A Monon rail town with older, harder-to-read basements
Sheridan's early records were lost in a 1913 fire that destroyed the town hall, and the town's growth clustered along the Monon Railroad after natural gas was discovered locally in 1888 — meaning many basements near Sheridan's historic Main Street predate any documented construction standard, let alone modern waterproofing code. With population at just 3,106 as of the 2020 census, Sheridan has grown far more slowly than Carmel's other neighbors, so older basement construction is more common here proportionally.
Small-town scale, same regional water-table problem
Sheridan sits on the same Hamilton County glacial till and expansive clay soil as Carmel and Noblesville, so the same hydrostatic-pressure mechanics apply — the difference is that Sheridan's older, slower-growing housing stock is less likely to have had a modern exterior drainage system installed at construction.