Collamer, Indiana

10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1994. It stands in Cleveland Township. It lies in ZIP code area 46787. The Survey maps it on the South Whitley West quadrangle. It stands 797 feet above sea level.

Collamer within Whitley County

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 10 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

1953 USGS Fort Wayne quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
1956 USGS Fort Wayne quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
1962 USGS South Whitley West quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
1984 USGS Fort Wayne quadrangle1:100000
1994 USGS Fort Wayne quadrangle1:100000

In the county-history sources

1,767 words on this township

History of Whitley County, Indiana, published 1907 names this settlement in its chapter on Cleveland Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

September 8, 1849, a postoffke was established. The name asked for was Millersburgh, but as there was already a town and postoffice by the name in Elkhart county, the authorities named it Collamer, in honor of Jacob Collamer, then postmaster-general, and it is now known as Collamer. There were ten lots surveyed. Lot one was three by eight poles, lot ten was ten poles on the north line and bent around river. The other lots were four by eight poles. The first lots were sold on February 6, 1847. On that day Rambo sold four lots or parts : To Christian Harter, lot one and a rod off the south side of lot two for sixteen dollars and ninety-six cents, and to John W. Nottingham, lot seven for fourteen dollars, and lot six for eleven dollars and sixty-six cents. The next sale was November 25, 1847, lots four and five to Ellis Miller for twenty-five dollars and fifty cents. Ellis Miller had built the dam across the river in the summer of 1845 anc' sometime in the winter of 1845 anr' 1846 began to grind corn and shortly after wheat and other small grain. The mill and dam remain, the only waterpower left in the whole county, the South Whitley dam having gone out on the dredging of Eel river a few years ago. Millersburgh, nr Collamer, though having the only water-power mill in the county and having the Vandalia Railroad, and being: in as fine country as the world affords, has made no headway and is no better town than a half century ago. The railroad station has been abandoned and it has been hinted that the postoffice will soon yield up the ghost before the march of rural delivery.

Passage source: History of Whitley County, Indiana, published 1907.

While the first town and postoffice in the county were at South Whitley, and Cleveland township was the first organized, there were two or three, perhaps more, settlers in Smith township prior to the Eel river settlement. It is impossible to ascertain who was the very first settler or to determine the priority of several of the first ones. James Chaplin lived on section 7 in 1835 and blazed a trail or road from his farm to intersect the Squawbuck trail in Richland township. This was the highway to Oswego and Turkey Prairie. It is most likely that the Clevelands, Parretts, Samuel Obenchain and John Collins were all settlers before January 1, 1836. Joseph Creager soon followed. Creager and Joseph Parrett settled on land now covered by South Whitley. The Goshen and Huntington road was the only established road in that part of the county at the time of organization. The only other in the county was the Fort Wayr.e and Goshen road in the northeast part of the county, though there were several applications pending at the time of organization, proceedings began in Huntington county and concluded in Whitley. Soon after the establishment of the countv seat a road was blazed through, practically what is today called the "North, Whitley and Columbia road." It was blazed almost through in 1839 and finished early in 1840. Soon after the river road was opened up to what is now Collamer, Liberty Mills and North Manchester.

Passage source: History of Whitley County, Indiana, published 1907.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Cleveland Township.

Fires near this place

15 since 2002

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 15 fires within 5 miles of Collamer between 2002 and 2004, burning about 14 acres in total. 2 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Recreation and ceremony	5
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	5
Debris and open burning	3
Natural	2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
31 July 2002	Recreation and ceremony	1.0 acres	Indiana State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
7 April 2002	Natural	under an acre	Indiana State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
3 April 2003	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Indiana State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
29 April 2003	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Indiana State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
28 April 2003	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Indiana State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
27 April 2003	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Indiana State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
18 April 2003	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Indiana State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
16 April 2004	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Indiana State Fire Marshal's Office	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Whitley County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Collamer: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	South Whitley Pit and Mill	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Whitley County

Storms near this place

3 since 2014

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Collamer in 3 storm reports between 2014 and 2017: 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
June 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Collamer	-	Emergency management officials reported tree damage on River Road.
June 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Collamer	-	Emergency management officials reported power lines down on West County Road 700 South between 850 West and 900 West.
July 2014	Tornado (EF1)	Collamer	-	A NWS survey confirmed damage consistent with a brief EF-1 tornado. The tornado touched down West of County Road 850 West in a bean field and hit a farmstead, destroying a barn and chicken coop along with extensive tree damage. Much of the debris from the barn was lofted and scattered across the adjacent field to the northeast and embedded through the tree line one quarter of a mile northeast. An adjacent horse barn lost most of its roof with a nearby home and garage sustaining minor damage to roofing and siding material. However, severe tree damage occurred through a large grove of trees just north of this location with significant debris noted in the trees, many of which were uprooted or snapped. The tornado quickly lifted after this point. Maximum winds were estimated at 100 mph.

Every storm recorded in Whitley County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Place	Distance	Sheets
South Whitley	2.0 miles	10
Tunker	6.0 miles	10
Luther	7.0 miles	10
Larwill	7.5 miles	12
Washington Center	8.4 miles	10
Peabody	9.3 miles	11
Walnut Corners	9.7 miles	11
Briggs	10.3 miles	11

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on Collamer	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q5145918	The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 432761. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.