Pogue's Run Tour

Intro

Pogue's Run is an urban creek that starts near the intersection of Elizabeth Street and Lennington Drive on the east side of Indianapolis, Indiana, and empties into the White River south of the Kentucky Avenue bridge over that river. At the stream's intersection with New York Street just east of downtown Indianapolis it enters a double-box culvert conduit through which it flows underneath downtown Indianapolis. It is named for George Pogue, who, along with John Wesley McCormick, were among the first settlers in what would become the city of Indianapolis.

History

Prior to the arrival of Pogue and McCormick, Native Americans and wildlife would often follow Pogue's Run as a pathway. George Pogue (c.1763–1821) was a blacksmith from Connersville, Indiana. In 1819, he blazed a trail that corresponds with the present-day Brookville Road. On March 2, 1819, he built a cabin for his family of seven where Michigan Street currently crosses Pogue's Run. However, there is some disagreement among historians about these events; Jacob Piatt Dunn wrote in his 1910 work Greater Indianapolis, that Pogue actually arrived on March 2, 1820, and moved into a cabin that had been built in 1819 by a Ute Perkins, who had left before Pogue arrived. Perkins reportedly had left the area because of his loneliness, later settling in Rush County, Indiana. The creek became known as Pogue's Run after Pogue disappeared in April 1821; it had been called Perkin's Run (after Ute Perkins) prior to Pogue's disappearance.

When Indianapolis was laid out, only Pogue's Run running diagonally across the southeast portion of the "Mile Square" disturbed the orderliness of the grid pattern. Alexander Ralston had to make compromises due to the stream's location within the congressional donation lands given for the future Indianapolis. Before the state government could be moved to Indianapolis from Corydon, fifty dollars was spent to rid swampy Pogue's Run of the mosquitoes that made it a "source of pestilence".

Today

Indy Parks established the Pogue's Run Trail alongside the creek bed on the section northeast of downtown. New sections of trail are being planned for construction to connect the Pogue's Run Trail to downtown. As of August 2020, approximately two miles (3.2 km) of disjoint sections of the planned 5.3-mile (8.5 km) trail have been completed. The trail will run from the Monon Trail at 10th Street along the creek to the Pogues Run Art and Nature Park a few blocks west of Emerson Avenue.