Monument City

Overview

A town named for a monument

In 1869 the people of Polk Township raised $500 for a marble shaft near the north bank of the Salamonie River, carved with the names of 27 local men who died in the Civil War. About five or six years later Jacob Leedy, James Q. Pilcher and others laid out a small town beside it and called it Monument City. The plat, filed in March 1876, had 18 lots on Oak Street and River Street.

It never grew much. A sawmill and a general store came first, then a blacksmith, a church and a school that by 1912 included a certified high school. In 2012 a former pupil, then 80, remembered seven houses and 30 to 35 people in town. Farmers came in at night to loaf at the general store.

Then the Army Corps of Engineers dammed the Salamonie to protect Wabash, Peru and the towns downstream from floods. Monument City was abandoned in 1964. Most houses were bulldozed, the monument and the church graves were moved to higher ground, and the lake covered the site. Each fall, when the reservoir drops to winter pool, its foundations and roadbeds come back into view.

Timeline

From monument to reservoir

1. 1869Polk Township raises $500 by subscription and puts up a marble shaft near the north bank of the Salamonie River, carved with the names of 27 township men who died in the Civil War.
2. Mar 8, 1876The plat of Monument City, laid out by Jacob Leedy, James Q. Pilcher and others beside the monument, is filed. It has 18 lots, with Oak Street and River Street as the main streets.
3. Late 1870sWeeks & Slyter open a sawmill and a general store, and William Armstrong starts a blacksmith shop.
4. Jan 19, 1898The township trustee lays out a 64-lot addition to the cemetery just west of town, where the monument stands.
5. 1912–13Two of Polk Township's nine teachers work in the certified high school at Monument City.
6. 1950The USGS Andrews sheet shows the village on a small street grid north of the river, with a school and a church and cemetery on its west side.
7. 1964The town is abandoned ahead of the Salamonie Reservoir. Most houses are bulldozed and a few are moved. The monument and the graves from the Wesleyan church cemetery go to a new Monument City Cemetery about a mile north.
8. 1965–1967The reservoir floods the valley. Wikipedia dates the flooding to 1965, and the 2012 IndyStar story dates the reservoir to 1965. Indiana Connection says the dam was finished in 1967 and the reservoir began flooding the valley by that winter.
9. July 2012Drought drops the lake more than a dozen feet and exposes the townsite in summer. Crowds arrive, and the Indiana DNR closes the site after people start collecting artifacts, then runs two supervised tours.
10. Mar 2026A visitor's video posted March 28, filmed on a February day at winter pool, walks the old County Road 800 West roadbed to the site and shows foundations, brick from the school and its floorboards, then the monument in the new cemetery.

2012

The summer the town came back

The remains are normally under water in summer. In July 2012 a historic drought lowered the lake by more than a dozen feet, and Monument City made national news. The Indianapolis Star found "some dirt roads, a few building foundations and a few red bricks from the old schoolhouse." Marvin McNew, the DNR's director of interpretive services, told the paper, "Everybody thinks it's the city from Atlantis. It's nothing real big."

Sightseers came anyway. The DNR said it closed access to the site after people started looking for and collecting artifacts, and the townsite could still be seen from a bluff on the east side of the lake. Indiana Connection reported that the DNR then ran two supervised evening tours from the Salamonie Interpretive Center.

In 2012 Indiana Connection wrote that state and federal laws protect all potential artifacts at the site. Look, photograph, and leave everything where it lies.

Site map

Where the village stood

The 1950 USGS sheet puts the village at a crossroads on the north side of the Salamonie, on the road that is now County Road 800 West. About a dozen buildings sit on two short blocks, with the school and a church and cemetery just west. The 1969 sheet shows the same ground under Salamonie Lake, with Monument Island to the east and the Lost Bridge public use area and its boat ramp to the south. Wikipedia gives its coordinates as a parking area for viewing the remains. They fall about 0.9 mile south-southeast of the village, so this page uses the 1950 map instead.

In 2012 Indiana Connection listed "a few stone foundations, a scattering of bricks, gravel roadbeds, slabs of concrete and such." The monument stands in Monument City Cemetery about a mile north. A visitor's blog shows it there in May 2025, and a visitor's video posted in March 2026 shows it again. The same video, filmed on a February day at winter pool, follows the old roadbed into the townsite and finds foundations, sidewalks, and brick piles and floorboards the creator takes to be the school's. In 2012 Indiana Connection photographed tour visitors at the school's foundation and bricks.

• Stone foundations
• Scattered bricks, some from the school
• Gravel roadbeds
• Concrete slabs
• Civil War monument (1869), now in Monument City Cemetery

Historic maps

Monument City on USGS maps, 1950–1986

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.

19501:24,00019691:24,00019861:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Huntington is the closest city, about 22 minutes away by US 24 and SR 105. From Fort Wayne the drive runs down I-69 and US 24. Both follow SR 105 south on County Road 800 West and keep straight on 800 West where SR 105 turns west at 200 South. They end at the road's dead end by the summer shoreline, about a quarter mile short of the village site, which is under the lake.

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

Directions go to the dead end of County Road 800 West at the lake, where the drive ends, not to the townsite.

Photos

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Visitor reports

Been to Monument City?

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 Monument City

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

• Snow Hill20.1 mi SW · Miami
• Paw Paw20.3 mi W · Miami
• Cary21.7 mi SW · Miami
• Niconza21.8 mi NW · Wabash
• Brownell23.0 mi W · Miami
• Mollie23.8 mi SE · Blackford
• Anson24.6 mi W · Miami
• Wooleytown25.5 mi W · Miami

Sources

Sources and credits

1. ghosttowns.com, "Monument City": fact sheet fields (climate, best time).
2. Wikipedia, "Monument City, Huntington County, Indiana", retrieved October 2026: the 1965 flooding, the cemetery's move within Polk Township, the 2012 closure. Its coordinates, which it gives for the parking area for viewing the remains, sit about 0.9 mile south-southeast of the village shown on the 1950 USGS sheet.
3. Frank Sumner Bash, History of Huntington County, Indiana, vol. 1 (1914), via the Internet Archive: the 1869 monument and its cost, the plat and its filing date, section 23 and reserve No. 30, the first businesses, the cemetery addition of 1898, the high school, the church.
4. Jill Disis, "Drought reveals an Ind. city under a reservoir," The Indianapolis Star via USA Today, July 26, 2012 (archived copy of December 20, 2016): population, what the drought exposed, the monument's move, the DNR closure and quotes, the viewing bluff, the Corps of Engineers and the flood-control purpose.
5. Richard G. Biever, "A Monument to Memories," Indiana Connection, September 15, 2012: the 1964 abandonment, bulldozed and moved houses, the 1967 dam, the winter-pool exposure, remains, the supervised tours, parking and the gate on County Road 800 West, the artifact laws.
6. Ted Shideler, "The Monument of Monument City," May 2025: a visit to the monument in the new cemetery, with photos dated May 26, 2025.
7. Chad On The Road, "I Explored An Indiana Town That Was Swallowed by a Lake - I Found What's Left Of Monument City," YouTube, posted March 28, 2026: a walk on a February day, as the narration says, at winter pool down the old County Road 800 West roadbed to the foundations, sidewalks, school brick and floorboards and the old cemetery site, then the monument in the new cemetery. It also has overhead drone shots of the foundations.
8. Indiana DNR, Salamonie Lake, read October 2026: property office and phone, and its Corps of Engineers flood-control origin. It doesn't mention Monument City. Indiana DNR, "Drones and motor-driven airborne devices on DNR properties", read October 2026: drones barred on DNR properties except at designated sites (312 IAC 8-2-8(i)). USGS Protected Areas Database (PAD-US), queried October 2026: the village site is Corps of Engineers land managed by the Indiana DNR, listed as open access (2007 data). The 755 ft normal pool is printed on the 1969 USGS Andrews sheet.
9. Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, Andrews 1950 and 1969 and Wabash 1986 sheets. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

• Monument City on the 1950 USGS Andrews sheet: the village grid north of the Salamonie, with the school and the cemetery to the west: 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): Andrews 1950, 1:24,000; Andrews 1969, 1:24,000; Wabash 1986, 1:100,000.