Abandoned Channels 95 



ABANDONED CHANNELS IN RANDOLPH AND 

 DELAWARE COUNTIES, INDIANA. 



Frederick J. Breeze, Indiana State Normal, Eastern Division. 



Extending- across the massive moraine which trends east and west 

 through southern Randolph and Delaware counties and northern Wayne 

 and Henry counties are four broad valleys which were lines of discharge 

 from the melting ice of the Wisconsin glacier. This moraine, which 

 belongs to the Bloomington morainic system, needs a local name, and 

 in this paper it is called the Mt. Summit Moraine, after the village in 

 Henry County which stands on its crest near the place where it bends 

 to the southwest. The northern section of each of these abandoned 

 channels holds a small stream which flows northward. The southern 

 portion holds a stream which flows to the ;:outh. The divide in each 

 valley is a broad, muck swamp. (Fig. 1.) 



Starting from the east, the first channel is that occupied by the 

 headwaters of Greenville Creek and Nolands Fork. The swampy divide 

 lies just east of Crete, a small village on the Peoria Division of the 

 Big Four Railroad. It can be well seen from the highway that runs 

 through Arba, Crete, and Spartanburg. The second channel lies east 

 of Modoc another village on this railroad. The east-west highway 

 passing through Modoc and Lynn crosses this channel near the southei-n 

 edge of the broad, swampy divide. South from this swamp flows a 

 small stream called West River, a tributaiy of West White River. 

 The third channel lies east of Losantville. A small tributary of West 

 Whitewater occupies the southern part of this valley, while the northern 

 part is occupied by Little White River. The fourth, and largest of these 

 glacial channels extends from the vicinity of Muncie to Newcastle. In 

 the northern part of this valley now flows Buck Creek, a tributary of 

 West White River. The Southern part is traversed by one of the 

 headwaters of Blue River (East White River). A tributary glacial 

 channel coming in from the southeastern corner of Delaware County 

 joins the main glacial channel (Buck Creek-Blue River Valley) at a 

 point about two miles south of the Delaware-Henry County line. Prairie 

 Creek occupies most of the length of this old channel. 



A probable line of discharge of glacial waters lies about three miles 

 west of the eastern-most channel. The northern part is occupied by the 

 headwaters of West White River and the southern part by Greens Fork, 

 a tributary of West Whitewater. The divide, however, is not in a well- 

 defined channel and therefore it has been thought best not to consider 

 it with the other four lines of glacial outflow which are so well defined. 



A. J. Phinney, M.D., in his geological reports recognized these valleys 

 as lines of discharge of glacial waters. Writing of these valleys in his 

 Geology of Randolph Coimtif, he says: 



"The streams which occupy these broad valleys could never have 

 excavated them; in fact, until ditches were cut, they had not even 

 made a channel for themselves. They evidently mark the course of 



■ Phinney, 12th Ann. Rciit., Ind. Dc'iil. Geology and Natural Hist. ji. 180. 

 "Proc. 38th Meeting, 1922 (1923)." 



