Traders Point Gateway Project Site

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Planting Day Only a Month Away!
Have you got September 22 circled on your calendar? That’s great, because we’re counting on you, and planning to make your day instructive and fun.

This week you’ll begin to see changes in the greenspace surrounding the INDOT Salt Barn. We’ve marked the positions of trees and drawn bedlines. Keep Indianapolis Beautiful has ordered plants and mulch. Next week you’ll begin to see the shapes of the beds emerging on the slopes. With your help, before long the slopes will be populated with a new landscape of native trees, shrubs, and grasses.

Planting and mulching is not all you can look forward to on September 22. You’ll meet enthusiastic Traders Point neighbors, plus a large contingent of Master Gardeners and KIB Volunteers. To cap off the morning, our neighbors at Mill Pond are hosting a barbecue to reward your hard work, supported by in-kind and financial donations from businesses in the vicinity. Mayor Peterson may also pay us a visit.

It’s time now to firm up your plans to participate in planting day, and to recruit any other strong backs you can press into service. We could use a few more to lighten the load for everyone. Please be certain to register all recruits by sending me their email address at wwford@comcast.net. We’ll need this to be able to provide them information and to know how many volunteers to expect.

In the coming month, you’ll be hearing from Keep Indianapolis Beautiful about details of planting day. KIB is also accepting your tax-deductible contributions to defray the cost of keeping the new landscape watered.*

Thank you for participating in this important beautification project. We look forward to seeing you September 22.

–Wendy Ford, Traders Point Gateway Committee

*You may send a check, earmarked for the Traders Point Gateway Project, to Phil Schaefer, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful Inc., 445 N. Pennsylvania St., Suite 910, Indianapolis, IN 46204.

About Ross Reller

I am pleased you have expressed interest in learning more about the historic Traders Point area in Indianapolis, Indiana. From 1980 to 1982 I was employed in the PR department at Conner Prairie Museum in Hamilton County. There I learned about William Conner, an important figure in Indiana's pioneer days. A decade later I became interested in the history of the Traders Point area and was surprised to learn that William Conner had been the first land owner in the area. In 1823 he acquired, through the Federal land office in Brookville, a patent for an 80 acre tract carved by Eagle Creek and an Indian trail that was about to be named the first toll roadway through the township (Lafayette Road). Thirty years later a village took shape within this tract. A grain mill on the creek, houses, churches, stores, restaurants, and two gas stations would take shape here in the creek valley hamlet of Traders Point. By 1962 all improvements (except a farmer's co-op) had been removed by the Indianapolis Flood Control Board to make way for Interstate 65 and a new reservoir. This blog is dedicated to preserving evidence of this historic area but I will occasionally use it to discuss related topics. To activate this follow, simply click the confirm button below. If you don't want to follow, ignore this message and we'll never bother you again. I am also a member of the Old Pleasant Hill Cemetery, a non profit association still selling burial plots for those who would like to spend all eternity in Traders Point, and I am an officer in the Pike Township Historical Society and the Traders Point Association of Neighborhoods.

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