Drowned Automobiles Traditional Cache
Reviewer Hilts: Since there has been no response to my previous note I am archiving the cache.
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(micro)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
There is no nearby parking. You will have to walk down the old train track by the creek.
This is a truly bizarre little area in Ellettsville which is virtually unknown. There is a nearby ruin of old limestone buildings grown over with trees. You will know you are in the right place when you see a tree growing up out of the backseat of an old car. Look for vines on the nearby trees and stand with a deep ditch on your right.
{the following is geographical information supplied by shannon1974}
Hi Rayhans,
Here is what I found out....they are the ruins of mills - limestone, flour, sawmills. That area is slated to become a Heritage Trail Bike/Walk path, but the town is having trouble coming up with the money to do it. The president of their Main Street Organization that I spoke with sent me the following information. She didn't really know any specifics on the mills and didn't know anyone left who would know what happened to them except to say that by WWII all the mills had been abandoned.
Here is the info she sent:
Ellettsville Main Street Incorporated was formed in 1999 to address downtown revitalization. One of our early projects was the design for the Heritage Trail, which will be a pedestrian pathway using a short section of abandoned CSX railroad bed. This follows little Jacks Defeat Creek and a portion is located between the one way pair of State Road 46 Highway. The concept of the trail was designed by Barry Fisher, a landscape architect, who is a native of Ellettsville and grew up around the railroad and the creek. He knew this area included some historic sites such as the grave of Ed Elliott the founder of Ellettsville and the ruins of some of our limestone mills from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s when there were 6 active mills in Ellettsville. The rail line was also important to ship the limestone all over the United States. The trail would continue north to near the Matthews mansion which is an historic house from the 1850s near Bybee Stone Company which supplied the cut stone to restore the Pentagon after 911.
Also, the Madison County historian had the following info on it:
You located the remains of an old Mill. There are several around Ellettsville
and Stineville. Most of the iron structures that were at these old sites was
salvaged for war efforts in the 40's. If those materials were still there, you
would have recognized it as a Limestone Mill. I for one will be glad to see the Limestone Heritage Trail become in existence
and extend all the way to Stinesville. Maybe someday.
Found an excerpt from a book on Ellettsville history about two huge fires that pretty much wiped Ellettsville out in 1884 and 1886. The first one started in a house on the Matthew's property (original Limestone mill founder from London) near one of the mills. They had stored some blasting powder and caps in the house and although they tried to get them out before they exploded, they were too late. There was a huge explosion and shrapnel killed several men, including one of the Matthews boys. The Matthews mansion which sits north of Ellettsville is rumored to be haunted. The second huge fire came in 1886 and wiped out most of the stores in the town. By the time a firetruck arrived from Bloomington, several major businesses were a total loss.
Perhaps these things contributed to the closing of the mills...that or the world had moved on, I suppose. I attempted to contact the author of the aforementioned book, a Marion E. Jacobs, but it looks like he is probably deceased. All of his property is listed in trust and he was last active with the Freemasons in 2003. Another dead end...no pun intended.
Pretty cool piece of history sitting there, rotting away, unnoticed....thanks for pointing us in an interesting direction.
Shannon
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
ybbx ng gur pne naq envfr lbhe yrsg nez. vg jvyy or ba be cbvagvat gbjneqf gur pnpur.
Treasures
You'll collect a digital Treasure from one of these collections when you find and log this geocache:
Loading Treasures