High Water

Contributed by Teresa Douglass, Genealogy Specialist

Although the flash flood we experienced this week was a rare occurrence for most of us, photos of past floods over the years remind us this was not the first time Indian Creek has left its banks – and likely won’t be the last. These and other flood photos are available in the HCPL Fires and Floods digital collection.

Intersection of Poplar Street and Market Street (Capitol Avenue), May 1928

The large building on the corner facing Market Street (Capitol Avenue) was, at the time of this photograph, the George B. Wahl Hardware Store. During the late 20th century, it housed Alstott’s Hardware. The church seen midway down Poplar Street was constructed in 1837 as a United Brethren Church and was originally located on Mulberry Street, where it was later used by the Christian Church congregation. When that congregation decided to build a new church at the Mulberry Street location, it moved the older church building to Poplar Street, ca. 1903. The church was razed in 1947.

South Market Street (now Capitol Ave.), June 1939

Flood waters cover what is now Capitol Avenue in June 1939. Men in the photo stand in front of Clark Motor Supply. It was reported that the water was the highest it had ever been in the building. The view of the photograph is to the south, and in the distance can be seen the south bridge over Little Indian Creek.

Mulberry Street, Corydon, early 1900s.

Two young girls stand together on a swing that extends from a tree branch over a wet and muddy Mulberry Street in Corydon following a flood during the early 1900s.

Harrison County Fairground, 1975

Flood waters inundate the Harrison County Fairground in Corydon in 1975.