Indiana is a ghost town in Haldimand County, Ontario, Canada. It was located on the north-east bank of the Grand River, north of Cayuga. The town flourished in the mid- to late 19th century as a mill town and base for the river transport trade. Until the 1860s it was the largest industrial town in Haldimand County, but by 1905 it was largely abandoned. Part of the townsite is now included in the Ruthven Park National Historic Site of Canada. It is also connected to a smaller satellite ghost town known as Deans, which was founded in part to provide Indiana with a railway connection. The site was referred to as "Deans" as late as 1940–1951. History Canal development The history of Indiana, Ontario is heavily connected to the Grand River. The Grand River had long been a focal point for trade and general transportation in the area. The river was shallow at many points, however, which made it relatively easy for westward-travelling settlers to ford with wagons, but difficult for river freight operations. The Grand River Navigation Company was formed in the early 1830s (after a set of meetings by backers which began as early as 1827) around the idea of canalizing the river with a set of five locks. Before the railway boom in Upper Canada, Ontario's economy was heavily driven by its lake trade, with port cities such as Hamilton and Toronto beginning to industrialize. Canalization, in theory, would connect new and existing settlements along the river to Lake Erie, allowing for easier trade logistics. Unfortunately for promoters, the land around the Grand River had been granted to the Haudenosaunee Six Nations in 1784 by the Governor Sir Frederick Haldimand under the Haldimand Proclamation, which pledged to the Haudenosaunee an allotment of land "six miles deep from each side of the river beginning at Lake Erie and extending in that proportion to the head of the said river, which them and their posterity are to enjoy for ever." The Six Nations opposed the canal development project. This resulted in a land dispute between the promoters of the company and the Six Nations. When the company was finally chartered, it was with the Six Nations as its largest shareholder; these shares had likely been purchased by the government of Upper Canada on behalf of Six Nations without their knowledge, in order to give them a financial stake in