Nine Penny Branch Nature Preserve

Nine Penny Branch Nature Preserve
Today we will visit the Nine Penny Branch Nature Preserve, located near Charlestown, Indiana
Southeast Indiana Day Trips

Part of the:
Road Trip Indiana Series

Transcript:

Greetings, today we will visit the Nine Penny Branch Nature Preserve, located near Charlestown, Indiana
At 121 acres, Nine Penny Branch Nature Preserve offers a delightful trail along cascading Nine Penny Branch to a charming waterfall at trail’s end. The Preserve’s large parking lot accomodates buses and cars.
Local lore suggests two sources for the name, Nine Penny Branch that traverses the preserve. One suggests that it used to cost travelers with wagons nine pennies to cross this route. Another suggests a worker once lost his day’s wages, nine cents, in the creek. Whichever is the source, the preserve is a pleasant spot to hike and bask in the lovely woods, stream and waterfall. The land which forms the preserve was once part of Clark’s Grant, which was eventually handed down to Faris’ great great grandfather, John Work. The historical marker for John Work is on Tunnel Mill Road about a mile east of the Preserve’s entrance.
The Trail
Hikers on this short, wide gravel trail will see remnants of old stone fences that once lined the fields in the Preserve. A stage coach route once traversed the stream bed and now forms a portion of the trail. The beginning of the trail is ADA. This part ends at an overlook at about 1/3 of a mile. There are benches here on which to rest. The remaining 1/3 mile is ADA grade, but the surface is not. It is an easy, short hike of about 1.5 miles, round trip. As the trail reaches the creek, it levels off and remains so until it reaches the falls. There is a bench at the bottom. The falls are about three to four feet high and quite pretty.
To Get There
From Indiana State Road 62, on the northeast side of Charlestown, Indiana, turn north on Monroe Street. After driving about a third of a mile, turn right on Tunnel Mill Road. The preserve is about 2.5 miles on the left.
This is a great hike for outdoor lovers that are physically challenged.
Arthur Willis Faris (1902 – 1989)
The son of William Work And Nannie Rosella Barnes Faris, Arthur Faris was native to Charlestown, Indiana. At one time, Faris owned the tract now included in Nine Penny Nature Preserve. According to local lore, Faris protected this area, at times patroling it with a pistol which he would discharge into the air to scare off interlopers. He is interred at Charlestown Cemetery.
Nine Penny Branch Nature Preserve
3142 Tunnel Mill Road
Charlestown, Indiana

On the way to the preserve visitors will pass an historical marker noting an interesting historical site, the Tunnel Mill.

Title of Marker:
Tunnel Mill
Location:
3709 Tunnel Mill Road, Charlestown. (Clark County, Indiana) –

Marker Text:
Side one:
John Work (1760-1832), one of area’s most prominent businessmen, settled on Fourteen Mile Creek 1804; had this house built circa 1811; built grist mill, tunnel, and dam on creek circa 1814-1816. Over time, Work operated three grist mills, four saw mills, powder mill, distillery, stone sawing mill, and general store.
Side two:
Tunnel dug near here was six feet tall, five feet wide, over 385 feet long, and considered major engineering feat. Blasting through limestone hill took nearly 2.5 years. Tunnel served as mill race providing consistent water supply. Mill was three stories tall with limestone foundation. Upper two floors made of wood. Mill burned 1927.”

John Work bought 100 acres of land along Fourteen Mile Creek in 1804 that included a gristmill. The mill saw heavy use and after ten years needed extensive repair. Instead of repairing the old structure, Work decided to build a new mill that could operate year round. But to operate the mill he needed a better water supply. That water supply lay on the other side of a high stone ridge 300 foot away.
Immigration From Pennslyvannia
John and his brother Henry moved their families from Red Stone, Pennslyvannia to Kentucky early in the Nineteenth Century. Their aim was to start a gristmill in the new lands of Kentucky. Henry died, leaving the care of his family to John. Not finding a suitable site, John moved both families to a southern Indiana Territory site north of Clarkstown, Indiana. After his arrival in the valley he developed several businesses that included general store, lime kiln, distillery, blacksmith, farrier, gunsmith, salt works and quarry. In 1811 he was doing well enough to build a brick home high on a hill overlooking the Fourteen Mile Creek valley.
The Tunnel
Finding the water he needed to power his mill was not a hard task. It was right there, 300 feet away. Fourteen Mile Creek formed an oxbow on his land. He needed to connect the two channels of the oxbow. He did this at its narrowest point by building a tunnel from one channel to the other. The feat was considered an impressive engineering feat, and for good reason. To dig the tunne, Work needed gunpowder. He made this himself, using salt peter he mined from the high cliffs above the Ohio River. He would need 650 pounds of explosive to dig the tunnel. Using six men and working from both sides of the ridge, Work began to dig and blast the tunnel. He began to dig the tunnel on January 14, 1814. The men completed the tunnel on April 14, 1817. The tunnel was only off by two inches when the men met. The entire community celebrated the event. The tunnel was 388 feet long, six feet tall and five feet wide. Legend has it that a man rode a horse through the tunnel after it was complete. The tunnel was more than adequate and delivered the water Work needed to run his gristmill. Teh mill continued in operation until his death in 1832.
The Tunnel and Mill Today
The property changed hands over the years and a fire destroyed the old mill in 1927. In 1928 the Boy Scouts of America purchased the site. They used the Work home as a residence for Scoutmasters, then the house fell into disrepair. In 2010 the Scouts leased the property to Taylor Rose Historical Outfitters to restore the house. The house and grounds are open to the public on Fridays and Saturdays from Memorial Day through Labor Day on during special events. For more information about this site, contact:
Historic Tunnel Mill
Living History Center
3709 Tunnel Mill Road
Charlestown, IN 47111
Tel: 812-606-1264

Listeners can find this, as well as many other interesting places in Indiana in my book, Southeast Indiana Day Trips. It is volume one in my 9 book Road Trip Indiana Series You can find the book on my website, http://www.mossyfeetbooks.com. It is available in a number of formats including ebook, softbound and audio book on Amazon as well as many other online book retailers. You may also purchase the book direct from me, the author, on the website. The family also appears in my book, A History of Ohio County, Indiana, also available on the web site. I am also including it in a book I am currently working on which will be entitled Interesting Hoosiers in History, due to be published sometime this year.
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