This page is about all three towers at Crane (unlike all my other pages which are about a single tower site.)
Information
Names: Indian Springs, Trinity Springs
Location: Crane US Naval Ammunition Depot
County: Martin (aside from the Crane towers, Martin County also has Willow Valley and Shoals)
Topo quads: Indian Springs and Williams
Condition: Three towers standing visible on satellite views, although one of them seems partially demolished. Not publicly accessible. Have not personally visited.
My notes
This federal facility has different names over time:
- Recent name seems to be “Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division (NSWC Crane)”.
- Google Maps calls this Naval Support Activity Crane.
- USFS page calls this “U.S. Naval Ammunition Depot”.
- Old topos say “US Naval Reservation Crane Ammunition Depot” or “US Naval Reservation Weapons Support Center”.
There are references online that some of this land in Martin County was being planned for a state park, before World War II started.
There are three towers which appear on topo maps and which also appear standing on recent satellite imagery. These three towers clearly appear on Google Maps satellite view. Two of them appear complete, and the third appears to have at least part of the base still standing.
Three towers are seen on the topo maps from the year 1978, but don’t appear on most other editions like 1956. Two are on topo map Indian Springs and one is on topo map Williams. I have seen the names Indian Springs and Trinity Springs, but I don’t know with certainty which towers go with which names (if anyone does.) Are there names for these towers? None of the maps have names for these towers, unlike many of the other towers that are named on old topos. The main Forest Service web page with the big list doesn’t have names for these Crane towers either.
The National Geodetic Survey (NGS) has a mark named INDIAN SPRINGS LOOKOUT TOWER (JA1932) referring to the southern most of the Crane towers. I think this is fairly solid evidence that that tower was named Indian Springs.
The name “Trinity Springs” is mentioned in the text on a USDA flyer about Hickory Ridge Lookout Tower:
“The CCC camp, located in Kurtz, not only built the lookout tower at Hickory Ridge and Dutch Ridge, but also one at Trinity Springs.”
The tower closest to Trinity Springs on the map is even closer to Indian Springs, so it even seems possible that both of these names refer to the same tower, the one furthest south in Crane.
Four towers?
The USFS Hoosier National Forest lookout towers page mentions 4 towers in Crane, but I have only found 3. Quote:
The U.S. Naval Ammunition Depot at Burns City in Martin County operated four towers during World War II.
- Fire Tower One – near the Bedford Gate is still standing and was used until the mid 1970s. Crane Structure 1853
- Fire Tower Two – ? The base now supports a water tower
- Fire Tower Three – Located on JT21, now has a repeater antenna on it. Crane Structure 44
- Fire Tower Four – ? This tower was torn down in January 2009.
Was there a fourth tower site? I haven’t found one. I don’t see any towers in adjacent 1978 topos that cover Crane, including Owensburg, Koleen, and Scotland; but just because a fourth tower is not on a topo, is not proof it didn’t exist.
Maps
A random picture of Crane context from the internet
Above: Crane area in Bedford 100000 topo from 1986, showing three lookouts (the orange circles are mine)
Above: Crane area in Vincennes 250000 topo from 1956, showing two lookouts in Crane and further south the Willow Valley and Shoals towers (yellow circles are mine)
A cemetery map of Crane area, interesting as a resource because some mentions of the tower sites historically mention which cemetery they’re near; one is near Waggoner Cemetery, and one is near Little Hickory Ridge Cemetery.
Crane 1 “near the Bedford gate”
This is the northeastern tower in Crane. It’s north of Wagner Cemetery. It’s west of Silverville.
Williams topo 1978 (I assume this is the tower described as being ‘near the Bedford gate’)
Williams topo 1993; this is the only one of the towers that still appears in 1993
Crane 2 (near Waggoner Cemetery)
This is the northwestern tower in Crane, near the lake. It’s near Waggoner Cemetery.
Above: Indian Springs topo 1978; this tower is near Waggoner Cemetery, and the lake, and many other buildings.
There is an NGS mark near here named INDIAN.
Indian Springs – Crane 3 “located on JT21”
This is the southern tower in Crane.
Above: Indian Springs topo 1978; this is near Little Hickory Ridge Cemetery. Note that this is near the NGS mark named “Springs” which can also be found on the NGS Map.
Satellite photos
Crane 1 “near the Bedford gate”
Above: Recent satellite photo of the northeastern tower site in the northeast
Crane 2 (near Waggoner cemetery)
Recent satellite photo of the tower site near Lake Greenwood and Waggoner Cemetery. In the upper photo, it looks like the cab is missing. But in the lower satellite photo from 2004, it looks like the whole tower is still there.
Indian Springs – Crane 3 “located on JT21”
Above: Recent satellite photo of the tower site near Indian Springs, the southern-most of the three.
Links and Sources
One interesting source is the book “The World War II History of NAD Crane” (https://www.blurb.com/books/6856367-the-world-war-ii-history-of-nad-crane) which has one picture (page 68) that includes a lookout tower, and other aerial photos that one could imagine were taken from towers on site.
NGS datasheet for mark INDIAN (JA1933) said to be about 81 feet away from the tower near Lake Greenwood
NGS datasheet for mark INDIAN SPRINGS LOOKOUT TOWER (JA1932) and the datasheet for the nearby SPRINGS (JA1937)
History
In the 1800s, the mineral springs in Martin County led to settlement and eventually tourism. An October 1976 Outdoor Indiana article about the area discusses the numerous hotels around Trinity Springs and Indian Springs in the late 1800s and early 1900s. A February 1986 OI article mentions that a resort at Trinity Springs was opened in 1840; and a resort near Indian Springs was there in 1814; Indian Springs ceased to exist as a health spa after 1900.
This pre-Crane map above shows two towers. This implies that these two towers existed in September 1939. The one in Greene County would be Cincinnati. The one near Greenwood Lake is what I call Crane 2 on this page. The name for this area at the time was “White River Land Utilization Project.”
Another story in the November 1939 issue of OI says that Greenwood Lake is 800 acres and the largest artificial lake in Indiana.
On the map on the back of the OI magazine in May and July 1941 issues, this area is being referred to as the Martin County Land Use Forest.
In the March 1942 issue of Outdoor Indiana, this area around Greenwood Lake is being referred to as the Naval Ammunition Depot.
Data
Crane 1 “near the Bedford gate”
| Coordinates | Latitude | Longitude |
| My coordinates (unofficial) | 38.866729 | -86.697959 |
Crane 2 (near the Waggoner Cemetery)
| Coordinates | Latitude | Longitude |
| My coordinates (unofficial) | 38.871783 | -86.808266 |
| NGS datasheet coordinates for INDIAN (JA1933) (nearby) | 38 52 27.53636(N) | 086 48 46.58235(W) |
Indian Springs (Crane 3)
| Coordinates | Latitude | Longitude |
| My coordinates (unofficial) | 38.788962 | -86.791180 |
| NGS datasheet for INDIAN SPRINGS LOOKOUT TOWER (JA1932) (map) | 38 47 20.30846(N) | 086 47 28.23440(W) |
| NGS datasheet for SPRINGS (JA1937) (map) | 38 47 19.79737(N) | 086 47 28.69987(W) |
As for a fourth tower in Crane, I’m not sure. I haven’t seen it on any map.