(Fred Swift’s commentaries are posted here as part of a partnership between LarryInFishers.com and The Hamilton County Reporter newspaper)

by

Fred Swift

Hamilton County Reporter

In case our readers hadn’t noticed, I like local history. So, the following tale is one
of those “what ifs” of Hamilton County history that I enjoy.

The Central Canal between Broad Ripple and downtown Indianapolis is a scenic waterway today. Its towpath is a favorite for walkers and joggers, it’s a local attraction as it goes by the Butler University campus and the Art Museum, and of course it is lined with upscale condos and interesting sites as it dips through downtown Indy. But, the canal was not supposed to start at Broad Ripple and end downtown. In 1837 it was designed to be a major infrastructure improvement for the state, a transportation linking the Wabash and Erie Canal at Peru to the Ohio River at Evansville, a distance of 296 miles. Canals were popular and seen as the answer to transportation needs before railroads or highways for the purpose of moving products great distances at little expense.

A company whose name has been lost in  history, got the contract to dig the canal
from Anderson to Martinsville. It was to be 60 feet wide and six feet deep paralleling
White River through Anderson, Strawtown, Noblesville and on to Broad Ripple. An
eight mile section in what is now Indianapolis  was dug first and completed, probably to impress the state legislature.

Unfortunately for Hamilton County and the  rest of the state, a major recession hit the nation in 1837-38. By 1839 the canal construction stopped. Only minor work had been done in the Noblesville area. Today, there are traces of that work. In the Meadows subdivision, a depression in the ground a few hundred feet long is marked by a sign identifying the site as a portion of what was to be the canal. Huge cut stones were delivered to the banks of Stony Creek west of Allisonville Road, to be used for abutments of an aqueduct that was never built. Some of the stones were later used in foundations of buildings in Noblesville.

The canal boom which was seen as the economic future for the state was a bust.
As railroads entered the state in the 1840s canals were forgotten. Even the section in Indianapolis was pretty much ignored until the 1980s when the city decided to put it to use as an attraction and economic tool.

So, what if the section through Noblesville had been completed? Would it be a
scenic waterway lined with walking trails and homes or businesses? We’ll never know.  We will just have to make the most of Riverwalk instead.