The Old Indiana 25 bridge spans Deer Creek

By Mark Alan Smith, Carroll County Historian and Genealogist

Deer Creek and adjacent trail running beneath the Old IN-25 bridge in Delphi. Photograph provided by Mark Alan Smith.

Recent action to improve the hiking atmosphere and ambiance in the area surrounding the present bridge on SR 25 prompts the Carroll County Historian and Genealogist to quote the noted Carroll County Historian and Author Dora Thomas Mayhill in her Postal History book, p. 147:

Today, if one were to stand on the bridge over Deer Creek south of Delphi over which the traffic on state road 25 passes, you would be within a mile of ten different modes of travel which at one time or another passed through Delphi.

There was first, of course, the Wabash River and Deer Creek-the Indian trail which forded Deer Creek about where the bridge stands today-the first woods trace hacked out by Henry Robinson, first settler here, his sons and the two expert woodsmen they brought with them from the Wea Plains south of Lafayette-the first State road which came in around the west point of the South Delphi hillĀ  then the canal-plank road to Frankfort-Wabash Railroad-gravel road to Pyrmont-interurban-and now the paved road.

Views from the IN-25 bridge circa 1967. Photograph provided by Mark Alan Smith.

Note: Work is currently planned to improve the Old Indiana 25 bridge over Deer Creek, and this project will include improvements to the nearby trails managed by Wabash & Erie Canal Park.