Maps

I did some research awhile back and discovered some old maps - 1875 - and tried to figure out a few things that have changed. The topics shown are concerned with the Hen Island Dam, Erickson Farm, and the rerouted US 33.

1875 map depicting the before flooded St. Joe River and the crooked US 20. The "AM" and Current should be marked about one inch to the left.

Before the dam was built and St. Joe River was flooded around 1910. Notice size of the river? The Erickson farm was purchased in 1908 from the St. Joe River Resort Company for $6,000.00. At the time of this map it was owned by the Novis family. When reading the affidavit I noticed that it said that Mr. Novis signed his name with his "mark." The farm changed hands a few times from 1865 until being purchased by Charles Erickson. The farmhouse was on the farm when it was purchased.

Around 1910 the dam was built and the river consequently back flooded widening it considerably. Previously US 33 ran from Chicago to Fort Wayne originally through the heart of South Bend and Mishawaka. The highway was called Vistula as it ran through Mishawaka and Osceola. You can see on this 1875 map where Vistula had to be altered to the south at Eagle Point. The highway meandered through Elkhart east and followed the river on through small towns. At that time, the Vistula turn off was created and US 33 veered to the east bypassing present-day Vistula altogether and took its present day path. Where Vistula came back up, from the low area on the east side of the bay, it originally continued east and came out to cross County Line Road and now turns into Indiana Ave. When the river was flooded they just let Vistula run down right into the river at Eagle Point thus creating a boat "put in." Rumor has it that there was a wood constructed bridge that went over Baugo Creek and the base structure remains under the water. 

Here in this Google Earth map you can see 933 (Old US 33, Lincoln Way) where Vistula branches off and then is cut off by the expanded bay due to the flooding of the dam. The dam is near the letter C in Chicago. If you look closely you can see its signature "Hen Island at the left just to the right of the Capital Ave bridge.

This present-day map shows the Erickson farm marked in yellow and Ericksons owned a little parcel just north of McKinley where they watered their cows. A border collie took the cows there each day and brought them back safely across McKinley.

Blank 1875 map showing the river pre-flooded with Hen Island plain to see. If you look north above the fold about one inch you can see US 20 in a not so straight path. 

Hopefully these maps make some sense. Sorry if they are a bit confusing. 

The story goes that before the dam backed up the water on the St. Joe River people used to come to the south side of the river which was about 40 feet across and would yell up to the Ericksons to come and bring the ferry raft over to the south side. 

On the map Jefferson is marked with a 12 and Bittersweet would be running north and south and it is the road nearest to the right of this section of map.