Tunnel Mill and the John Work House

What the record says

The mill disappeared. Its engineering question did not.

John Work settled along Fourteen Mile Creek around 1804 and built his brick home around 1811. To power a mill, he had a water tunnel blasted through the limestone at a creek bend. [1]

The earlier state marker dates the mill, dam and tunnel to about 1814–1816 and records that the mill burned in 1927. [2] A place can lose its building while leaving the watercourse, family papers and later photographs available for research.

One tunnel. Two recorded lengths.

The 2001 marker describes a tunnel more than 385 feet long. The 2012 marker quotes an 1833 gazetteer giving 314 feet. Both describe roughly two and a half years of work. [1] [2] We have not established whether the figures measure different portions, reflect later changes or contain an error.

That disagreement is an invitation to investigate. A dated survey, engineering drawing or documented measurement would be more useful than repeating whichever number appears most often online.

The camp belongs in the file, too.

Indiana Landmarks describes the property’s later life as a Scout camp and identifies surviving historic features. [3] Do you have a camp photograph, a parent’s story or a labeled group picture? Those records can help connect the mill site with the people who knew it much later.