[IndianaTrails] CANAL UPDATE -- Stearns Truss dedication

[Canal Center]

DEDICATION DAY BROUGHT OVER 200 PEOPLE

 

On a 'special' Sunday in November over 200 people came to celebrate the
completion of the 1905 Stearns Truss iron bridge.  For a hundred years it
set in Pulaski County over Big Monon Ditch.  Now the bright BLUE span adorns
the canal behind Pizza Hut / Dairy Queen in west Delphi.  The site and
restoration work is finished and sports a view of the rehabilitated mainline
Wabash & Erie Canal section and its stub or "side cut" going to the east.
The crowd roared Hip-Hip-Hooray when the final 'golden spike' was driven
into the White Oak deck by the primary volunteers that completed this
project.

 

Grants from Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Historic Landmarks
Foundation and Central Indiana Community Foundation's Efroymson Fund were
matched by many private donations of dollars and materials.  Disassembly
work started near Medaryville in early 2006 and the initial move brought the
mass of iron on a single semi trailer to Delphi by March 3rd of that year.
Thousands of hours of work by the core volunteers and supplemented by a
total of 78 willing helpers made this project a successful community
restoration effort.

 

The area surrounding the bridge is historic.  It once hosted industrial uses
of water power from two millraces exiting the canal.  Paper mills were
located on the west side next to the towpath.  High quality rag paper
products in the mid 1800s were produced by these two mills.  There were
warehouses on the east side for storage and receipt of canal cargo in the
heyday of the canal.  Also onsite, in conjunction with the Indiana
Department of Environmental Management, are two wetlands that were restored
to interpret habitat for Indiana's native plant species. 

 

A special feature on dedication day was dialog about the Winamac Bridge
Company and the Stearns patent used to produce this span.  A highlight was
the 1903 Winton automobile owned by Dr Peter Kesling from LaPorte and driven
by his son Adam.  Some photos show another man accompanying Adam and he is
Cecil Richards, one of the engineer's who assisted in the Winton
restoration.  This car traveled across the US from coast to coast in 2003 to
celebrate the 100th anniversary of the nation's first transcontental
crossing by a similar 1903 Winton.

 

 

 

 

 

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