Mississinewa Lake was authorized under the Flood Control Act of 1958. The Louisville District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers designed, built and operates the project to reduce flood damages downstream from the dam. The lake operates as a unit with J. Edward Roush and Salamonie Lakes to reduce flood stages in the upper Wabash River Basin. Mississinewa Lake also operates with other lakes downstream to reduce flood stages along the lower Wabash River and the Ohio River.  Areas most directly benefited include the cities of Peru and Logansport, Ind. and about 31,500 acres of agricultural land.

Construction began in April 1962, and the lake became operational in October 1967. Since its completion, Mississinewa Lake has prevented more than $305 million in flood damages, more than 10 times its original cost of $24.4 million.

Through the ages the rushing waters of the Miami Indians’ Mischisin-wah washed away the soft limestone of the riverbank creating a number of pilar-like formations known as “Cliffs of the Seven Pillars.” This wonder of nature may be viewed from the riverbank or reached by footpath from the Frances Slocum Trail.

In 1817, Chief Francis Godfroy established a trading post named Mount Pleasant on the Wabash River near the mouth of the Mississinewa River. It became the greatest trading post in Miami Indian history. Remnants of lands granted to Godfroy by treaty remain under Indian ownership.

The “Frances Slocum Trail” was named in honor of a white woman raised by the Indians. On Nov. 2, 1778, five-year-old Frances was taken from her Quaker home at Wilkes Barre, Penn., by the Delaware Indians and named “Weletawash.” She grew up to be so strong that her name was later changed to “Maconaquah,” or Little Bear Woman. She married Shepconnah, War Chief of the Osage Village.  When her husband later became deaf and resigned as Chief, he established a trading post called “Deaf Man’s Village” about nine miles above Peru on the Mississinewa River. These wealthy Indians had a standard of living that far excelled that of the early white man in the same area. Deaf Man’s Village became a social center for the white men and Indians.

Frances Slocum’s identification was not learned until September 1837 when her brother, Isaac Slocum, identified her by a scar on her left hand. As a result she was no longer eligible, as an Indian, for the pension made possible by the Treaty of 1826 since she was a “white woman.” In 1838 her two daughters were given 640 acres of land, including their mother’s original home site. Frances and her family were permitted to stay in Indiana after John Quincy Adams eloquently defended her case in Congress. She died on March 9, 1847, and was buried next to her husband and two small sons in the cemetery next to her cabin. In May 1900, it was named the “Frances Slocum Cemetery.”

Peoria, just downstream from the dam, was originally known as “Reserve” because so many Indians collected their annuities at the Post Office located in the heart of the Great Miami Reserve. In October 1849, reserve was platted into 36 lots with four streets and given the name of Peoria. When the white men first came to this area, the deer and other wild animals roamed in vast numbers. The streams were filled with fish. The virgin land was covered with native trees such as walnut, hickory, ash, and the sugar tree, which was the source of the settler’s maple syrup and maple sugar.