Trip to Metamora Canal Days, Metamora Indiana, 10-3-09 (Click on pics for larger image)
To start off today we had to do a little geocaching. I looked up this cache yesterday and a lot of the logs said that this was a good one. It was! This was in the Rush County, IN. Library, and was one of the better geocache finds for Helen and I.
It was inside a book! You never know what you will run across when you are geocaching. The librarians were aware of this cache, so no harm was done ;)
This was our second geocache today. In geocaching many times the point of the cache is to bring you to a certain area so that you may see something you normally would not see. This marker was the object of this cache, with the actual cache being nearby. This thing is HUGE! I think this is the kind of marker I should have ;)
After leaving Rushville we headed to our destination, Metamora. Stopped for a bite to eat at the Hearthstone Restaurant. This is about as mountainous as it gets here in Indiana! I liked this one with the old time sign, cows and hills in the background.
A little history on metmora, this is a small 1838 canal town located in southeast Indiana. Here you can still ride on one of the horse drawn canal boats from the early 19th century. These boats fueled this areas economy until being displace by the railroad. This picture is of one of the locks along the channel. There used to be 56 of these along the total length of the canal. This one lock would raise or lower the boats by 8 feet. Altogether these locks raised the canal 481 feet along its entire course of the canal.
Railroads came along and ended the days of canals. You can also hop a ride on one of these while you are in town. The train to your left is one such train. You want to go to the festival but not fight with traffic? Well then just drive to Connersville Indiana, park, and hop on this train. It brings you to the town of Metamora, drops you off for 2 hours then takes you back. We opted for the other train though, it just does a 30 minn. round trip.
Just a quick shot inside the train we took. This isn't Amtrak! These trains are just like you would find back in their heyday. Reminded me a lot of a BIG school bus.
Looking out the window of our train with the canal running alongside the tracks.
Helen trying to look happy after I drug her along on the train ;)
Took this picture from the train as it was moving. I was hoping to get some pictures of the fall foliage today, as you can see, its not quite that time yet. If you look close you can see a Heron standing in the canal. I didn't notice this when I took the picture.
Here in Indiana when it gets close to Halloween we have corn mazes. Here is one I shot while the train was passing it. One of the guys even gave me a wave ;)
What you see here is a wood aqueduct. Not only that, but it is the ONLY wood aqueduct that is still in service in the U.S. It was built to carry the canal 16 feet above the Duck Creek. It is 70 feet long, while the water that it carries is 17 feet across and 3 feet deep. Cool huh!
This is the paddle wheel for the grist mill. This mill is still in operation and still uses this paddle wheel.
This is my mom, me, and my dad standing on the bridge above the paddle wheel.
The water that is not used by the paddle wheel goes over this little waterfall.
Here is the canal boat. This was also a virtual geocache (meaning that there is nothing too log, for this one all you do is take your picture with the object, in this case the boat, then you can upload it to geocaching.com and claim your "find").
Here are the draft horses used to pull the canal boat. Overall, this was a great day and I even learned a few things. I hope you did to!
Where is Metamora Indiana?
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