Geist and Morse reservoirs history: Encore

or a deep dive into the histories of Geist Reservoir and Morse Reservoir, which supply much of the water for residents of the greater Indianapolis area, Hoosier History Live will plunge into several questions. Were you aware that a historic village called Germantown, which was founded during the 1830s and flourished for more than 100 years, was subsumed to create Geist? Do some of Germantown's structures, which included houses, a post office and a mill, remain underwater in the reservoir located in northeastern Marion County and southern Hamilton County? Geist Reservoir was created in the 1940s, although the Indianapolis Water Company began a push to develop it more than 20 years earlier. Construction of Morse Reservoir, which is located northwest of Noblesville and south of Cicero in Hamilton County, began later, in the 1950s. Both reservoirs were named in honor of executives of the water company, now part of Citizens Energy Group. Beginning in the early 1960s, a crusade to build luxury homes around Geist came to public attention and was quickly controversial.