Lake Maumee is the red-pink area on the right of this Map of Allen County Indiana Roads, Bates, Roy M., 1950-1955, Map of Allen County Indiana including townships and roads. Physiographic and geologic supplied by Roy M. Bates. Not dated. on History Center Digital Collection on the mDON mastodon Digital Object Network.
June 10, 2024 post by New Haven Area Heritage Association Admin on Facebook:
New Haven has been ‘old’ for a long time, but you’ve made it historical! The above is a great presentation! I just hope the locals will appreciate it and take care of it! (I’m referring to the art pieces with murals, etc.)
A friend and I paddled our kayaks down the Maumee River a few years ago to near Woodburn. I kept thinking about all the Native Americans that traversed the same waterway over the thousands of years since the last glacial period.
If the landscape that New Haven sits upon could talk, it would have us all spellbound! A geologist from IPFW gave a bus tour of the New Haven community about 35+/- years ago to area school teachers. He explained Lake Maumee and what happened to it when the glacier melted, collapsed, and released immense amounts of water across what is now Ft. Wayne. It flowed toward Huntington and ultimately into the Wabash River Basin. The land which Lake Maumee occupied is today the black, rich farmland that is filling up with new homes and businesses. Highway 37 formed part of the northern boarder of this ancient lake, and local farmers are aware that farmland between Highways 37 and 930 is more productive than land elsewhere. Lake Maumee also covered the Black Swamp in Ohio towards Toledo, where the present Maumee River empties into Lake Erie. Locally the most prominent shoreline in New Haven is seen just north of Highway 930 as you approach it from the north near NHHS, DQ, KFC, and other businesses along the south side of the highway. Central Lutheran and New Haven Middle Schools would have been submerged!
The canal era and the founding of New Haven are recent history compared to the very interesting geological past of this area!