Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1895-11-02
LOST RIVER is A WONDER
The Remarkable Features Of an
Indian Sire am.
1t Disappears and Rises Again Several
Miles Away-A Subterranean Water
fall, and Caverns Descending
to Its Banks.

Of all those vagaries of nature which
attract both scientist and curio seeker
in southern Indiana there is none. per-
haps, more interesting and more mys-
FERROUS than Lost river, which takes a
second lease of life in the upper world
this place, writes an Orangeville Qnd.)
correspondent to the Chicago Record.
For fourteen miles or more in an air
line-for fifty miles and more if all
the qualifications and gyrations of the
bed are folIowed-this river flows I'M
der the surface of the earth. It enters
it's subterranean way by running into a
hill. 1t energies, clear and cold, from
beneath the base of a tall bluff. In d
nutshell, a river, or, rather, a good
sized creek, rises in Washington county,
flows a short distance, and disap-
pears in hole in the ground. Miles
away, at Orangeville, in Orange county,
it reappears, and thereafter in most re-
spects behaves itself like any other
stream until it loses its waters in the
cast fork of the White river and event.
ually in the beautiful Ohio.
This stream has something of a coun-
Gerpart in Stamper's creek, which sinks
NEAR where Lost river sinks and rises
zat Spring Mills, forming the source of
,French Lick creek. That these streams
flow for SO many miles under ground
rseems due to the curious geological
structure of this portion of the country.
There are hills rising from three to four
hundred feet, seemingly independent of
F. each other. The country is wild and
the timber land in many cases is still
untouched. Lost river flows in ordi-
nary channels until it commences to
: lose itself in sink holes. These sink
Z holes are common. The whole country
seems to be hollow. The subterranean
channel of the river is not a simple,
straight, cavernous opening like a sew
er, through which the water rushes,
but is complex arrangement of mains
and leads in two distinct systems, each
of which is counterpart of the dry bed
~on the surface of the ground. In ordi-
mary weather all the water in the river
is taken in at the first sink hole. The
water simply flows into hole just as if
it were flowing into a great sewer.
When there have been heavy rains and
the flow of water is greater, it appears
that all the channels and chambers of
the lower subterranean system are
FILLED, and the overflow water runs along
the dry bed for several miles until it
reaches a second sink hole, where it dis
appears. In times of unusually high
water. this second system of channel
chambers S filled, and the overflow
rushes down the dry bed of the river
ON the surface, like any other stream.
All of these systems reunite at Orange
~ville-or, at least, very near there. The
system through which the ordinary
current runs appears from the bluff on
which the village is built. The dry bed
81 circles around the village and merges
with the bed of the stream as it reap
pears, just below the village. About
mile further down the second channel
chamber system gives up its water and
the reunited stream is regular there
after. The channels do not follow the
course of each other, however. In sew
eral places the lowest channel is several
miles from the dry bed. All are more
vor less in connection with each other
and many curious phenomena result.
For instance, about ten miles east of
Orangeville the dry bed and the lowest
channel are connected by three open
ings, which are known as ''wet-weather
rises" It is known that the lowest
channel receives a large amount of
water from underground branches dur
ing it's course. Sometimes these
branches supply more than the usual
amount of water and the overflow is
forced up through these three openings
into the dry bed. Then there is the in
-teresting spectacle of water flowing in
the lowest and the top systems, but
none in the middle system.
The dry bed of the river is not an open
channel. 1t has the appearance OF the
bed of an ancient river long since gone
dry. Not only is there the usual Vege-
table and timber growth common to
river banks along its shores. but in the
sbed itself are to be found majestic for
est trees. It presents one of the wild
est and most picturesque scenes imag-
Unable when filled with rushing waters
following heavy rain, the stream
seemingly being lost in the depths of
the forest. The timber growth is heavi-
est in the bed of the stream itself.
The underground stream winds and
: twists about like any surface stream.
It has it's shallow places and its deep
places, it's eddies, it's ripples, its water
falls and its tributaries. About eight
miles from Orangeville cavernous
passage leads from the surface of the
ground to the brink of the dark