Lost River - Karst Information Portal

2007 NSS Convention Guidebook
of the Mitchell Plain and Crawford Upland
caves no doubt have Tertiary-age passages and
origins, many caves have a direct connection to
incision of the White River (for example, Blue
Spring, Donaldson, Hamer, Buddha, Dog Hill-
Donnehue) ( Johnson, 1992), and the Ohio
River and Blue River, notably Wyandotte,
Binkleys, and Marengo (many workers,
including Ash, Palmer, Powell, and others).
U.S. 150 passes through Palmyra which
is located on the “Central Barrens,” a former
large prairie. The Mitchell Plain was either
a prairie/savannah or was locally forested
prior to European settlement, but the rolling
topography is now largely farmed. Deforestation
and farming practices have led to massive
sinkhole and cave system siltation since the mid
1800s. Terra rosa soil exposure and numerous
sinkholes are along the roadside. Note the
prevalence of small cedar trees which thrive on
the highly mineralized and well drained terra
rosa soils. Note Crawford Upland outliers and
the Chester Escarpment to southwest and west.
The summits are 150 feet above the Mitchell
Plain and caves in the outliers are older than
the Mitchell Plain.
Continuing west, U.S. 150 comes to the
Blue River at Fredricksburg which is incised
about 100 feet below the Mitchell Plain surface
(Figure 31). In this area South Fork Blue River
joins the main stem Blue River in an greatly
enlarged complex valley which is surrounded
by sinkhole plain with thousands of sinkholes.
The area has many sinking streams, caves and
142
The Buffalo Trace: The Original National Road
As the Northwest Territory was opened
to settlement in the early 1800s, settlers
moved into southern Indiana via two major
routes. Those from North Carolina moved
westward into Tennessee, northward into
Kentucky, then crossed the Ohio River into
Indiana. One of the common places for crossing
was at the Falls of the Ohio near Louisville,
Kentucky. The territory that was to become the
state of Indiana was covered with hardwood
springs in this region.
Continuing westward, U.S. 150 crosses
into Washington County, and then enters
a transitional area between the Plain and
the Crawford Upland before coming to
Hardinsburg which is just shy of the Orange
County line. U.S. 150 travels on top of the Blue
River Strath in this general vicinity (Powell,
1964). Here we are still in the Blue River basin,
but by traveling north from Hardinsburg,
we enter the Lost River Basin portion of the
Mitchell Plain within a few miles and exit the
Crawford Upland. We are still in Washington
County. Sunderman (1968) has prepared a 90page
Washington County report published by
the Indiana Geological Survey which discusses
in detail the varied local geology of the eastern
Lost River basin. To the north and east of
Hardinsburg are the Sinks of Sinking Creek
which receive stormwater from the karst valleys
to the east and northwest, and then sink before
it reemerges along the Blue River at Radcliff
Springs about 2.5 miles to the south
From the Hardinsburg area, the trip now
begins a 30 to 45 minute tour of the eastern
and western Mitchell Plain and Lost River
karst, and up the Chester Escarpment to the
Crawford Upland, finally arriving at Wesley
Chapel Gulf, allowing for observation of
unique Lost River topography. We begin by
cutting northward cross-country through a
series of alluviated valleys full of Tertiary-age
material derived from the retreat of the lowered
Crawford Upland outliers.
forests and contained several areas of swamp
land. Settlers found that they were not the first
to use that crossing. For many years, perhaps
millions of buffalo had migrated seasonally
from central Illinois to Kentucky and had worn
a wide path through the forests. Figure 39 is a
regional map of the Trace.
Two wagons could travel abreast over much
of the trail. Being typically 12 to 20 feet wide in
some places, it had worn through solid rock to a