Puddin Creek

This map is taken from sheet 56 of the Soil Survey of Grant County, Indiana (United States Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service, 1988). It is colored for clarity thus.

• Puddin Creek is colored in green.
• Walnut Street, which it parallels for most of its path, is the red north-south line.
• The Museum is a yellow square, and the old high school, a gold one.
• The orange line is the segment of Fourth Street where it crosses Back Creek, which is marked in blue.

The soil of Puddin Creek is identified in the Soil Survey as Millgrove loam.

This nearly level, deep, very poorly drained soil is in depressions on terraces. It is frequently ponded by runoff from highly adjacent areas.

This type of soil is well-suited for forest and crops, provided it is drained. Otherwise, the frequent flooding becomes a problem.

Because of the ponding, this soil is generally unsuitable as a site for dwellings and sanitary facilities. … The soil is severly limited as a site for local roads because of the ponding and the potential for frost action.

And yet, because the local residents were ignorant of this, they built a town on top of the "creek" anyway. The houses on the "creek" have sump pumps to pump out the water after even moderate rains. Severe rains in the past (most recently in the early 1990's) caused those parts of the town over the "creek" to flood.