Post by Randi Richardson
Wayport is a village founded in Sections 28 and 33 in Washington Township, Monroe County, Indiana. It was laid out in 1851 and comprised of 16 lots. For a while it included a store, post office and a blacksmith shop. It reportedly “hit its peak” from 1877 to 1879.
Danielle Thomas lives in a cabin, the second of two she has called home on property that used to be part of Wayport. While living in her first cabin, she suspected that at some point it would be lost to the I-69 project, but didn’t suspect that it would be in her lifetime. She was wrong.
In 2005, a firm out of Pennsylvania arrived to do an archeological study and soil testing on her property. “It started with a couple of five-gallon bucket holes in her back yard” dug during the course of a week. Then the holes grew bigger. When Danielle asked what was going on, she was told the company was looking for the “lost town of Wayport.”
Initially, Danielle received no feedback about what had been found. But seven years later, in 2012, she received a book of “everything” found. It turned out that Wayport was in her backyard. Since that time, Danielle has taken up residence in a second cabin she built near her first one. In fact, she was able to buy back some of the first property purchased from her for the I-69 project.
Sources:
History of Lawrence and Monroe Counties, Indiana (Indianapolis, IN: B. F. Bowen & Co., Inc., 1914) p. 434.
Pete DiPrimio, “Cabin Paradise,” Bloom Magazine, April 2018, pp. 6-11. NOTE: The item above was abstracted by Randi Richardson from the original that was accompanied by nine photographs.