The Family Piechorowski - Terra Coupe, IN

Terra Coupe

The middle section of Olive Township is crossed by the Valparaiso Moraine. This ridge runs a little north of east through the township until it abruptly ends at about the middle of the Studebaker Providing Grounds on State Route 2, some two miles south and one half mile east of New Carlisle. The Valparaiso Moraine was undoubtedly the ridge of a high hill which held back the waters of the slowly melting glaciers.

There is evidence that one of the mighty rivers from this source ran east from Lake Michigan through what is now Terre Coupe prairie until stopped by the high hills in the eastern part Warren Township. The water rose higher and higher until it finally ran over the hills in the vicinity of the proving grounds and thereby found a way south until it mingled it’s waters with the Kankakee River. The long continued flow of water finally washed the moraine entirely away and deposited it’s gravel and clay on the marsh land south of that point, where it eventually covered by muck. The valley of the old river was from eight to twelve miles wide and as century followed century, it became smaller and left it’s old shore shelves behind. New Carlisle is situated on the last of these shelves.

Many years ago the land was covered by a heavy growth of timber, but a narrow belt of land about three-fourths of a mile wide always remained clear of timber. This the Indians called Terre Coupe, meaning "shaking or quivering ground."

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