This end moraine is known as the Nemo-Gilboa
Ridge.
102.5 Pass through Chalmers. Chalmers was platted in 1873 and originally known as Mudge’s Station, named after a local
shopkeeper. The present name of Chalmers also honors an early settler.
104.5 Cross Spring Creek, another channelized agricultural
ditch. We are still traversing very flat Pleistocene lake bed deposits underlain by Trafalgar Till of the Tipton Till Plain.
106.5-107 Pass through Brookston. Brookston was platted in 1853 and named after James Brooks, who was President of the Louisville, New
Albany, and Chicago Railroad, the predecessor of the Monon Line. In 2004, Brookston was known for its “gas cam,” which allowed
motorists from the Lafayette area to check gas prices in both Lafayette and Brookston before deciding whether to come up from Lafayette. Prices in Brookston were usually cheaper than in Lafayette.
107.5 Cross Moots Creek.
109.5 Enter TIPPECANOE County. The county
was organized in 1826 and named after the Tippecanoe River. The Tippecanoe River is a tributary of the Wabash River, and comes
from the Potawatomi Indian word Ke-tap-e-kon-nong. Ketapekon was an Indian village at the mouth of the river. The word
also means “buffalo fish,” which were common in the Tippecanoe River.
111 The community of Ash Grove is located along
the railroad here. The town was named after a grove of ash trees in a wooded area near here.
112 At approximately
this location, we are leaving the large lake bed deposit we were traversing, and are now traversing areas underlain primarily by the
Trafalgar Till. We continue to cross the Tipton Till Plain.
113.5 Pass through Battle Ground. The town was laid out in
1858, and was the site of the 1811 battle of Tippecanoe (see next entry, at MP 114).
114 In the small park on the
right (eastbound), if you look carefully, you can see the Tippecanoe Battlefield Memorial. The Battle of Tippecanoe was fought
here on November 7, 1811. The battle was between an American force of about 1000 men led by future U.S. President William Henry
Harrison, then Governor of Indiana Territory, and a Native American force estimated by Harrison at about 6000 Shawnee, but probably
much smaller, led by Tenskwatawa, called “The Prophet.” He was the brother of the Shawnee leader Tecumseh, who was absent at
the time. After one of his sentinels was killed in an ambush, Harrison marched against the Indian village of Prophetstown, the
headquarters of Tenskwatawa and his brother, who had been organizing the tribes into a confederation to oppose the occupation of Native
American lands by American settlers. The Native Americans resisted the attack bravely, but after more than two hours of stubborn
fighting, they were driven from the field. The next day, Harrison advanced to the town and almost completely destroyed it.
The battle rendered virtually impossible the realization of Tecumseh's plans of confederation, weakened and almost destroyed the prestige
of the Prophet, and hastened the general outbreak of hostilities by the Native Americans against the Americans in the Northwest Territory. At the same time, it greatly enhanced the reputation of General Harrison, who acquired the nickname “Tippecanoe.” In 1840, Harrison
was elected President as a Whig, and his Vice President was John Tyler, thus the campaign slogan “Tipp-canoe and Tyler too.” Harrison
died of pneumonia a month after he took office.
We are now on the edge of the
Wabash River flood plain, which is underlain primarily by glacial outwash sands and gravels. To the right (eastbound), at the
edge of the flood plain, the nearby hills are composed of till, while the flood plain is on the left of the railroad.
115 Pass beneath Interstate 65.
116.5 Cross the Wabash River. The Wabash is the most significant river in Indiana, and is over 500
miles long. It heads in northern Ohio, then flows west and southwest across Indiana, emptying into the Ohio River at the southwestern
corner of Indiana. The name comes from the Miami Indian word Wah-bah-shik-ki, which implies something of a pure white color. The name most likely refers to a limestone ledge in the upper part of the River. French settlers called the river Ouabache.
118 Pass beneath U.S. 52 and enter the City of Lafayette.
120.5 LAFAYETTE station, 200 N. Second Street. Elevation approximately
530. This is one of AMTRAK’s newer stations, and the location along the Wabash River makes for a very pleasant view. The
City of West Lafayette is visible across the river. Lafayette is the county seat of Tippecanoe County, and is named after the
Marquis de la Fayette, the French General who aided the patriots during the American Revolution. The city was founded in 1825.
Lafayette is a commercial and manufacturing center located in a farm region in which grain and livestock are produced. Manufactured
products include sheet metal, processed food, automobiles, truck trailers, paints, aluminum products, and engines. Purdue University
is located in West Lafayette. Fort Ouiatenon, built near the site of Lafayette by the French in 1717, was the first European
settlement in Indiana.
On Memorial Day weekend, Lafayette hosts the Round the
Fountain Art Fair, and the Feast of the Hunter’s Moon in the fall. The Hunter’s Moon Feast includes historical re-enactments
at Fort Ouiatenon.
121.5 The tracks on the left here (eastbound) mark the former route of the Cardinal (and previous Monon routes),
when the Lafayette station was located downtown on a city street on which the railroad right-of-way was also located.
122 The hillsides on the left (eastbound) are composed of Late Pleistocene Wisconsin-aged Trafalgar Till.
124 We will
now be following Wea Creek for a few miles.
125 Little Wea Creek, on the right (eastbound) has been incised into
the Tipton Till Plain. Beneath the Tipton Till Plain in this area are Devonian to Early Mississippian shales.
126 Gravel pits on the right (eastbound) extract sand and gravel from the glacial materials in the area.
127 Pass through
the community of Taylor, named after an early family in the area.
129 We are still traversing the very flat Tipton
Till Plain, underlain by Trafalgar Till.
130 Pass through South Raub. This town was platted in 1822, and named
after a local family. The word “South” was added to the name to distinguish it from another community of the same name, northwest
of here.
133.5 On the left (eastbound), along U.S. 231, is the town of Romney. Romney was founded in 1831, and named after Romney,
West Virginia, the home of some of the early settlers in the area. The town was originally named Columbia.
136 Enter MONTGOMERY County. The county was organized in 1823, and named after General Richard Montgomery. Montgomery was
an Irish-American soldier who served in the Revolutionary War. He was killed on December 31, 1775, while fighting the Battle
of Quebec in a snowstorm.
We are still crossing the Tipton Till Plain.
138 Linden. This town was laid out in 1852, and named after the linden tree, which grew in the area. While the downtown area
of town has been degrading over the last several years, a new ethanol plant is planned for the area, which may possibly boost then
economy once again. Linden is known for the Linden Carnegie Public Library, which is an original Carnegie Library. The
town is also the home of the Linden Junction Depot Railroad, which houses railroad memorabilia and a model railroad setup.
139.5 Cross
beneath an S-curve in U.S. 231.
141.5 Cherry Grove. In 1851, a railroad switching station was built here on the old Monon Rail-road. The community is named after its abundance of cherry trees.
144 Pass through Manchester.
145.5 Pass beneath Interstate
74.
146 Sugar Creek is adjacent to the railroad on the left (eastbound). This creek has been downcut into bedrock
of the Lower Mississippian-aged Borden group, which is composed primarily of siltstones.
147 Cross Sugar Creek. Look for exposures of Borden Group siltstones (?) in the banks of the creek. The bedrock is covered by Pleistocene-aged outwash
deposits.
In the bluffs just west of the bridge, abundant crinoid fossils of
Mississippian age have been collected over the years, and the area remains a premier fossil collecting locality.
148 CRAWFORDSVILLE station, Spring and Green Streets. Elevation approximately 745 ft. The Crawfordsville AMTRAK station is
one of the classic “glass shack” stations next to an older depot which was used during the Monon days. The city was founded
in 1822 and named in honor of William Harris Crawford, a public official and presidential candidate of the time. Crawfordsville
was incorporated as a town in 1834 and as a city in 1865. General Lew Wallace, military leader and author of Ben-Hur: A Tale
of the Christ (1880), lived most of his life here.
Crawfordsville is the home
of Wabash College, which was founded in 1832 as an all-male college. The school turned down a request from residents of Crawfordsville
during the 19th century to admit women. During the early 1990’s, the college considered the possibility of admitting women,
but in 1992 the school’s trustees voted to remain an all-male institution. Wabash is one of the few remaining private liberal
arts colleges in the United States for men only. During World War II, the college operated a training program for the U.S. Navy.
Crawfordsville is also the home of the Ben Hur Museum, built in the home of General Lew Wallace, and the Henry S. Lane Home, built
in 1845 for the then-Governor of Indiana.