Baum's Bridge

The Kankakee River crossing at Baum's Bridge has carried three successive bridges: William Eaton's original 1849 toll bridge, the first to cross the river above Momence, Illinois, burned in 1850 by a disgruntled arsonist opposed to the toll; a second bridge built in 1857 by a successor named Sawyer, destroyed the next spring by high water and ice; and a third, more substantial toll bridge built in 1863 by Enos Baum, whose name the crossing still carries — it operated as Northwest Indiana's last toll bridge or road until the interstate system arrived. General Lew Wallace moored his houseboat, the White Elephant, on a strip of land just east of the bridge's north landing, and is said to have written part of his 1880 novel Ben-Hur while living aboard it. Visitors to the inn that later stood near the crossing report a shy, dimly lit male figure who is said to grow agitated and appear suddenly up close if stared at too long.