Mike Botkin, 15, of New Whiteland, works on his 75-building sand subdivision in the heat of the late afternoon sun in the Break-O-Day subdivision on June 21, 1994.
Daily Journal Archive Photo
News from around Johnson County as reported on June 22 in the pages of the Daily Journal and the Franklin Evening Star from the last 111 years.
On this day in 1994, the main story on the front page of the Daily Journal was about a New Whiteland teen going with the grain.
Fifteen-year-old Mike Botkin built 65 homes, 11 trailers, three gas stations, an interstate highway overpass and a shopping mall on June 21, 1994. It was his 40th development in New Whiteland, and if he’s lucky, it was expected to last a couple of weeks.
Rain would destroy the sand village, and so would someone who kicked it or ran it over with a truck.
“Sand can’t last forever,” said Botkin, the creator of the sand subdivisions. His latest was in the Break-O-Day subdivision, along with a new street with no name near houses that now have a little more than a foundation.
Botkin had built villages of more than 300 buildings in New Whiteland, first in the Tracy Ridge subdivision where he lived, then in Break-O-Day. He used extra dirt from home construction sites to build cities in vacant lots.
No detail was spared. Homes had windows, back porches and window air conditioners. Malls had parking lots and signs. The highway overpass had a cloverleaf.
When Botkin was building, he lost track of time and place. While workers building a real house on the next lot wilted in 90-degree heat, Botkin dressed in a blue shirt, black shorts, white socks and tennis shoes, didn’t slow down.
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Other memorable Johnson County stories from this day
2001
Johnson County fire chiefs were considering using ‘dry hydrants’ to aid in fighting rural blazes.
1993
Police were investigating after ‘burrowing burglars’ knocked through walls for the second time in a week to rob businesses in northern Johnson County.
1983
Illusions, an under-21 nightclub in Franklin, closed its doors permanently after it went out of business.
