The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-03-16
INDIANA SINK : HOLE.
PARTS OF EARTH's SURFACE
DROP OUT OF SIGHT.
Stretches Of Railroad Track Have
Often Been Known to Disappear
in . Night-Effort to F,u
LAKE Is Vain.

St Johns, Ind.-The bottom has
fallen out OF Indiana again. This time
al but the top ten feet OF railroad en-
eankment that should tower between 60
and 20 feet over the surrounding Lake
coanty land, just south of this town, has
disappeared. Where it has gone is a
question. Some insist that it probably
has dropped through to China by this
time, or has gone to join part OF the
1enOn, Panhandle, Grand Trunk, Big
-Four, E. & T. H.. Wabash and Erie
tracks somewhere in the unknown In
diana"
The Vanderbilt interests, in seeking
to get their own entrance into Chicago
Tor the Big -Four, and in doing so build
Ing coal road-the new Indiana Har-
Dor Nne"-down into the Indiana and
Illinois fields. have at least acquired and
are developing one very undesirable
piece of property. 1t is new hidden
Iake-commonly known as sink hole.
There are geographical, geological,
geodetic and other kinds of maps of In
diana, but some one may yet write his
name in Indiana history by making a
map 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 track on the We
bash railroad, just south Of South Bend.
disappeared in single night. though
trains had been running over it for
years. 1t has only been three years since
the Monon saw trestle or it's Chicago
line disappear during a night. and in
investigating found that it had only
rested on an eight-foot-thick crust of
earth everything an underground lake.
Most interesting of all of the discoveries
was that the water of this subterranean
lake was filled with blind toads frogs
and fish. Others, who keep track OF
such things. remember the E. & T. H.
wreck at Hazleton, Gibson county on the
night Of March 10, 1897, when a "bot-
tomiess" hole was uncovered and the
engine and baggage car and smoker Of
the night flyer were pitched into it and
several bodies were lost forever in It's
sands.
In fact the history Of the sink holes
In Indiana is full of interesting
Elimpses into the unknown Indiana.
The indications are that the Wander
bits will spend many thousands Of
dollars making y survey Of the neither
and mysterious regions south Of here.
The sink hole It ir trying to put a
bottom in, one mile south Of the
Monon crossing at this village, prom
ises to develop into one of the most
interesting phenomena in Indiana.
There are strong indications now that
winter will give the new road a
crossing for time by freezing all
Of the surrounding lands and thus CIV
ing the roadbed bottom, but the
spring thaws will probably bring in
teresting developments and old rail-
road men who have tried to fill up
some of the sink holes in northern In
diana would not be surprised to see
quarter of mile Of track drop out of
sight next April.
The yawning nav Of the insaitate
monster which has beea for over four
months literally devouring 10000
yards Of the earth day, has kept
over 100 men. three steam shovels and
numerous dumping trains busy during
that time.