Sloan

Overview

A post office by the tracks

Sloan grew up where a railroad crossed the road on the line between Jordan and Steuben townships in Warren County, less than a mile east of Hedrick. Wikipedia says the rail line through Jordan Township was finished in 1903. A post office opened beside the tracks in 1913 or 1914, depending on the source, and took its name from the local Sloan family. It closed on November 29, 1941.

The place lasted longer than its post office. A store ran on into the middle of the century, and grain silos stood across the tracks. Accounts of the store's last operator differ, from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. Old USGS sheets still printed the name in 1984. The railroad, by then part of Conrail, stopped running in the 1990s and its tracks were pulled up. A photo from March 1995 shows the empty store and the two silos. By November 2006 Wikipedia said no structures remained, and in 2010 the 1995 photographer wrote that both had been torn down.

Today the corner of West 100 South and South 825 West is farm country. On aerial imagery a strip of trees runs south from the corner, on the line the railroad takes on the 1961 USGS sheet, and a farmstead sits just southwest of the corner. A visitor who filmed the site in January 2022 found a foundation and little else.

Timeline

What we know

1. 1903A railroad line through Jordan Township is finished, according to Wikipedia.
2. 1913–1914A post office opens beside the tracks at the township's southern edge, named for the local Sloan family. Wikipedia and the Warren County timeline give June 18, 1914. Jim Forte's postal history list gives 1913.
3. Nov 29, 1941The Sloan post office closes.
4. 1940s–1960sThe store's last years. The 1995 photographer's description names Clinton Bryant as its last operator, in the late 1950s or early 1960s. A later edit to the same file page, by another user, says Quentin Bryant, in the late 1940s or early 1950s.
5. 1953The USGS Danville sheet marks Sloan on the rail line south of Stewart, just east of Hedrick, and labels the line NYC farther south.
6. 1961The USGS West Lebanon sheet shows Sloan at the crossing of the railroad and the township-line road, with a handful of building symbols around the corner.
7. 1984The USGS Danville sheet still labels Sloan, and prints CONRAIL along the line north of it.
8. 1990sThe railroad stops running, and the tracks are later taken up.
9. Mar 14, 1995A photo shows the two-story store building beside a gravel road, with two grain silos behind it across the tracks.
10. Oct 2006A photo from the old crossing shows a weathered crossbuck, a gravel road and fields. That November the same photographer adds a line to Wikipedia saying no structures remain.
11. By 2010The 1995 photographer reports that the store and the silos have been torn down and the tracks removed.
12. Jan 2022A visitor's video, filmed on the 23rd and uploaded on the 29th, shows a low brick and concrete foundation in brush and concrete outlines among trees along what the narrator calls the railroad line. He says the crossing sign is gone.

What's left

A corner, a tree line and a foundation

Sloan's last buildings were a two-story store and a pair of grain silos. In the March 1995 photo the store has a green shingled front, a buff brick side and empty window openings, and the silos rise behind it across the tracks. The photographer wrote in 2010 that both had since been torn down and the tracks removed.

A photo from October 2006, taken at the old crossing, shows a weathered crossbuck, a gravel road running east between fields, and a few trees. A video filmed in January 2022 shows a low brick and concrete foundation in brush, and concrete outlines among the trees along what the narrator calls the railroad line just north of Sloan. He says the crossing sign is gone and that nothing else is left. On the 1961 USGS sheet, a handful of building symbols sit around the crossing. On aerial imagery today, a strip of trees runs south of the corner on the line the 1961 sheet gives the railroad. That match is our reading of the maps; no source says the trees mark the rail bed. A farmstead sits just southwest of the corner. Redwood Creek passes to the west and south.

• A foundation (2022 video)
• A tree strip where the 1961 sheet draws the railroad
• The crossroads of 100 S and 825 W

Historic maps

Sloan on the USGS sheets

The 1953 Danville sheet shows Sloan on a rail line that runs south from Stewart and bends southwest, where the sheet labels it NYC. Hedrick sits just northwest of Sloan, and a dashed line labeled railroad runs west from Hedrick toward Alvin. State Road 28 crosses to the south.

The 1961 West Lebanon sheet is the most detailed. It puts Sloan at the crossing of the railroad and the township-line road, with a benchmark of 713 feet and a handful of buildings around the corner. On the 1984 Danville sheet the line north of Sloan is labeled CONRAIL, and both Sloan and Hedrick are still named.

Historic maps

Sloan 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.

19531:250,00019611:24,00019841:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Danville, Illinois, is the closest city, about 43 minutes away by I-74 and SR 63. From Indianapolis the drive is out I-74 west. Both routes end on West 100 South at its corner with South 825 West, where Sloan stood. We haven't been there.

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

Photos

Sloan in photos

The store building and the silos, March 1995The old railroad crossing, looking east, October 2006

Visitor reports

Been to Sloan?

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.

Thanks. Your report reached us, and we'll read it before it goes on the page.

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Nearby

Other sites near Sloan

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

• Sycamore Corner4.6 mi NE · Warren
• Old Town5.6 mi SE · Warren
• Baltimore9.6 mi S · Warren
• Locust Grove9.8 mi N · Warren
• Mudlavia Springs10.0 mi E · Warren
• Point Pleasant10.1 mi NE · Warren
• Romine Corner11.3 mi S · Warren
• Warrenton11.5 mi E · Warren

Sources

Sources and credits

1. Wikipedia, "Sloan, Indiana", retrieved October 2026: coordinates and GNIS ID, the township line, the 1903 rail line, the post office dates and the Sloan family, the railroad's end in the 1990s, Redwood Creek and the corner of 100 S and 825 W. Its "no structures remain" line was added in November 2006 by the author of the 2006 crossing photo; its only listed reference is the Warren County Historical Society's 2002 county history.
2. Wikipedia, "Timeline of Warren County, Indiana history", retrieved October 2026: the post office dates of June 18, 1914 and November 29, 1941.
3. Jim Forte Postal History, Warren County, Indiana post offices, retrieved October 2026: Sloan listed as 1913–1941.
4. Wikimedia Commons, photo by Omnedon, March 14, 1995: the store building and silos, the view east-southeast, and the uploader's July 2010 note that the store, silos and tracks are gone. The uploader's description named Clinton Bryant as the store's last operator, in the late 1950s or early 1960s; a 2014 edit by another user changed it to Quentin Bryant, in the late 1940s or early 1950s.
5. Wikimedia Commons, photo by Huw Williams, October 4, 2006: the crossbuck at the old crossing and the view east, with its camera location.
6. Dashborderless, "Ghost Towns of Indiana | Warren County", YouTube video uploaded January 29, 2022 (filmed the Sunday before): the narrator's visit to Sloan, the foundation, the concrete outlines and the missing crossing sign. Read from its captions and checked against its storyboard frames.
7. BLM National PLSS (CadNSDI): the coordinates fall on the line between section 31, T22N R9W, and section 6, T21N R9W.
8. Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, Danville 1953 and 1984 and West Lebanon 1961 sheets. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

• The store building and the silos, March 1995: Omnedon, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• The old railroad crossing, looking east, October 2006: Huw Williams (Huwmanbeing), Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• The 1961 USGS West Lebanon sheet: Sloan at the rail crossing, with Hedrick to the west and a creek looping south: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
• The 1953 USGS Danville sheet: Sloan and Hedrick between Stewart and State Road 28: 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; West Lebanon 1961, 1:24,000; Danville 1984, 1:100,000.