ca. 1847

Piece of Lima Plank Road

In 1847, the Fort Wayne and Lima Plank Road Company, headed by Samuel Hanna, developed Lima Road into the first plank road in northern Indiana. A plank road is constructed of a series of wooden planks laid next to each other, providing a surface over which wagons could travel in all weather conditions. When it was completed, the Lima Plank road reached Sturgis, Michigan, a distance of 60 miles. The planks for the road were three inches thick and eight feet long. This is a piece of oak from a plank on the original Lima Plank Road, which went from Fort Wayne to Lima, now Howe, Indiana in LaGrange County. The oak plank was excavated north of LaOtto during road construction.