Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1906-03-03
INDIANA slNK.HOLE,
Underground Lakes Have Swallowed U
Railroads and Trains.

Underground Lakes Have Swallowed Up
Railroads and Trains.
The bottom has fL,,en ut OF Indi-
ana again. This time all but the top
ten feet Of railroad embankment that
should tower between sixty and sew
enty feet over the surrounding Lake
C. unity land, just south Of tbs town,
has disappeared. Where it has gone
is question. Some insist that it
probably has dropped through to
China by this time, or hiss gone 10
join part Of the Monon, Panhandle,
Grand Trunk Big our, +. and y. H.,
| Wabash IL Erie tracks '0nIewhere in
the unknown Indiana"
The Vanderbilt interests in seeking
to get their own entrance into Chicago
for the Big -Four, and in doing so build
ing coal road-the new Indiana
Harbor line"-dOwn into the Indiana
and Illinois fields, have at least ac-
quired and are developing one very I'M
desirable piece of property. 1t Is q
new hidden lake-cOmmonly known as
Il Sink-hOlG.
There are geographical, geological,
geodetic and other kinds of maps of
Indiana, but some one may yet write
his name in Indiana history by making
Il 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 Wabash Rail-
road just south of South Bend. dis
-anpeared in n single night, though
u"lilS h"a "~>.,. cunning over it for
years. 1t has only been three veors
since the MOnOn saw trestle ON its
Chicago line disappear during a night,
and on investigating found that it had
only rested on an eight-foOtthick crust
of earth everything an underground
lake. Most interesting of all Of the
discoveries was that the water OF this
SuDterranean lake was filled with blind
tOads, frogs and fish.
Others. who keep track of such
things, remember the e. & T. II. wreck
night OF March 10, 1897, when "bot-
tomless" 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 its sands.
In fact, the history of the sink-hoes
in Indiana is full of Interesting
glimpses into the upnknOwn Indiana.
The indications are that the Wander
bits will spend many thousands Of
dollars making a survey of the neither
and mysterious regions south of here.
The sink-hole it is trying to put bot
tom in, one mile south Of the Monon
crossing at this village, promises to
develop into one of the most interest
ing phenomena i'll Indiana.
The yawning nav of the lnsatate
monster which has been for over four
months literally devourlng 10000 yards
of earth a day, has kept over 100 men,
three steam shovels and numerous
dumping trains busy during that time.
Thus far no blind fish has been
brought to the light of day, but the
earth ON each side of the constantly
disappearing embankment has been ris-
ing into ridges and into hills. Tele-
phone poles have been forced out Of
the earth or nave been set askew some
distance back of the line of poles, and
often the earth has doubled on itself
by throwing out a whole section of it.
self, measuring from ten to thirty
feet long, six to ten feet wide and
eight or ten feet thick.-Correspond-
ence indianapolis News.