Whitewater Canal Scenic Byway
Whitewater Canal Scenic Byway is a State Scenic Byway in Indiana. Within Indiana it covers roughly 70 miles. The map below shows its route. Use “Plan a drive” to open it in the Road Sorties route planner — already routing along Whitewater Canal Scenic Byway with scenic roads turned on, ready to add your own stops.
Indiana's Whitewater Canal Scenic Byway runs about 78 miles along the Whitewater River, from Dearborn County to Hagerstown, tracing the historic Whitewater Canal. Construction began under Indiana's 1836 Mammoth Internal Improvements Act, and the state completed the stretch from Lawrenceburg to Brookville before defaulting on the project in 1840 and handing the canal to private investors; the finished system used 56 locks to manage a fall of nearly 500 feet. The canal once powered grist, woolen, pulp, and lumber mills, and hydropower from it fueled Connersville's automobile manufacturing into the 1950s. The byway's centerpiece is Metamora, an 1838 canal town preserved since the 1940s as the Whitewater Canal State Historic Site, where nearly half the original canal survives, including stone locks, a feeder dam, a reconstructed canal boat, and the Duck Creek Aqueduct, a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. Steep hills and rolling farmland frame the drive between Metamora's preserved industrial past and Hagerstown's quieter countryside.
- Whitewater Canal
- Metamora
- 78 miles
- Duck Creek Aqueduct
- 56 canal locks
- 1836 Mammoth Improvements Act
- Whitewater Canal State Historic Site
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What is a State Scenic Byway?
State Scenic Byways are roads a state has formally recognized for their scenic, natural, historic or cultural value — each state's own curated collection of drives worth taking slowly.
Where to Stay along Whitewater Canal Scenic Byway
4 campgrounds and RV parks sit within about 5 miles of Whitewater Canal Scenic Byway.
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