Legend of Echo Mountain O
~by Julia Pearson
n December 11, 1816, the state of Indiana became the nineteenth state admitted into the United States. Following the blueprint established by the Ordinance of 1787, it was the second state formed from the Northwest Territory. It was exactly a year after the Indiana Territorial Assembly was ready to pursue statehood, sending the Memorial for Statehood to Congress. Elected delegates met in convention, affirming the Enabling Act of Congress. A Constitution was written and adopted, and there was an election of a General Assembly, state officers, and representatives to Congress. Indiana means “Land of Indians.” Among the tribes of Native Americans that lived in Indiana were the Delaware, Kickapoo, Miami, Chippewa, Potawatomi, Erie, Seneca, Wyandot, and Shawnee. The land that is now Brown County was acquired from tribes in 1809 in the Treaty of Fort Wayne, and in 1818, the Treaty of St. Mary’s. Settlers were not permitted into the area until 1820 when the U.S. government survey was completed. The first trader to the area was German Johann Schoonover in 1820. Schooner Creek bears his name. William Elkins followed within the same year, putting down permanent roots and giving Elkinsville his family name. Before a stream of settlers from Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and the Carolinas seeped into the Brown County countryside, the archaeological record tells us that native peoples traveled through for summer camping and hunting grounds
52 Our Brown County • July/August 2020
Illustration by Joe Lee.
for countless years. Between Helmsburg and Trevlac by Bean Blossom Creek, there is a ridge that tribes called Echo Mountain. The area is now known as Trevlac Pine Bluffs and was purchased by Sycamore Land Trust. Part of the Yellowwood Trail crosses it. Thanks to the Brown County Business and Professional Women’s Club, a legend from Echo Mountain is preserved in Tales and Trails of Brown County. The hill known as Pine Bluff is described “as if a giant knife had sliced half of it away and left a clay washed face fringed with pine trees.” It’s said that many years before white settlers came, a man called Sun Ray made his home here because he could see in all
