Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 December 1905 — LAKE COUNTY SINKHOLES. [ARTICLE]

LAKE COUNTY SINKHOLES.

Only a few years ago the Monon was having lots of trouble in getting a solid bed for its road over a sinkhole north of Cedar Lake, hundreds of carloads of stone and other material being dumped therein. Now the new Indiana Harbor road is meeting with a like experience near St. Johns which the Morocco correspondent of the Newton County Enterprise has the following interesting mention: “Some of our citizens recently visited the far famed “sink bole” near St. Johns, and brought back samples of the soil, if such it can be called from this peculiar phenomenon. This hole turns out to be, upon close investigation, not an undergrown lake or river but instead a vast deposit of peat, very similar to that used for fuel in many parts of the British Isles. It is a water soaked mass of fine vegetation in a semi-decayed state. It is of a light brownish color, very light in weight when dry, and burns very slowly, giving off intense heat. This peat bog has caused no little trouble to the new railroad as the weight of the filling of one part of its surface causes unheavels at other places. Nothing is known definitely as to the depth of the bog and borings to a depth of thirty feet reveal no change in the nature of its substance.” • - - -