Basin blooms: Wildflowers surround the wetlands.

This path follows a waterway steeped in local history.

Native park land

An unassuming stream on the near east side hosted a settlement that grew into a city. Now Pogue's Run is home to vital links in the Indy Greenways vision. The waterway begins near Arlington Avenue and East 34th Street, and flows southwest to the I-65 / I-70 overpass near Michigan Street, then under downtown to White River.

The Kessler Greenway Plan created Brookside Park, Spades Park and rambling Brookside Parkway as neighbors to this gentle stream. Beginning in 1994, Indy Parks Greenways created the Pogue's Run Trail to weave together Brookside and Spades Parks, and as of 2004, the Basin Trail anchors the corridor's north end, offering dramatic vistas of a wetlands within an urban setting.

Most of the trail surface is natural stone, a fitting testimony to the Pogue's Run heritage.

Wetlands and woods

Pogue's Run is a natural travel corridor; wildlife and Native Americans followed its course long before the arrival of settlers from the young United States. One of those pioneers was a blacksmith named George Pogue, who in 1819 settled on a hill overlooking the stream, some small distance from its confluence with White River.

Today, the lower portions of Pogue's Run flow through concrete aqueducts beneath downtown Indianapolis but the upper run is a prime candidate for greenway development. The Pogue's Run Trail will pass through some of the oldest neighborhoods on Indianapolis' east side, including Woodruff Place and Cottage Home, and create a green border for industrial and commercial areas along Massachusetts Avenue.

Above that, a 40-acre wetland and flood control project forms a natural location for the 1.5-mile Basin Trail. Future development includes a safe pathway through neighborhoods to the Monon Trail and the rest of the Indy Greenways trail system.

Photo tour: Select a photo icon below to view pictures in a new browser window or download a printer-friendly trail map in PDF format (2.1mb).