One of the pioneering achievements of Clark County history was the construction of the Tunnel Mill on Fourteen Mile Creek.  The mill was constructed by John Work in the early 1800’s.  The mill, known as Tunnel Mill, was built on land that was part of the Illinois Grant and is now owned by the Lincoln Heritage Council of the Boy Scouts of America.  The Boy Scouts use this land for camping and outdoor activities and call it Tunnel Mill Boy Scout Reservation.

John Work, his brother Henry, and their families migrated to Indiana from Red Stone, PA early in 1804 having first stopped in Kentucky and finding it unsuitable for milling.  Henry died of a fever during their short stay in Kentucky, and John was left to care for both families.  John purchased 100 acres of land that extended along Fourteen Mile Creek and included a water-powered gristmill.  He bought the land from John and James Bates and paid a dollar per acre for the property.

After the mill had been in use for about ten years, it needed many repairs.  Instead of fixing the old mill, John Work decided to build a new mill.  Work surveyed the area and found a good spot where Fourteen Mile Creek curves back onto itself.  To build this mill, Work realized he would have to dig a tunnel for the water to flow through, but this did not deter him, and he set to work.  With two other workers, he began to dig the tunnel on January 14, 1814.  Men began digging simultaneously from both sides of the hill.  Work made his own explosives from saltpeter he mined from the cliffs running along the Ohio River.  All in all, he used 650 pounds of explosives to blast the tunnel.  This feat took nearly three years, but in 1817 (or April 14, 1816 as Work’s diary states) the tunnel was complete.  So accurate was the tunnel that the two ends of the tunnel lined up within two inches of each other.  John Work’s diary indicates the total cost of this tunnel was $3,333.33.  The dimensions of the tunnel were 6 feet deep by 5 feet wide by 388 feet long.

A huge celebration accompanied the completion of the tunnel.  The settlers feasted, made speeches and drank to their heart’s content.  One story relates a man weighing over 200 pounds rode through the tunnel on horseback.

Yet only half the work was complete.  The mill had not been built yet.  As Mr. Work set to work again he discovered a serious problem.  The spot where the building was supposed to stand had quicksand instead of rock underneath it.  Work cleverly used large oak timbers to support the building, thinking wood submerged in water would not rot.  History states the mill was fifty feet by thirty-five feet and had a stone foundation and a frame super-structure.  The mill had three levels with an elevator, which transported grain from floor to floor.  There were two great wooden overshot wheels that powered the mill.  Each was twenty feet in diameter, five feet wide, and had twelve four by eight feet spokes.  Indians and settlers alike came from as far away as Vincennes to have flour made at Tunnel Mill.  When Wilfred Green bought the property, he replaced the wooden wheels with two iron wheels.  One of the old iron wheels still stands in place to mark the spot.

Sadly, on August 1, 1927 the great Tunnel Mill building burned.


Operators of Tunnel Mill
John Work 1804-1832
John R. Work 1832-1854
Wilfred M. Green 1854-1896
Henry C. Dodd 1897-1920
Shiloh Swango 1920-1926
Henry Murphy 1926-1927