It's All Uphill From Here (Gravity Hill)

A few miles west of Mooresville, Indiana, is Gravity Hill (sometimes called Magnetic Hill). Since horseless carriage days, people have discovered that their motor vehicles, if placed in neutral, will roll uphill by themselves.  At least, so it appears.  Round objects, too, will do the same.

My Library has many digitized newspaper clippings and handouts describing the phenomenon over the years.  There's also a video from an Indianapolis public TV station online.  Check out these links (below):

• Gravity Hill (video by WFYI-Channel 20)
• Gravity Hill (newspaper clippings & handouts)

 

 Click Images to Bigify

Gravity Hill is along Keller Hill Road, which is a really busy highway these days. Drivers race along at around 60 miles per hour (although we didn't officially use radar to clock their speeds, they all exceeded the posted speed limit of 40 m.p.h.). Given that, and the lack of any convenient pull-offs at Gravity Hill, I considered it unsafe to attempt even a photo, let alone allowing a car to roll uphill. Thanks to the Internet, however, there are plenty of videos and photographs.

"Gravity Hill," from Episode #209 of Across Indiana (1991)
(Courtesy of WFYI-Channel 20 Indianapolis)

 
"Gravity Hill" (2009) by Lekshmi Radhakrishnan

"Mooresville, IN Gravity Hill" (2011) by Interesting Ted

 

It's an optical illusion, of course.  You could try it out for yourselves, but, frankly, I think it's too dangerous, what with all the busy traffic careening along the road WAAAAAAAY too fast. I wouldn't recommend it.

In the Painter's Shoes (Paul Hadley Paintings), Part Five

Paul Hadley, artist, teacher, and designer of the Indiana State Flag, portrayed a dairy barn in watercolor that was near the birthplace of his father, Dr. Evan Hadley.  Where was the barn located?

Dairy Barn & Silo,

by Paul Hadley

(Click images to enlarge)

Dr. Evan Hadley's abbreviated family tree

(courtesy of Ancestry Library Edition)

In 1845 Dr. Evan Hadley, father of Paul Hadley, was born on a farm southwest of Mooresville, Indiana on Bethel Road.  We know from W.W. Richie's 1875 Map of Morgan County, Indiana, that an "E. Hadley" is indicated owning land east of Bethel Road, just south of today's East Crosby Road.  This was not too far from the Bethel Friends Meeting, due west of which Simon Moon's cabin, another of Paul Hadley's paintings, was situated.

Inset showing "E. Hadley's" land along Bethel Road

and immediately south of today's East Crosby Road

(from W.W. Richie's 1875 Map of Morgan County, Indiana)

(courtesy of the Library of Congress)

 Modern location of Evan Hadley's birthplace

on Bethel Road just south of East Crosby Road

(courtesy of Google Maps, 2016)

(Note Bethel Friends church in lower left-hand corner)

The barn that Paul Hadley committed to watercolors is situated a short distance north of his father's birthplace, on the east side of Bethel Road, not too far south of the intersection of Bethel Road and State Road 42.  Paul portrayed the barn from the side furthest from the road (i.e., the back), where a grain silo stood.

Aerial view of barn portrayed by Paul Hadley 

(courtesy of Google Maps, 2016)

 Closer aerial view of barn portrayed by Paul Hadley

(note silo on back near barn's roof peak)

(courtesy of Google Maps, 2016)

Street view of barn portrayed by Paul Hadley

(as seen from Bethel Road)

(courtesy of Google Maps, October 2013)

Street view of barn portrayed by Paul Hadley

(as seen from Bethel Road)

(courtesy of Google Maps, October 2013)

Unfortunately, we could not get closer to photograph the barn without intruding upon the current landowner's property, although one of the library's board members, who is frankly braver than we are, is going to make the attempt.

The roof pitch appears steeper in Paul Hadley's painting than in the Google Maps images above, but this is likely due to distortions in the panoramic photographic process used to take "street views" for Google's earth maps.

In our next installment, we puzzle over the possible location of another Paul Hadley landscape painting, which was untitled (or his title has been forgotten).