By John Fogarty

At the bottom of Geist Reservoir, lies the village of Germantown. For 70 years it has lain there, undisturbed. Untroubled. By the living, that is . . .

But the spirits of Germantown don’t rest so easy. The ghosts of that proud old town still flit here and there throughout Hamilton County. The Reservoir is fairly teeming with them—as are 24 cemeteries that dot the high ground around it—some of which have headstones dating back to 1811.

In honor of Memorial Day, and the long-lost village of Germantown, its descendants and its hardy survivors from the olden days, we would like to pause and take a nostalgic, even wistful, look back at a long lost era of simpler, perhaps even happier, times. Bygone times. And the ghosts who linger on . . . .

Local entrepreneur Clarence Geist, former owner of the Indianapolis Water Company, believed the burgeoning state capital would soon run out of water. Geist preempted such a shortage by buying up all the property he could in and around Germantown, during the 1920s and ’30s, envisioning his water supply solution. That solution would require the death of a quaint, long-established hamlet called Germantown.

Settled in 1834 by pioneers from Oaklandon, following the slaying of an Indian in that community, Germantown thrived for nearly a century afterward as a tranquil, farming community—until 1943, that is. That’s when developers finally dammed Fall Creek, flooding Germantown and the surrounding Fall Creek Valley. Clarence Geist got his wish, all right . . . five years after his death.

Despite the demise of Germantown, Geist Reservoir brought undeniable progress to the region, including recreational and resort living along the waterfront. Today, homes fetch up to $5-6 million apiece. Geist Reservoir now covers over 1,890 acres—with some 6.1 billion gallons of water. More impressive still are the memories that linger.

True, it’s only been 65 years—less than one human lifetime. But there are others, with memories far longer than any human lifetime, who still hover about of a soft late-April night. We took our cameras to three fairly representative, old-time family cemeteries one can still find to this day, dotting the suburbs and roadways of Geist—all throwbacks to those olden, golden, Daguerreotype days.

We present three nearby cemeteries lucky enough to sit on high ground: the Arnett, the Brooks and the McKay, all located on or near Olio Road in Geist. All are well-maintained (though some are in better shape than others), and at least one is probably haunted. Watch the following video clip and judge for yourself.

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