Baltimore, Indiana Ghost Town: History, Map and Directions

Overview

A river town the canal passed by

**Elisha Rodgers's house at Baltimore in an 1877 county atlas, looking northeast to a railroad bridge over the Wabash** · Photo: J. H. Beers and Company, Chicago, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Baltimore sat on the west bank of the Wabash River in Warren County, a few miles upriver from Covington on the opposite bank. William and Charles Willmeth were already keeping a store there in 1828. The next November, William Willmeth and Samuel Hill laid out a town with part of a square kept for a market. An addition laid out soon after to the north set aside part of a lot for a public spring and a square for a meeting house.

For a few years the place did well. Hill's stock of goods, worth $2,500 in 1830, was the biggest in the county. Grain and pork were shipped from the town, a post office opened in 1833, and Samuel Wetzel added a store and a distillery in 1839. Seventy people lived there at one time.

Then the Wabash and Erie Canal was finished on the other side of the river in the 1840s, and traffic on the river fell off. The post office closed in 1865. By 1913 the county's historian wrote that Baltimore had been gone so long that little was remembered about it. Photos from 2007 show a brick house built in the 1880s just east of State Road 263, and Baltimore Cemetery in the woods to the west.

Timeline

What we know

**The 1958 USGS Covington sheet: Baltimore and Rogers cemeteries west of the highway, the Wabash to the east** · Map: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain

1828William and Charles Willmeth open a store on the west bank of the Wabash. Their county license is on record, and they carry about $800 of goods.
Nov 1829William Willmeth and Samuel Hill lay out Baltimore in section 21, with part of a square kept for a market. Soon after, an addition to the north sets aside part of a lot for a public spring and a square for a meeting house.
1830Hill opens a $2,500 stock of goods, the largest in Warren County at the time.
Apr 15, 1833The Baltimore post office opens, with William Willmeth as postmaster.
1839Samuel Wetzel opens a store, sells liquor and runs a distillery.
1840sThe Wabash and Erie Canal is finished on the far side of the river, and Baltimore starts to shrink.
Mar 17, 1865The post office closes for good. Elisha Rodgers is the last postmaster on the county history's list.
1877A county atlas prints a drawing of Elisha Rodgers's house at Baltimore, with a railroad bridge and a steamboat on the river behind it. The bridge carried the Pumpkin Vine, a coal branch of the Chicago, Danville and Vincennes Railroad that crossed the Wabash near Baltimore from 1873 until it closed in 1879.
1880sA brick house goes up. Since 2008 Wikipedia has called it the last remaining building of Baltimore.
1913The county history calls the town "so long been defunct that its history is quite obscure."
1958The USGS Covington sheet marks Baltimore Cemetery and Rogers Cemetery west of the highway, with no town name.
Oct 2007The newest photos we found show the brick house across a field and the Murphy stones in Baltimore Cemetery.

What's left

A brick house and two cemeteries

**Baltimore Cemetery in October 2007, with the Murphy family stone** · Photo: Huw Williams (Huwmanbeing), Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Wikipedia calls the brick house from the 1880s the last building of Baltimore. The line went into the article in 2008, when its only reference was the Warren County Historical Society's 2002 county history. A 2007 photo taken east from the corner of Baltimore Hill Road and State Road 263 shows it as a two-story red brick house with three chimneys, set back across a field. Baltimore Cemetery and Rodgers Cemetery sit about a quarter mile west. The 1958 USGS sheet spells the second one Rogers. Stones photographed in Baltimore Cemetery in 2007 include two Murphy stones, with deaths from 1875 to 1913.

The 1958 sheet shows the highway of the day, now State Road 263, with a road branching west past the two cemeteries. Today's four-lane SR 63 runs about a third of a mile farther west.

Brick house (1880s), seen in 2007
Baltimore Cemetery
Rodgers (Rogers) Cemetery
Wabash riverbank

USGS topographic map of the Baltimore area: SR 263 and SR 63 running north and south, two cemetery symbols west of SR 263, the Wabash River to the east — **USGS The National Map, topo.** State Road 263 runs down the center with the four-lane SR 63 to the west. Two cemetery symbols sit between them, and the Wabash and the Fountain County line are to the east.

Aerial view of the Baltimore area: a four-lane highway at left, woods and clearings, a crossroads with a few buildings, and the Wabash River at right — **Aerial imagery, same area.** SR 63 runs along the left edge. A road meets SR 263 at center among clearings and a few buildings, and the Wabash curves down the right side.

Historic maps

Baltimore on USGS maps, 1953–1984

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Baltimore, 1953 — **Danville sheet, 1953, 1:250,000** · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Covington is across the river, about eight minutes away by US 136 and SR 63. From Indianapolis the drive is out I-74 west. Both routes end on State Road 263 at the townsite. We haven't been there.

USGS topographic map between Covington and Baltimore with the route drawn on it

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From downtown Covington4.6 miabout 8 min

From downtown Covington, take 6th Street and Pearl Street to US 136.0.3 mi
Follow US 136 across the Wabash River.2.6 mi
Take the ramp and merge onto SR 63.0.5 mi
Turn right on State Road 263 to the townsite.1.2 mi

Google Maps directions Apple Maps OpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

The routes are computed from OpenStreetMap and haven't been driven by us.
The brick house may be a private home. Look from the road and don't go onto the property.
We don't know whether the cemeteries can be reached on foot or who looks after them.

Photos

Baltimore in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Baltimore?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Baltimore

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Indiana index.

Romine Corner1.7 mi S · Warren
Old Town7.0 mi NE · Warren
Sloan9.6 mi N · Warren
Sycamore Corner13.4 mi N · Warren
Warrenton13.6 mi NE · Warren
Mudlavia Springs14.3 mi NE · Warren
Glen Cliff14.6 mi NE · Warren
Kickapoo15.8 mi NE · Warren

Sources

Sources and credits

Wikipedia, "Baltimore, Indiana", retrieved October 2026: coordinates, Mound Township, the canal and the town's decline, the 1880s brick house as the last structure (added to the article in February 2008, when its only reference was the Warren County Historical Society's 2002 history), the two cemeteries and SR 263.
Thomas A. Clifton, ed., Past and Present of Fountain and Warren Counties, Indiana (1913), pp. 324–325 and the post office list, via the Internet Archive: the plat in section 21, T20N R9W, the market square, spring and meeting-house lots, the Willmeth and Hill stores, Wetzel's distillery, grain and pork shipping, the population of seventy, and the post office dates and postmasters.
Wikimedia Commons, photos by Huw Williams, October 2007, and the 1877 atlas drawing: the house, its camera location, the cemetery stones, and the drawing's place and view to the northeast.
Wikipedia, "Chicago, Danville and Vincennes Railroad (Indiana Division)", retrieved October 2026, citing Sulzer, Ghost Railroads of Indiana (1998): the Pumpkin Vine branch, finished in 1873, crossed the Wabash near Baltimore, and the Covington to Bismarck section closed in 1879.
BLM National PLSS (CadNSDI): the coordinates fall in section 21, T20N R9W.
Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, Danville 1953 and 1984 and Covington 1958 sheets. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

The brick house from Baltimore Hill Road and SR 263, October 2007: Huw Williams (Huwmanbeing), Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
A pointing-hand stone in Baltimore Cemetery: Surbine C. Murphy, died 1875: Huw Williams (Huwmanbeing), Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
Elisha Rodgers's house at Baltimore, from an 1877 county atlas: J. H. Beers and Company, Chicago, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
Baltimore Cemetery, October 2007: Huw Williams (Huwmanbeing), Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
The 1958 USGS Covington sheet: Baltimore and Rogers cemeteries west of the highway, the Wabash to the east: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Danville 1953, 1:250,000; Covington 1958, 1:24,000; Danville 1984, 1:100,000.