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Patoka River – Houchins Drain or The New River

The Patoka River has a lot of history and stories, some are true and some are exaggerated. Probably the dredging of the Houchins Drain or “New River” as most people in our area call it was the most controversial thing that has happened to the Patoka River.

The dredging of the South Fork of the Patoka River, near Winslow, Indiana, was contracted in 1914. This drain was 14 miles long and cost $39,088.88 and according to newspaper reports drained swampland and made farmland available. The dredging left several oxbows or parts of the old riverbed and some good-sized bodies of water, Snaky Point is one of those many fishermen know.

The success of the South Fork Drain caused some area residents to petition for Houchins Drain or “New River” in about 1916. This dredging was to be from the Winslow area to a point about ¾ of mile downriver from Moore’s Bridge, near where I grew up, The proposed drain would cut across the bottomland of the Patoka River and would make a 37-mile section of the river into a 17-mile ditch across the bottomland. Many landowners objected to this drain because it would cut off large sections of the Patoka River leaving them to fill up with silt and making the field tile draining these areas ineffective. Another reason for landowners objecting was the $525,000.00 cost, which would be assessed to the landowners affected by the “New River”. Some families to this day complain that their families lost their property because they could not pay the assessment for the dredging. I somehow thought the cost of dredging the “New River” was assisted by the government in some way, but my father and Uncle Chester told me that as far as they knew it was paid for by the landowners.

The “New River” was argued in the Pike County Courts for nearly four years by the remonstrators, but the argument that 100,000 acres of farmland would be created by the “New River” prevailed and the court ordered the dredging to be contracted in 1919. The dredging of the” New River” was to be accomplished by two dredge boats with Bucyrus Erie dredges mounted on them. One dredge started near Winslow and the other started about ¾ of a mile south of Moore’s Bridge. The plan was for the two dredges to meet and make a more direct route for the Patoka River to the Wabash River.

The dredges were steam powered and required coal to be delivered daily by horse drawn wagons. Scott Hunt was one of those teamsters that hauled coal to the dredges and my father and Uncle Chester always remarked that Scott Hunt was about the only driver they ever saw that could handle teams to pull two wagons at one time. They said he was a skilled teamster and always had some the strongest and best-trained horses.

The “New River” dredges did meet in 1924 and reportedly some miscalculation occurred the dredge coming from Winslow was digging the drain nearly 9 feet deeper than the dredge coming from the west. My Uncle Farmer Kirk said that several people were on hand for the meeting of the two dredges and to their dismay the Patoka River ran backward due to the difference in elevations. The difference was filled in time, but this point in the river proved to be an area where logjams occurred for some time.

Another problem is the amount of difference in elevation of the Patoka River at Winslow and where the 17-mile “New River” ends. Some say the difference only 6inches of fall and the amount of fall from Winslow to the Wabash River is about 3&1/2 feet. This makes the Patoka River current very slow and very much influenced by flooding of the Wabash River.

For some time now the water from Yellow Creek coming into Old Patoka River at Wheeling flows upstream to the New River.