70                  HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

structure completed and made passable about the first of April, 1860.
This bridge was rebuilt in 1869, by Contractor Rarick, the year after his
having built the present river bridge. The present iron bridge spanning
the creek at the same point was put up in 1881 by Muehler & Notter, the
Clay county contractors.
    There are two other water courses shown on the map of the United
States bearing this name——one in Utah, flowing between Utah Lake and
Great Salt Lake, so named from the fancied resemblance of these bodies
of water to Lake Tiberias and the Dead Sea, between which flows the
biblically historic stream of the Orient; the other in Monroe county, this
state, flowing through Bloomington, the county seat, named in honor of
Professor David Starr Jordan, for a time president of the State Uni-
versity.
    Six Mile rises in Morgan township, Owen county, at two points a
mile and a half apart, the two branches flowing together in the southeast
part of Washington township, Clay county, flowing thence westward into
Eel river, at Bellaire. This stream derives its name from the circumstance
of its being just six miles, on the straight line, from its source to its
mouth. Six Mile is crossed by the old Bowling Green-Point Commerce
road at the Stephens place, two and a half miles south of Bowling Green.
It is also bridged at Bellaire, on the old Greencastle-Carlisle road, at the
point of its flowing into the river.
    At the time of the August flood, 1875, the cultivated lands on this
stream near the river were overflowed to such a depth that the tassels of
only the highest stalks of corn could be seen above the surface of the
water; The Orman mill, one of the primitive grain crackers of the
county, was located on this creek, about two miles a little east of south
of Bowling Green, which went out of business a half century or more ago.
    Big Creek rises at different points in the northern and eastern parts
of Harrison township. The basin of this stream blends with that of Eel
river, as do the waters of the two streams, so that the shallow confines
of the creek are soon overflowed and the proportions of the stream
expanded over a large area, So superficial is the bed of this stream at
places that it almost loses its identity, its waters diffusing promiscuously
over the bottom. However; that section of it known as “the Lake,”
something more than a mile in extent, lying two and a half miles north-
west of Clay City, is a marked exception, of which the well defined banks,
depth of channel and volume of water would seem to indicate that it
might have been, at some time in the past, a section of a much more pre-
tentious water-course. This stream is crossed by the Evansville & Indian-
apolis Railroad and by the wagon road between Connely and Oberholtz-
er’s, and by the Kossuth road, three miles west of Middlebury. At ordi-
nary water stage Big creek courses its way into Eel river through two
channels. The natural one flows from the lake to the southwest, entering
the river below the old "Eldorado” mill-seat ; the artificial one, known as
“the Ditch,” starting at a point a mile or more north of the Kossuth road,
about five and a half miles in length, and flowing into the river a little
distance above Brunswick. This channel was cut by the state in 1854, to
drain the swamp lands, when the channel of the stream was also cleared
of obstructions as far up as to what is yet known as the Cromwell place,
near the old rose patch. The pioneer, or primitive settler, who named
this stream did so at time of high tide, and not at time of low water mark.
Near the point of the artificial channel’s emptying into the river, a half