From a riverside cabin to the highest bluff on the Ohio
Andrew McFaddin built the cabin that started Mount Vernon in 1805 on the rocks below the present river landing, and the town -- named for George Washington's Potomac estate -- incorporated in 1832 and became the seat of Posey County. Mount Vernon sits at the highest point on the Ohio River between Cincinnati and Cairo, Illinois, which is part of why river traffic and, later, the Ports of Indiana complex settled there.
Bluff elevation, river commerce, and what it means underfoot
Being the highest ground on this stretch of the Ohio has real foundation consequences: drainage runs differently off a river bluff than it does on the flatter alluvial ground closer to the water, and Mount Vernon's mix of older county-seat construction and later river-commerce development means a single town can have several different foundation conditions within a few blocks. An evaluation here starts with figuring out which of those conditions a given property actually sits on.