Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-30
IN DIAN A SINK-HOLE
PARTS OF THE EARTHS SURFACE
DPoPs OUT OF SIGHT.
Stretches of Railroad Track Have
Often Been Known to Disappear
In Night.
Cor. Indianarnlls News.

st. Johns Und.) Cor indianapolis News
The bottom has fallen out OF Indiana
again. This time all but the top ten
Feet of a railroad enbankmcnt that
should tower between sixty and seventy
feet over the surrounding Lake county land.
Just south of this town. has disappeared.
where 1t has gone Is a question Some in
slst that 1t probably has dropped through
10 China b. this time, or has gone TO jon
part of the Monon. Panhandle Grand
Trunk. Big Four. +. and T. H., Wabash
and Erie tracks somewhere in tie I'm
known Indiana"
The Vanderbilt interests in seeking TO get
their own entrance into Chicago for the Big
-Four, and in doing so building n coal road
tine new Indiana Harbor iine"-down into
the Indiana and Illinois fields, have at least
acquired and are developing one very IN
desirable petce of property. II is IA new
hidden lake-commoniy known as a sink
hole
There are geographical geological geo.
detic and other kinds OF maps of Indiana
but some one may yet write his name In
indiana history by making a man of the
subterranean lakes and streams of the
state FROM time TO time one hears of
small parts of the state dropping out For
instance, within the last year a section of
u,
OF South Bend, disappeared in a single
nisht, though trains had been running over
IL Tor years. 1t has only been three wears
since the Monon saw a trestle on its Chi
caSo line disappear during a night and IN
inyestiga ting found that Il had onlv rested
on an eight-foot-thick crust of earth over
lying an underground lake. Most interest
ing of all of the discoveries was that the
water pr this subterranean lake was Ill ed
with blind toads, frogs and fish. Others
VINO keep track of such things, remember
me +. ana T. II, wreck at Hazeton. Glib
son county, on the night Of March 10, 1897,
When a 'bottomlesS' hole was uncovered
and the engine and baggage ear and smoker
OF the night flyer were pitched into it and
several bodies were lost forever in its sands
Engulfing 10000 Yards Earth Daily.
In fact the history of the sink holes in
Indiana is full of interesting glimpses into
the unknown Indiana. The indications are
that the Vanderbilts will spend many thou
sands OF dollars making a survey of the
neither and mysterious regions south Of
here. The sink hole 1t is trying to put a
bottom in. one mile south of the Monon
crossing at this village, promises To de-
Velop into one of the most interesting phe-
nomena IN Indiana. There are strong indi-
cations now that winter will give the new
road crossing for a time by freezing ell
or the surrounding lands and thus wing
the roadbed a bottom, but the spring thaws
will probably bring interesting develop
ments and old railroad men who have tried
to fill up some Of the sink holes In north
ern Indiana would not be surprised to SEQ
quarter of mile of track drop out of sight
next April
The yawning nav of the insatiate mon
ster which has been for over four months
literally devouring 10000 yards of earth q
day, has kept over 100 men, three steam
shovels and numerous dumping trains busy
during that time
Flat Country is Growing Hills
Thus far no blind fish has been brought
to the light of day, but the earth on each
side of the constantly disappearing en-
bankment has been rising into ridges and
into hills. Telephone poles have been forced
out of the earth or have been set asksw
somo distance back of the line of polas
and often the earth has doubled on itself
by throwing. out whole section of itself,