1973 Aerial Photos

Click on images to enlarge if you dare. These are big files.

These photos were taken from such a high altitude that it's difficult to see any ground-level detail. This first one is eastern Lake and western Porter Counties. The intersection of Ainsworth Road and Grand Trunk Railroad is at the left edge of the photo, a little more than one-third of the way from the top. You can clearly see the race track where Deep River County Park remote-controlled airplane field is now. They've made its shape more regular and symmetrical since 1965.


All three photos in this post are courtesy of the Indiana State Archives, Indiana Commission on Public Records.

In this image, the Deep River race track/airplane field is toward the right border. At left is the intersection of I-65 and U.S. 30, and we can see what looks to be Southlake Mall in its early stages, perhaps under construction.



Here's another shot that includes Southlake Mall. Ainsworth is under the "18089" at top right.



In these two last images, there is what appears to be a railroad, or the remains of a railroad, running diagonally across the landscape, crossing Route 30 just east of Southlake Mall, then continuing northwest under I-65. I was glad to see this because it might be the railroad that's had me mystified as I've been reading the early-1900s Hobart Gazette. A new railroad was just being proposed in 1901; construction began in 1902, with the railroad entering Lake County from the east where Ross Township and Winfield Township meet, then continuing northwest to a depot in Merrillville, and by 1904 it had reached Griffith. I didn't remember ever seeing such a railroad. The Gazette called it the Cincinnati, Richmond & Muncie Railroad, but also once referred to it as the Chicago, Cincinnati & Louisville Railroad. At last reading, in 1904, the railroad was still seeking terminal facilities in Chicago, and had already killed one person in Merrillville.


Sources:
♦ "General News Items." Hobart Gazette 18 April 1902, 23 May 1902, 27 June 1902, 18 July 1902, 5 Sept. 1902, 21 Nov. 1902, 29 May 1903, 4 Dec. 1903, 18 Dec. 1903, 13 May 1904, 24 June 1904.
♦ "Railroad Elections." Hobart Gazette 11 Oct. 1901.