The Central Canal through the Indianapolis area has long been a research interest on this blog. This entire page is dedicated to my research about the Central Canal, while this post includes a map of my explorations of the canal’s remains. Four or five years ago I sent out a series of letters to property owners on the south side Indianapolis who had sections of the canal on their land. I heard from two of these owners. One later retracted their invitation, citing liability concerns. I explored the second property along Pleasant Run Creek just north of County Line Road, and while no remains were found of the aqueduct over that creek, other evidence of the canal was found. Recently, I discovered that another piece of land with a large section of the canal was owned by the uncle of a friend, who facilitated a visit to the property a few weekends ago.
To review, the Central Canal was planned to run from somewhere along the Wabash River near Peru, south through Alexandria, to Anderson, and then west to Noblesville, and then south to Broad Ripple and Indianapolis. After this, the canal was to run south to Waverly, then Martinsville, before connecting with the Wabash & Erie Canal at Port Commerce (also sometimes called Point Commerce), Indiana, at the junction of the Eel and White Rivers, next to Worthington, Indiana. Several sections of the canal were completed north of Indianapolis (one such section was explored in this post). Although work was limited, and no work was done between Noblesville and Broad Ripple.
From Broad Ripple south to Waverly, near State Road 144 and Interstate 69, the canal was mostly completed, but by mid-1839, the financial panic of 1837 was slamming into Indiana like a runaway train and things were going south very quickly. Construction on the canal ground to a halt, leaving numerous wooden structures such as culverts and locks, unfinished. The only section of the canal which was completed ran from Broad Ripple through downtown, before it ended at Pleasant Run near Bluff Road, where an unfinished aqueduct stood. The canal water reportedly spilled into the creek in a manmade waterfall. Below this point, the canal stood incomplete.
I first identified the section of canal at issue here based on old aerial photography (from MapIndy), which showed indications of the route. Note that this site is on private property, as are many sections of the old canal, and permission is a must prior to exploring these sites. The image on the left is from 1937, and the canal is visible as the diagonal crossing from upper right to lower left on the image. The second image is the same section today, with the canal line now filled with vegetation.
The canal's location was confirmed through LiDAR scans, which are great for showing remains of the canal as well as other older earthen constructions and even remains of structures. The LiDAR scan for this section is shown below.
This stretch of canal is pretty obvious, if you know what you are looking at. The remains of the canal on the south side of the city are at best a large ditch, and at worse, a slight depression in the ground, or in some places, nothing at all. This part falls into the large ditch category. As noted, the canal runs diagonally through the property, and it is located on the west side of the Interstate 69. The abstract below, from an 1835 report to the General Assembly prior to the passage of the Internal Improvement Act, shows the various sections of the canal south of downtown. This stretch of the canal was located between sections 9 and 10.
The "big hill" with a lock at its base is the hill visible from the interstate and Bluff Road just south of Southport Road. Pleasant Run is a short distance to the south of this canal site, and I explored that area a few years ago. No remains of the aqueduct were located, although there were indications of canal just to the south. This area was destroyed during the I-69 construction.
Back to onsite exploration, the canal is very visible at ground level, although it is full of heavy honeysuckle growth and a few smaller trees. The best time to search for and explore old sections of the canal like this are during the late fall, winter, and early spring, when the leaves have dropped from trees and bushes, allowing a clearer view of the structure itself. While it may look like a ditch, or dried creek, the defining characteristic to me is the flat and even bottom, or prism, of the canal, which is still visible despite the undergrowth. The images below are two views looking north from the bottom of the canal. As noted, the honeysuckle is quite thick, but if you look closely. you can see the generally flat bottom of the canal, and the sides of the canal. These are particularly visible in the first photo.
One side of the canal would have had the towpath, where some kind of draft animal, usually a donkey, would have walked while pulling canal boats up and downstream. The other side of the canal was called the berm. It is not clear which side of the canal along this stretch had the towpath, although I suspect it may have been on the western side of the canal, or the left side of the images above.
Today there is little evidence of the berm or towpath, which is not altogether surprising considering the passage of time, erosion, and human involvement around this stretch of canal. The canal itself is smaller than it would have been when first constricted. Again, this is through the passage of time and human involvement.
While the canal south of the city was never completed, we know the towpath was present thanks to the diaries of Calvin Fletcher. In March of 1840, Fletcher was visiting the Bluffs of the White River, just west of the I-69 and State Road 144 junction, after having court in Morgan County. Despite heavy rain, he had traveled down the state road, today called Bluff Road, on his way south (there will be a post about the history of Bluff Road next month), but by the time he turned for home the next day, the rains had caused flooding in the lowlands along the road and the White River. This prevented his use of Bluff Road. Another traveler informed him that the only route was to follow the tow path for the canal, and Fletcher noted that this traveler “informed me that the creeks were so high that it would be impossible to get along without taking the toepath[sic] on the canal.” The tow path along this relatively level and flat section would have been elevated and was apparently above the flood waters.
Fletcher took the tow path north from the Bluffs parallel to the state road, but noted the decaying condition of the canal, and the failure of the internal improvement program:
“I left at I & proceeded on the toepath[sic] passed a new count[r]y concealed from the state road which I had travelled for years. It is a gloomy P.M. gloomy thoughts & foreboding haunt my mind. The thought that the unfinished public works in a decayed & dilapidated state must be constantly presented to my mind during my life was almost too great a sacrifice to bear-that I would do well to remove.”
In terms of other technical details, canals in Indiana were usually about 40 feet wide, and about 4-5 feet deep. The completed section of the canal through Broad Ripple and into downtown Indianapolis was nearly 60 feet wide (planned measurement was 57.5 feet) and about 5 feet deep, a calculated decision made to ensure there was additional water flow to the industries in downtown Indianapolis (mills, etc.) were anticipated to use the water power from the canal. The width of the canal in the section at issue here was less, and today maxes out at approximately 40 feet at its widest. The northern part of this canal section also appears to have been eroded or filled in at some point in the past. On its southern end, a home, on an adjacent property, was constructed on the side of the canal and sits partially in the canal bed. These images show how the canal appears from the western bank, or the likely tow path side, with my friend standing in the canal bed for scale. This was the only somewhat cleared area along this section of canal that allowed you to see the full canal structure.
Work on the canal ceased in 1839 as the state collapsed into economic ruin. The section of the canal from Broad Ripple through downtown continued to be used for a variety of purposes, including waterpower, transportation, recreation, ice production, and later drinking water. South of the city the canal bed changed hands multiple times but never amounted to any use. Wooden structures along the canal line rotted away or were covered over as the canal faded and was subsumed within suburban sprawl. As mentioned earlier traces of the canal still exist, if you know where to look.
Sources
Documentary Journal of 1835, Indiana General Assembly,
Map of Indiana (1848) Greenleaf, Jeremiah, https://www.oldmapsonline.org/en/Indiana?gid=8f1bdd27-1fc2-5e50-a911-2740e5437a36#position=8.01/39.788/-86.296/0.46&year=1848
Gayle Thornbrough, ed. et al, The Diary of Calvin Fletcher (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1978), vol. 2