Friday, April 3, 2009


Rome City, Indiana receives $2 Billion in Stimulus funds. Washington State Governor, Christine, was on hand at the ceremony mumbling something about how she was going to clean up voter fraud if it’s the last thing she ever does. She’s dedicated, that’s for sure.

Right now you’re probably wondering how a place you may never have heard of could get on the list. Don’t you have more important things to wonder about? Sheesh!

Well dig this: Rome City is a small town on Sylvan Lake in the northeast part of Indiana in a county called Noble. It would have to be.

Rome City got its name during the construction of the dam in the 1830s. The name had to do with construction workers and the US Mail. There was a dispute over who got the good work locations. One group got sedan chairs, steak and potatoes, and lived in plush tents next to their work site. The other crew had to walk five miles every day and lived on beans and franks. They had a clash and managers had to settle it.

The settlement consisted of (to make a long boring story into a short boring story) allowing crews to bunk down near their work sites. They were allowed to eat all the crawdads they could catch. Thus different work crews bunked in different locations.

In those days workers were not as privileged as today so they accepted the new arrangement. They shrugged and said, “When in Rome…” They wrote to relatives jokingly that they were now working in “Rome.” So relatives began addressing their cards and letters to “Rome, Indiana.”
The US Mail got involved because there was already a town by that name in Indiana. So it got changed to Rome City. Never mess with the US Mail.

But why were grouchy people building a dam in northeast Indiana? Here’s why and it’s all true.
In the way early 1800s America decided to build a canal across New York State and they called it the Erie Canal. It was used to haul bulk goods and slow passengers between New York City and Lake Erie. Eventually the bulk would have wound up in the Bel-Red area.


Many rich business and political dudes thought the canal should continue from Lake Erie to Lake Michigan. Essentially from Toledo to Chicago. Check the map, its right there. That would connect the East Coast to the Great Midwest. Nothing makes New Yorkers happier than beef from the Chicago Stockyards.

The dam was completed (twice) and work on the ditch part was progressing. They had to use oxen and shovels so it was slow work. They also had to quit in the winter months because everything froze. Finally one winter the workers headed down to Fort Wayne and caught the new train for their trip back east.


Umm, wait a minute. They caught the train? Oops. Well, guess what? Suddenly the “Great Idea” to extend the Erie Canal all the way to Chicago was not so great. Railroads could carry everything and do it a lot faster. They could run all year whether the weather was dry, wet, or frozen. Chicago beef could reach New York before the moo evaporated.

The canal project was canceled. In those days government could figure out how to cancel a project that no longer had a purpose. Rome City got to keep the dam and Sylvan Lake. The railroad even built a station there and ran the line across the dam. Rome City became a lakeside resort town and has been somewhat that way ever since. It has a post office, unlike Newcastle.

Who cares? I do. I went to High School in Rome City. Yes, that’s right, High School in a resort town. Our mascot was the “Romans.” Everyone thought it was a reference to the old Roman legions with Caesar and Clavius. No, it was homage to the gangs that built the Sylvan Lake Dam. Our symbol was the shovel.



History is such fun when you don’t have to worry too much about accuracy. Speaking of history, the High School was closed and demolished a year after my class graduated. It is no more. If you Google “Rome City School” you get hundreds of hits on Rome, Georgia. It’s pathetic.


Rome City got on the stimulus list because of the canceled canal project. Somehow our federal government figured canceling the canal had an economic impact on Rome City and they needed to make up for it. But the good news is I’m still handsome. Accuracy is still optional.


Al

No comments: