Allen County Highpoint Trip Report
Date: March 8, 2007
Author: John Hasch
Road mileages
0.0 - Leave work (Tax return office) and head to US 33 - travel northeast.
10.2 - Intersection with US 33 / McDuffee Road - turn right (north).
13.2 - Intersection with Duglay Road - continue north.
13.5 - Intersection with IN 205 - continue north.
14.2 - Intersection with Bryie Road - turn left (west).
14.7 - Harold Anderson farm - 12735 Bryie Road - number on sign next to mailbox.
15.1 - John Anderson farm - 9499E CR 600N - number on sign next to mailbox.
15.6 - Intersection with McDuffee Road - turn left (north).
15.8 - Pull over next to roadside HP.
I had just met my last appointment of the day. I was (relatively) caught up
with my tax return work. The day was sunny and clear. My mud boots were in the car.
I decided this was the day to pursue the home county. Besides, I had a
couple errands to run in that side of the county. This effort was spontaneous
but a no-brainer.
I approached the area by coming from Fort Wayne on US 33. At McDuffee Road,
I turned right (north) and continued on to the intersection with IN 205.
At this point, my route converged with the roads described by Bob Schwab’s trip report
dated May 6, 2001. I will refer to the areas using the same Area names that were
assigned by Bob. I started my coverage by visiting the areas in the reverse order.
First stop was the Harold Anderson farm located south from the
intersection of Bryie Road and East County Line Road.
I drove up to the farmhouse and parked near the garage. I knocked at the back
door and the homeowner, Mrs. Harold Anderson, eventually met me. I told her why
I was there and asked her permission to wander around her farm. She invited me
inside and told me she had been visited 3-4 years ago (not too bad for a 90s+ woman -
Bob’s visit was actually almost 6 years ago). We chatted a bit longer
before this pleasant woman gave me permission to visit the two contour areas
shown on the topo map.
When I stepped outside, I saw a truck coming up the gravel driveway. The person
in the truck was her son, John (Glenn, as referred to by his mother) Anderson.
He told me he owned the farm just down the road. John also recalled the visit
of "some man from Michigan" who set up some pretty elaborate equipment to gauge
the elevations of the various Areas. I was familiar with this man’s name
because of Bob’s excellent trip report and I asked permission to visit his farm
fields when I was done with this farm. He told me I could look everywhere
except in the fenced pasture to the west. He told me he had a temperamental
bull in that pasture. I told him that would not be a problem because that
pasture was west of the county line, in Whitley County.
Both Ms. Anderson and John Anderson were aware that their farms were at or near
the high elevations of Allen County. John told me the county highpoint was
actually under the house, where the chimney now stands next to the garage.
He told me the old farm windmill was previously located on that spot.
He recalled many stories of watering the animals as a boy who used the windmill
to operate the water pump. He also gave me a tip about the Whitley County HP.
He had heard that a large dairy farm operation was now at that site.
I will keep that tip in mind as I verify that CoHP on some other day.
To prepare for this trip, I went online to the Allen County GIS portal, a free
geological mapping system. One of the features of this GIS portal is a 2-foot
contour mapping of the entire Allen County. I was told of this website by one
of the civil engineers who makes office space available to me (the zero mile
marker for this trip). Interestingly, the other civil engineer is the county
surveyor for nearby DeKalb County. The Allen County GIS portal website,
using the public access point, can be found
here.
I reviewed the 2-foot contours for each area identified by Bob Schwab.
In descending order, the 2-foot contours were listed as:
910 feet - Area 6
908 feet - Areas 1,3
906 feet - Area 5
904 feet - Areas 2,4
The contour map actually showed 4 areas between 904 feet and 905 feet in the
field identified by Bob as Area 4. In addition to the largest area just east of
the John Anderson farm, I have labeled the other 3 areas 4b, 4c, and 4d.
I went behind the house and walked along the fence that extends along the county line.
The obvious high spot, Area 6, was observed to be under the white
clothesline. My relative altimeter reading showed 922 feet for this point.
I then went into the field and walked around the high ground labeled Area 5.
No altimeter readings were recorded there but the area surrounding the house was
clearly higher.
I then drove to the John Anderson farm. Bryie Road turns north and becomes East
County Line Road (a clear referral to Whitley County) before it turns west again
where its name is CR 600N, also a Whitley County reference. There is one house
on the East County Line Road that uses a (Whitley) County Line Road address,
and the John Anderson farm also bears a Whitley County address. The farm fields
were muddy but easily traveled. Most of the snow had melted, and steps each
caused a sinking of a couple inches. I started by wandering around Area 4.
My altimeter recorded the (relative) elevation there as 917 feet. I continued
southeast where I wandered around Area 4d. The altimeter recorded the
(relative) elevation there as 914 feet. I continued walking north to Area 4c,
which appeared to be lower than Area 4d. I walked north until Area 4b was due east.
It did not appear to be as high as areas already visited, so I skipped it.
I returned to my car by passing through some of the northernmost extent of Area 4.
I drove back to McDuffee Road and headed north to the nearby high spot on the
west side of the road about 0.2 mile north of Bryie Road. This Area 3 could
make a good challenge for the actual county high point. My (relative) altimeter
read 923-924 feet there, the highest readings I obtained at any of the sites.
I then hiked through the corn stubs to the Area 2 in the same field to the
northwest near the tree line. My altimeter recorded the (relative) elevation
there as 917 feet.
The final stop of this search was Area 1, located in the area surrounding and in
front of the two barns lying left (west) of the house. I stopped at the house
to ask permission to visit but no one was home. The only living thing
encountered was a large, young dog that was very friendly - a mutt that I
believe had some golden retriever in its blood. The dog greeted me with a
wagging tail and it jumped up to say hello.
Its large paws reached nearly to my shoulders.
I was clearly glad this animal was a friend and not a foe.
The ground there was unremarkable, and my altimeter recorded the (relative)
elevation there as 917 feet.
To recap, my highest relative elevations were recorded in Area 3 and Area 6.
This was confirmed by the 2-foot contours found on the Allen County website.
My belief is that one of these areas is the true high point of Allen County.
Areas 1, 2, and 4 presented lower relative elevations, which was also confirmed by the
2-foot contours. And Area 5 was visually lower than Area 6.
The usual disclaimer applies - future HP’ers should visit each area so they can
make their own determinations.
Statistics
Time In, Out: 4:16 pm, 5:30 pm
Temperature: mid 30s
Wind: Mostly Calm
Tools/Aids: None
Steps/Distance hiked: Not tracked