Indian Treaty Line Traditional Cache

This cache will take you back in time to the very beginning of this land we now call Indiana. Standing inconspicuously on guard on opposite sides of Highway 231 just inside the Dubois County line are two monuments to the historical underpinnings of the area. I have driven by these monuments countless times, always wondering what they were. I finally placed a cache here, so that I’d be forced to do the research to learn more about them! Here is what I learned:

After the end of the Revolutionary War, the citizens of the newly-formed “United States of America” looked to the West. Specifically, settlers looked to the Northwest Territory, which encompasses most of the Midwest, including modern day Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. Expansion was hindered, however, by fierce Indian resistance, a lack of an orderly and democratic system to transfer land ownership from government to private hands, and a system of government for the territory.

Unlike the British and French before them, the new American settlers did not seem to be interested in establishing relations and trade networks with the Indians. Instead, they were set on converting the land to their own agrarian pursuits. The few meager attempts at diplomacy that were made failed miserably. Violent conflict between the Indians and settlers ensued.

Although the Indian tribes realized some initial victories, their success at pushing the growing tide of settlers back proved to be short lived. In the summer of 1794, an American force under the command of General “Mad” Anthony Wayne defeated the Indian confederacy at the Battle of Fallen Timbers on the Maumee River. The American victory led to negotiation of the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. The defeated tribes ceded control of the southern two-thirds of present-day Ohio and a narrow strip of southeastern Indiana. Although the treaty clearly established the boundaries for legal settlement in Indiana, American squatters penetrated further west in increasing numbers, representing the first wave of a rising tide of immigration.

In 1800, the U. S. Congress approved the division of the Northwest Territory into the territories of Ohio and Indiana. Indiana Territory encompassed an area bounded on the east by the Northwest (later Ohio) Territory, on the south by the Ohio River, on the west by the Mississippi River, and on the north by the Canadian border. Vincennes was designated the territorial capital.

After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, President Thomas Jefferson conceived the idea of removing all Indian tribes to a "sanctuary" west of the Mississippi River. William Henry Harrison, governor of the Indiana Territory, acted as the principal agent in negotiating a series of treaties with the Delaware, Shawnee, Potawatomi, and Miami tribes whose goal was the displacement of the Indians to western territories. Through means that many historians believe were dishonest and overly aggressive, Harrison, in treaty after treaty, gained the cession of millions of acres of Indian lands. Negotiated in rapid succession over the next several years, these treaties included the 1803 Treaty of Fort Wayne, which granted the United States a portion of southwestern Indiana, and the 1804 Treaty of Vincennes, which encompassed an area immediately north of the Ohio River.

Although Indian resistance would grow and continue under the leadership of Tecumseh, the three treaties already mentioned (Greenville, Fort Wayne, and Vincennes) established the legal right of the United States to the territory that is now Southern Indiana. As a result of these and earlier treaties, the need for an accurate survey of the area became apparent.

Many years before, and further west, the Indians had given the French a tract of land containing 1.6 million acres, known as the Vincennes Tract. It was a rectangular block lying at right angles to the course of the Wabash River at Vincennes. By right of conquest, George Rogers Clark secured this land for the United States and the Land Act of 1796 (which was passed subsequent to the Treaty of Greenville) honored its boundaries. Before the rectangular surveys could be extended to the Vincennes Tract, the outline had to be surveyed.

Deputy Surveyor Thomas Freeman began the survey in 1802. He was joined by chainman, axemen, hunters, a flagman, a cook, a packer, and teamsters. Despite the rather small size of his party, they were not harassed, and his survey was successful. Freeman's field notes reflect his care: he noted such things as Indian Trails, large springs, creek crossings, and other significant features. Occasionally, Freeman's men split a sapling and pushed a limb through its trunk. These small trees, which became large, strangely-formed markers of a survey line, were called "peace trees," as they marked a treaty line.

Deputy Surveyor Freeman was a true trailblazer. His survey opened up these treaty lands for settlement, which ultimately led to Indiana's statehood in 1819. His survey became the official boundaries of the Vincennes Tract. The north line of this old Indian land started at Point Coupee, on the Wabash River, about six miles below Merom, Indiana, and about 39 degrees north latitude. It ran at a right angle to the main trend of the Wabash River between Point Coupee and the mouth of the White River. That is, it ran south 78 degrees east, passed near Odon, Indiana, and near Georgia, Indiana, and ended in Section 19, near Orleans, at what is locally known as "Freeman's Corner."

From this corner the line ran south 12 degrees west, 40 miles, through Orange, Crawford and Perry counties, to a point at a creek in Perry County about 7.5 miles due south of the southeast corner of Dubois County, and near Apalona, in Perry County. In going south 12 degrees west, 40 miles, the line ran nearly 12.5 miles west of a due south line. The south line ran from this point, through Perry, Spencer, Dubois, Pike and Gibson counties to the mouth of the White River. The monuments located at this cache site mark Freeman’s southern line of the Vincennes Tract as it passed through southern Dubois County.

This cache has reminded me once again why I love this hobby. Two seemingly innocuous roadside markers led to some interesting research. Little did I know that part of the very foundation of the State of Indiana’s history started when Freeman and his surveying crew hiked through this area in the early 1800s. You’re looking for a pill bottle with a log only (BYOP!). There is ample room to park next to the cache site. The traffic on Highway 231 is busy, though, so keep a very close eye on little ones, especially if you choose to cross the highway to look at the Freeman Line monument. Good luck and have fun!