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The State of Indiana was the 19th U.S. state admitted into the union. It is located in the midwestern region of the United States of America. With about 6.3 million residents, it is ranked 15th in population and 17th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and of the lower 48 states, Indiana is the smallest state west of the Appalachian Mountains. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis.
Indiana is a diverse state with a few large urban areas, a number of smaller industrial cities, and many small towns.
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The State of Indiana was the 19th U.S. state admitted into the union. It is located in the midwestern region of the United States of America. With about 6.3 million residents, it is ranked 15th in population and 17th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and of the lower 48 states, Indiana is the smallest state west of the Appalachian Mountains. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis.
Indiana is a diverse state with a few large urban areas, a number of smaller industrial cities, and many small towns. It is known nationally for its sports teams and athletic events: the NFL's Indianapolis Colts, champions of Super Bowl XLI, the NBA's Indiana Pacers, the Indianapolis 500 motorsports race, the largest single-day sporting event in the world, and for a strong basketball tradition, often called Hoosier Hysteria.
Residents of Indiana are known as Hoosiers. Although many stories are told, the origin of the term is unknown. The state's name means "Land of the Indians", or simply "Indian Land". The name dates back to at least the 1768 Indiana Land Company, and was first used by Congress when Indiana Territory was created, at which time the territory was unceded Indian land. Angel Mounds State Historic Site, one of the best preserved prehistoric Native American sites in the United States, can be found in Southwestern Indiana near Evansville.
History
It was thought that Indiana was inhabited by migratory tribes of Native Americans possibly as early as 8000 BC. However, radiocarbon dating shows that a tool carved from deer bone, discovered by University of Indianapolis archeologists in 2003, is 10,400 years old. The find supports the growing notion that, in the wake of the most recent Ice Age, humans migrated into Indiana earlier than previously thought. These tribes succeeded one another in dominance for several thousand years. By 900 AD an advanced culture of Mississippians became dominant building large cities of 30,000 inhabitants and massive earthworks in the state. For unknown reasons, their entire civilization disappeared sometime around 1450. The region entered recorded history when the first Europeans came to Indiana and claimed the territory for Kingdom of France during the 1670s. At the conclusion of the French and Indian War and one hundred years of French rule, the region came under the control of the Kingdom of Great Britain. British control was short-lived, as the region was transferred to the newly formed United States at the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War only 20 years later.
At the time the United States took possession of Indiana, there were only two permanent European settlements in the entire territory, Clark's Grant and Vincennes. The United States immediately set to work to develop Indiana. In 1800, the Indiana Territory was established and steadily settled. It was originally placed under the governorship of William Henry Harrison who oversaw the purchase of millions of acres of land from the native tribes and successfully guided the territory through Tecumseh's War and the War of 1812.
Indiana was admitted to the Union in 1816 as the nineteenth state. Following statehood, the new government set out on an ambitious plan to transform Indiana from a wilderness frontier into a developed, well populated, and thriving state. The state's founders initiated a program that led to the construction of roads, canals, railroads, and state funded public schools. The plans nearly bankrupted the state and were a financial disaster, but increased land and produce value more than four-fold. During the 1850s, the state's population grew to exceed one million and the ambitious program of the state founders was finally realized.
During the American Civil War, Indiana became politically influential and played an important role in the affairs of the nation. As the first western state to mobilize for the war, Indiana's soldiers were present in almost every engagement during the war. After the Civil War, Indiana remained important nationally as it became a critical swing state in U.S. Presidential elections, which decided control of the federal government for three decades. Following the Civil War, Indiana industry began to grow and an accelerated rate across the northern part of the state leading to the formation of labor unions and suffrage movements.
During the early 20th century, Indiana developed into a strong manufacturing state, then experienced setbacks during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The state also saw many developments with the construction of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the takeoff of the auto industry in the state, substantial urban growth, and two major United States wars. Economic recovery began during World War II and the state continued to enjoy substantial growth. During the second half the of the 20th century, Indiana became a leader in the pharmaceutical industry, as Eli Lilly and other companies settled in the state.
Geography
Indiana is bounded on the north by Lake Michigan and the state of Michigan; on the east by Ohio; on the south by Kentucky, with which it shares the Ohio River as a border; and on the west by Illinois. Indiana is one of the Great Lakes states.
The northern boundary of the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois was originally defined to be a latitudinal line drawn through the southernmost tip of Lake Michigan. Since such a line would not provide Indiana with usable frontage on the lake, its northern border was shifted ten miles (16 km) north. The northern borders of Ohio and Illinois were also shifted from this original plan.
The 475 mile (764 km) long Wabash River bisects the state from northeast to southwest before flowing south, mostly along the Indiana-Illinois border. The river has given Indiana a few theme songs, such as On the Banks of the Wabash, The Wabash Cannonball and Back Home Again, In Indiana. The Wabash is also the longest free-flowing river east of the Mississippi; from the Huntington dam to the Ohio River. The White River (a tributary of the Wabash, which is a tributary of the Ohio) zigzags through central Indiana.
There are 24 Indiana state parks, nine man-made reservoirs, and hundreds of lakes in the state. Areas under the control and protection of the National Park Service or the United States Forest Service include:
Northern Indiana
The northwest corner of the state is part of the Chicago metropolitan area and has nearly one million residents. Gary, and the cities and towns that make up the northern half of Lake, Porter, and La Porte Counties bordering on Lake Michigan, are effectively commuter suburbs of Chicago. Porter and Lake counties are commonly referred to as "The Calumet Region", or "The Region" for short. The name comes from the fact that the Grand Calumet and Little Calumet rivers run through the area. These counties are all in the Central Time Zone along with Chicago. NICTD owns and operates the South Shore Line, a commuter rail line that runs electric-powered trains between South Bend and Chicago. Sand dunes and heavy industry share the shoreline of Lake Michigan in northern Indiana. Along the shoreline of Lake Michigan in Northern Indiana one can find many parks between the industrial areas. The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and the Indiana Dunes State Park are two natural wonders of the area.
The area is marked with swell and swale topography as it retreats South from Lake Michigan. The ecology can change dramatically between swells, or on opposite sides of the same swell. Plants and animals adapted to marshes are generally found in the swales, while forests or even prickly pear cactus are found in the dryer swells.
The Kankakee River, which winds through northern Indiana, serves somewhat as a demarcating line between suburban northwest Indiana and the rest of the state. Before it was drained and developed for agriculture, the Kankakee Marsh was one of the largest freshwater marshes in the country. South of the Kankakee is a large area of prairie, the eastern edge of the Grand Prairie that covers Iowa and Illinois. The Prairie Chicken and American Bison were common in Indiana's pioneer era, but are now extinct as wild species within the state.
The South Bend metropolitan area, in north central Indiana, is the center of commerce in the region better known as Michiana. Other cities located within the area include Elkhart, Mishawaka, Goshen and Warsaw. Fort Wayne, the state's second largest city, is located in the northeastern part of the state where it serves the state as a transportation hub. Other cities located within the area include Huntington and Marion. East of Fort Wayne is an area of extremely flat land that, before development, was the western-most reach of the Great Black Swamp.
Northeastern Indiana is home to a number of lakes, many of which are the remains of the glaciers that covered Indiana thousands of years ago and Glacial Lake Maumee. Some of these lakes include Lake James in Pokagon State Park, Lake Maxinkuckee, Lake Wawasee and Lake Tippecanoe. Lake Wawasee is the largest natural lake in Indiana, while Lake Tippecanoe is the deepest lake, reaching depths of over . Both lakes are located in Kosciusko County. Chain O' Lakes State Park, located in Noble County, contains 11 lakes, 8 of which are connected by natural channels.
Central Indiana
The state capital and largest city, Indianapolis, is situated in the central portion of the state. It is intersected by numerous Interstates and U.S. highways, giving the state its motto as "The Crossroads of America". Other cities and towns located within the area include Anderson, Avon, Beech Grove, Brownsburg, Carmel, Castleton, Cicero, Clermont, Columbus, Crawfordsville, Cumberland, Danville, Fishers, Frankfort, Franklin, Greenwood, Greenfield, Homecroft, Kokomo, Lafayette, Lawrence, Lebanon, Mooresville, Muncie, Noblesville, Plainfield, Richmond, Southport, Speedway, Terre Haute, Tipton, West Lafayette, Westfield, and Zionsville.
Rural areas in the central portion of the state are typically composed of a patchwork of fields and forested areas. The geography of Central Indiana consists of gently rolling hills and sandstone ravines carved out by the retreating glaciers. Many of these ravines can be found in west-central Indiana, specifically along Sugar Creek in Turkey Run State Park and Shades State Park.
Southern Indiana
Evansville, the third largest city in Indiana, is located in the southwestern corner of the state. It is located in a tri-state area that includes Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky. The south-central cities of Clarksville, Jeffersonville, and New Albany are part of the Louisville metropolitan area. Vincennes, the oldest city in the state, is located on the Wabash River. Other Cities in the region include Aurora, Austin, Bedford, Bicknell, Boonville, Bloomfield, Bloomington, Corydon, French Lick, Jasper, Lawrenceburg, Linton, Madison, Mitchell, Mount Vernon, Newburgh, Orleans, Paoli, Petersburg, Princeton, Rockport, Salem, Scottsburg, Sellersburg, Seymour, Spencer, Sullivan, Tell City, and Washington.
Southern Indiana is a mixture of farmland, forest and very hilly areas, especially near Louisville and in the south central lime hills areas. The Hoosier National Forest is a nature preserve in south central Indiana. Southern Indiana's topography is more varied than that in the north and generally contains more hills and geographic variation than the northern portion, such as the "Knobs," a series of . hills that run parallel to the Ohio River in south-central Indiana. The bottomlands of Indiana, where the Wabash and Ohio converge, hosts numerous plant and animal species normally found in the Lower Mississippi and Gulf Coast region of the United States. Brown County is well-known for its hills covered with colorful autumn foliage, T.C. Steele's former home, and Nashville, the county seat and shopping destination. Harrison and Crawford Counties boast three of the state's most popular commercial caves at Wyandotte, Marengo, and Squire Boone Caverns.
The limestone geology of Southern Indiana has created numerous caves and one of the largest limestone quarry regions in the USA. Many of Indiana's official buildings, such as the State capitol building, the downtown monuments, the Indiana University School of Law in Indianapolis, many buildings at Indiana University in Bloomington, and the Indiana Government Center are all examples of Indiana architecture made with Indiana limestone. Indiana limestone has also been used in many other famous structures in the US, such as the Empire State Building, the Pentagon, and the Washington National Cathedral. In addition, 35 of the 50 state capitol buildings are made of Indiana limestone.
For sixty years, from 1890 to 1950, the United States Census found the center of population to lie in southern Indiana.
Climate
Most of Indiana has a humid continental climate (Koppen climate classification Dfa), with hot, humid summers and cool to cold winters. The extreme southern portions of the state border on a humid subtropical climate (Koppen Cfa) with somewhat milder winters. Summertime maximum temperatures average around 85 °F (29 °C) with cooler nights around 60 °F (16 °C). Winters are a little more variable, but generally cool to cold temperatures with all but the northern part of the state averaging above freezing for the maximum January temperature, and the minimum temperature below 20 °F (-8 °C) for most of the state. The state receives a good amount of precipitation, 40 inches (1,000 mm) annually statewide, in all four seasons, with March through August being slightly wetter.
The state does have its share of severe weather, both winter storms and thunderstorms. While generally not receiving as much snow as some states farther north, the state does have occasional blizzards, some due to Lake-effect snow. Two major paralyzing snowstorms bear merit. The Blizzard of 1978, which affected almost the entire state, and the December, 2004 Blizzard, which primarily affected the Ohio Valley and later caused the severe flooding of the White, Wabash, and the Ohio Rivers in January, 2005. The state averages around 40–50 days of thunderstorms per year, with March and April being the period of most severe storms. While not considered part of Tornado Alley, Indiana is the Great Lakes state which is most vulnerable to tornadic activity. In fact, three of the most severe tornado outbreaks in U.S. history affected Indiana, the Tri-State Tornado of 1925, the Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1965 and the Super Outbreak of 1974. The Evansville Tornado of November 2005 killed 25 people, 20 people in Vanderburgh County and 5 in Warrick County.
| Monthly Normal High and Low Temperatures for Largest Indiana Cities | | City | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
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| Evansville | 40/23 | 45/26 | 56/35 | 67/44 | 77/54 | 86/64 | 89/68 | 86/64 | 81/57 | 70/45 | 56/36 | 44/27 |
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| Fort Wayne | 31/16 | 35/19 | 47/29 | 60/38 | 72/49 | 81/59 | 84/62 | 82/60 | 75/53 | 63/42 | 48/33 | 36/22 |
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| Indianapolis | 34/18 | 40/22 | 51/32 | 63/41 | 74/52 | 82/61 | 86/65 | 84/63 | 77/55 | 66/44 | 52/34 | 39/24 |
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| South Bend | 31/16 | 36/19 | 47/28 | 59/38 | 71/48 | 80/58 | 83/63 | 81/61 | 74/53 | 62/42 | 48/33 | 36/22 |
|---|
| Source: US Travel Weather |
Demographics
As of 2006, Indiana had an estimated population of 6,313,520, which is an increase of 47,501, or 0.8%, from the prior year and an increase of 233,003, or 3.8%, since the year 2000. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 196,728 people (that is 541,506 births minus 344,778 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 51,117 people into the state. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 68,935 people, and migration within the country produced a net loss of 17,818 people.
The center of population of Indiana is located in Hamilton County, in the town of Sheridan. Population growth since 1990 has been concentrated in the counties surrounding Indianapolis, with four of the top five fastest-growing counties in that area: Hamilton, Hendricks, Johnson, and Hancock. The other county is Dearborn County, which is near Cincinnati.
The Evansville area has experienced a shift in their population. Vanderburgh County has continued to grow by at least 3% a year while the city of Evansville struggles with retaining population. The other counties of the Evansville area of Southwestern Indiana have started to grow at an increasingly faster rate, especially Gibson and Warrick Counties who are becoming Evansville's suburban counties. Gibson County has seen at least two towns Haubstadt and Fort Branch starting to become "bedroom communities" like Newburgh and Chandler in Warrick County. In addition, the two counties have seen their minority (in particular, Asian, African-American, and Hispanic) populations nearly double in the last 15 years.
As of 2005, the total population included 242,281 foreign-born (3.9%).
German is the largest ancestry reported in Indiana, with 22.7% of the population reporting that ancestry in the Census. Persons citing "American" (12.0%) and English ancestry (8.9%) are also numerous, as are Irish (10.8%) and Polish (3.0%).
Religion
Although the largest single religious denomination in the state is Roman Catholic (836,009 members), most of the population are members of various Protestant denominations. The largest Protestant denomination by number of adherents in 2000 was the United Methodist Church with 288,308. A study by the Graduate Center found that 20% are Roman Catholic, 14% belong to different Baptist churches, 10% are other Christians, 9% are Methodist, and 6% are Lutheran. The study also found that 16% are secular.
The state is home to the University of Notre Dame and several other private, religiously affiliated schools. It also has a strong parochial school system in the larger metropolitan areas. Southern Indiana is the home to a number of Catholic monasteries and one of the two archabbeys in the United States, St. Meinrad Archabbey. Two conservative denominations, the Free Methodist Church and the Wesleyan Church, have their headquarters in Indianapolis as does the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). The Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches maintains offices and publishing work in Winona Lake. Huntington serves as the home to the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. Anderson is home to the headquarters of the Church of God (Anderson) Ministries and Warner Press Publishing House. Fort Wayne is the headquarters of the Missionary Church. Fort Wayne is also home to one of The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod's seminaries - Concordia Theological Seminary. The Friends United Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, the largest branch of American Quakerism, is based in Richmond. Richmond also houses the oldest Quaker seminary in the US, the Earlham School of Religion. Indiana is home to an estimated 250,000 Muslims. The Islamic Society of North America is headquartered just off Interstate 70 in Plainfield, west of Indianapolis.
In 1906, the Census reported there were 938,405 members of different religious denominations; of this total, 233,443 were Methodists (210,593 of the Northern Church); 174,849 were Roman Catholics, 108,188 were Disciples of Christ (and 10,219 members of the Churches of Christ); 92,705 were Baptists (60,203 of the Northern Convention, 13,526 of the National (African American) Convention; 8,132 Primitive Baptists, and 6,671 General Baptists); 58,633 were Presbyterians (49,041 of the Northern Church, and 6,376 of the Cumberland Church—since united with the Northern); 55,768 were Lutherans (34,028 of the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference, 8,310 of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Ohio and other states), 52,700 were United Brethren (48,059 of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ; the others of the " Old Constitution ") and 21,624 of the German Evangelical Synod.
Cities and towns
The largest city in Indiana is state capital Indianapolis. "Indy" and its surrounding suburban areas are home to over 2,000,000 people - almost a full third of the state's population.
Fort Wayne, Evansville, and South Bend are other Indiana cities with populations over 100,000.
| Rank | City or Town | 2007 Population | 2007 Metro Population |
|---|
| 1 | Indianapolis | 795,458 | 2,014,267 | | 2 | Fort Wayne | 251,247 | 410,070 | | 3 | Evansville | 116,253 | 349,717 | | 4 | South Bend | 104,069 | 316,639 | | 5 | Gary | 96,429 | 698,971 | | 6 | Hammond | 77,175 | * | | 7 | Bloomington | 72,254 | 183,733 | | 8 | Carmel | 68,677 | ** | | 9 | Muncie | 65,410 | 115,419 | | 10 | Fishers | 65,382 | ** | | 11 | Lafayette | 63,679 | 192,161 | | 12 | Terre Haute | 58,932 | 169,346 | | 13 | Anderson | 57,311 | 131,312 | | 14 | Elkhart | 52,647 | 197,942 | | 15 | Mishawaka | 49,439 | *** | | *Gary Metro, **Indianapolis Metro, ***South Bend Metro | |
Government and politics
State government
Indiana Government has three branches: executive (government), legislative (parliament) and judicial. The governor of Indiana, elected for a four-year term, heads the government. The Indiana General Assembly, the legislative branch, consists of the upper house, Senate, and the lower house, House of Representatives. Indiana's fifty State Senators are elected for four-year terms and one hundred State Representatives for two-year terms. In odd-numbered years, the General Assembly meets in a sixty-one day session. In even-numbered years, it meets for thirty session days. The judicial branch consists of the Indiana Supreme Court, Indiana Court of Appeals, the Indiana Tax Court, and local circuit courts.
The current governor of Indiana is Mitch Daniels, whose campaign slogan was "My Man Mitch," an appellation given by President George W. Bush for whom Mitch Daniels was the director of the Office of Management and Budget. He was elected to office on November 2, 2004 and reelected on November 4, 2008.
Local government
Indiana has 92 counties, each of which has its own council and local government. Counties are further divided into townships.
Federal government
The state's U.S. Senators are Senior Sen. Richard Lugar (Republican) and Junior Sen. Evan Bayh (Democrat). Both Senators, although of opposite parties, have proved immensely popular in the state. In 2004, Sen. Bayh won reelection to a second term with 62% of the vote. And in 2006, Sen. Lugar won reelection to a sixth term with 87% of the vote against no major-party opposition.
Former governor and current U.S. Senator Evan Bayh announced in 2006 his plans for a presidential exploratory committee. His father was a three-term senator who was turned out of office in the 1980 Reagan Revolution by conservative Republican (and future Vice-President) Dan Quayle, a native of Huntington in the northeastern part of the state. However, Bayh announced that he would not be seeking the Presidency on December 16, 2006.
Politics
Presidential elections results | Year | Republican | Democratic |
|---|
| 2008 | 48.91% 1,345,648 | 49.95% 1,374,039 | | 2004 | 59.94% 1,479,438 | 39.26% 969,011 | | 2000 | 56.65% 1,245,836 | 41.01% 901,980 | | 1996 | 47.13% 1,006,693 | 41.55% 887,424 | | 1992 | 42.91% 989,375 | 36.79% 848,420 | | 1988 | 59.84% 1,297,763 | 39.69% 860,643 |
Indiana has long been considered to be a Republican stronghold. It has only supported a Democrat for president five times since 1900 - in 1912, 1932, 1936, 1964, and 2008. Nonetheless, half of Indiana's governors in the 20th century were Democrats.
Statistically, Indiana is more of a stronghold for Republican Presidential candidates than for candidates elected to state government. Only five Democrats have carried Indiana since 1900. On the other hand, 11 Democratic winners have been Democratic Governors. Before Mitch Daniels became governor in 2005, 3 straight governors have been Democrats. This figure includes Frank O'Bannon who won a second term. However, Democrats carry Indiana much less often in presidential election, as Lyndon Johnson was the last Democrat to carry the state in 1964 until 2008. As recently as 2004, Indiana was more Republican than the rest of the nation: George W. Bush won the state 60% to 39% in his reelection campaign, compared to his 51% to 48% win nationwide. However, in 2008, Democrat Barack Obama narrowly defeated his Republican opponent John McCain in the state, winning 50% to 49%.
Historically, Republicans have been strongest in the eastern and central portions of the state, as well as the suburbs of the state's major cities. Democrats have been strongest in the northern, northwestern and specific southern parts of the state along with the major cities. However, outside of Indianapolis, South Bend, the Chicago suburbs, and Bloomington, the state's Democrats tend to be somewhat more conservative than their counterparts in the rest of the country, especially on social issues.
Indiana's delegation to the United States House of Representatives is not limited to Republicans either. Instead, it has generally served as a bellwether for the political movement of the nation. For instance, Democrats held the majority of seats until the 1994 Republican Revolution, when Republicans took a majority. This continued until 2006, when three Republican congressmen were defeated in Indiana; (Chris Chocola, John Hostettler and Mike Sodrel), giving the Democrats a majority of the delegation again.
Economy
The total gross state product in 2005 was US$214 billion in 2000 chained dollars. Indiana's per capita income, as of 2005, was US$31,150. A high percentage of Indiana's income is from manufacturing. The Calumet region of northwest Indiana is the largest steel producing area in the U.S. Steelmaking itself requires generating very large amounts of electric power. Indiana's other manufactures include pharmaceuticals and medical devices, automobiles, electrical equipment, transportation equipment, chemical products, rubber, petroleum and coal products, and factory machinery.
Despite its reliance on manufacturing, Indiana has been much less affected by declines in traditional Rust Belt manufactures than many of its neighbors. The explanation appears to be certain factors in the labor market. First, much of the heavy manufacturing, such as industrial machinery and steel, requires highly skilled labor, and firms are often willing to locate where hard-to-train skills already exist. Second, Indiana's labor force is located primarily in medium-sized and smaller cities rather than in very large and expensive metropolises. This makes it possible for firms to offer somewhat lower wages for these skills than would normally be paid. In other words, firms often see in Indiana a chance to obtain higher than average skills at lower than average wages.
Indiana is home to the international headquarters of pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly in Indianapolis as well as the world headquarters of Mead Johnson Nutritionals in Evansville. Elkhart, in the north, has also had a strong economic base of pharmaceuticals, though this has changed over the past decade with the closure of Whitehall Laboratories in the 1990s and the planned drawdown of the large Bayer complex, announced in late 2005. Overall, Indiana ranks fifth among all U.S. states in total sales and shipments of pharmaceutical products and second highest in the number of biopharmaceutical related jobs. Medical device manufacturers include Zimmer in Warsaw and Cook in Bloomington.
The state is located within the Corn Belt and the state's agricultural methods and principal farm outputs reflect this: a feedlot-style system raising corn to fatten hogs and cattle. Soybeans are also a major cash crop. Its proximity to large urban centers, such as Chicago, assure that dairying, egg production, and specialty horticulture occur.
Specialty crops include melons, tomatoes, grapes, and mint. Most of the original land was not prairie and had to be cleared of deciduous trees. Many parcels of woodland remain and support a furniture-making sector in the southern portion of the state.
Indiana is becoming a leading state in the production of biofuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel. Indiana now has 12 ethanol and 4 biodiesel plants located in the state. Reynolds, located north of Lafayette is now known as BioTown, USA. The town is experimenting with using biofuels and organic fuels, such as those made with manure, to power the town.
In mining, Indiana is probably best known for its decorative limestone from the southern, hilly portion of the state, especially from Lawrence County (the home area of Apollo I astronaut Gus Grissom). One of the many public buildings faced with this stone is The Pentagon, and after the September 11, 2001 attacks, a special effort was made by the mining industry of Indiana to replace those damaged walls with as nearly identical type and cut of material as the original facing. There are also large coal mines in the southern portion of the state. Like most Great Lakes states, Indiana has small to medium operating petroleum fields; the principal location of these today is in the extreme southwest, though operational oil derricks can be seen on the outskirts of Terre Haute.
Indiana's economy is considered to be one of the most business-friendly in the U.S. This is due in part to its conservative business climate, low business taxes, relatively low union membership, and labor laws. The doctrine of at-will employment, whereby an employer can terminate an employee for any or no reason, is in force.
Indiana has a flat state income tax rate of 3.4%. Many Indiana counties also collect income tax. The state sales tax rate is 7%. Property taxes are imposed on both real and personal property in Indiana and are administered by the Department of Local Government Finance. Property is subject to taxation by a variety of taxing units (schools, counties, townships, cities and towns, libraries), making the total tax rate the sum of the tax rates imposed by all taxing units in which a property is located. However, a "circuit breaker" law enacted on March 19, 2008 limits property taxes to one percent of assessed value for homeowners, two percent for rental properties and farmland and three percent for businesses.
Energy
Indiana's power production chiefly consists of the consumption of fossil fuels, mainly coal. Indiana has 24 coal power plants, including the largest coal power plant in the United States, Gibson Generating Station, located near Owensville, Indiana. While Indiana has made commitments to increasing use of renewable resources such as wind, hydroelectric, biomass, or solar power, however, progress has been very slow, mainly because of the continued abundance of coal in Southern Indiana. Most of the new plants in the state have been "coal gasification" plants. Another source is hydroelectric power.
Indiana has six hydroelectric dams. The Norway and Oakdale Dams near Monticello provide electrical power, recreation, and other benefits to local citizens. The Norway Dam created Lake Shafer and the Oakdale Dam created Lake Freeman. The Markland Dam, on the Ohio River, near Vevay, Indiana also produces electricity. The city of Wabash was the first electrically lighted city in the country.
Solar power and wind power are being investigated, and geothermal power is being used commercially. New estimates in 2006 raised the wind capacity for Indiana from 30 MW at 50 m turbine height to 40,000 MW at 70 m, which could double at 100 m, the height of newer turbines. As of the end of June, 2008, Indiana has installed 130 MW of wind turbines and has under construction another 400 MW.
Sources of energy (2009) See below Navbox for individual facilities.
| Fuel | Capacity | Percent of Total Consumed | Percent of Total Production | Number of Plants/Units |
|---|
| Coal | 19,500 MW | 63.0000 % | 88.5000 % | 24 Plants | | Natural Gas | 2,100 MW | 29.0000 % | 10.5000 % | 15 Facilities
*Often used in Peaking Stations | | Petroleum | 575 MW | 7.5000 % | 1.5000 % | 10 Units | | Wind | 130.5 MW | ? | ? | 1 Farms/87 Towers
(1 additional farm under construction) | | Hydroelectric | 64 MW | 0.0450 % | 0.0100 % | 1 Plant | | Biomass | 28 MW | 0.0150 % | 0.0020 % | 1 Facility | | Wood & Waste | 18 MW | 0.0013 % | 0.0015 % | 3 Units | | Geothermal and/or Solar | 0 MW | 0.0 % | 0.0 | No Facilities at this time | | Nuclear | 0 MW | 0.0 % | 0.0 | 1 facility never completed |
Transportation
Airports
Indianapolis International Airport serves the greater Indianapolis area and has just finished constructing a new passenger terminal. The new airport opened in November 2008 and offers a new midfield passenger terminal, concourses, air traffic control tower, parking garage, and airfield and apron improvements.
Other major airports include Evansville Regional Airport, Fort Wayne International Airport (which houses the 122d Fighter Wing of the Air National Guard), and South Bend Regional Airport. A long-standing proposal to turn the under-utilized Gary Chicago International Airport into Chicago's third major airport received a boost in early 2006 with the approval of $48 million in federal funding over the next ten years.
The Terre Haute International Airport has no airlines operating out of the facility but is used for private flying. Since 1954, the 181st Fighter Wing of the Indiana Air National Guard has been stationed at the airport. However, the BRAC Proposal of 2005 stated that the 181st would lose its fighter mission and F-16 aircraft, leaving the Terre Haute facility as a general-aviation only facility.
The southern part of the state is also served by the Louisville International Airport across the Ohio River in Louisville, Kentucky.
The southeastern part of the state is served by the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport also across the Ohio River in Florence Kentucky.
Many residents of northwestern Indiana use the two Chicago airports, O'Hare International Airport and Chicago Midway International Airport.
Highways
The major U.S. Interstate highways in Indiana are I-465, I-469, I-69, I-65, I-94, I-70, I-74, I-64, I-80, and I-90. The various highways intersecting in and around Indianapolis earned it the nickname "The Crossroads of America". Originally the Crossroads of America referred to Terre Haute, where the two major US 41 and US 40 (Old National Road) highways intersected.
There are also many state highways maintained by the Indiana Department of Transportation. These are numbered according to the same convention as U.S. Highways.
County roads
Most Indiana counties use a grid-based system to identify county roads; this system replaced the older arbitrary system of road numbers and names, and (among other things) makes it much easier to identify the sources of calls placed to the 9-1-1 system. Such systems are easier to implement in the glacially flattened northern and central portions of the state. Rural counties in the southern third of the state are less likely to have grids and more likely to rely on unsystematic road names (e.g., Harrison County); there are also counties in the northern portions of the state that have never implemented a grid, or have only partially implemented one. Some counties are also laid out in an almost diamond-like grid system (e.g. Clark, Floyd and Knox Counties). Such a system is also almost useless in those situations as well. Knox County once operated two different grid systems for county roads because the county was laid out using two different survey grids, but has since decided to use road names and combine roads instead.
A notable county road system within the state is St. Joseph County's county road grid, which is relatively easy to follow. St. Joseph County, whose major city is South Bend, uses perennial (tree) names (i.e. Ash, Hickory, Ironwood, etc.) in alphabetical order for North-South roads and Presidential and other noteworthy names (i.e. Adams, Edison, Lincoln Way, etc.) in alphabetical order for East-West roads. There are exceptions to this rule in downtown South Bend and Mishawaka.
Rail
Indiana has over 4,255 railroad route miles, of which 91 percent are operated by Class I railroads, principally CSX Transportation and the Norfolk Southern Railway. Other Class I railroads in Indiana include the Canadian National Railway and Soo Line Railroad, a Canadian Pacific Railway subsidiary, as well as Amtrak. The remaining miles are operated by 37 regional, local, and switching & terminal railroads. The South Shore Line is one of the country's most notable commuter rail systems extending from Chicago to South Bend. Indiana is currently implementing an extensive rail plan that was prepared in 2002 by the Parsons Corporation.
Ports
Indiana annually ships over 70 million tons of cargo by water each year, which ranks 14th among all U.S. states. More than half of Indiana's border is water, which includes of direct access to two major freight transportation arteries: the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Seaway (via Lake Michigan) and the Inland Waterway System (via the Ohio River). The Ports of Indiana manages three major ports which include Burns Harbor, Jeffersonville, and Mount Vernon.
Education
Indiana is known as the "Brain Bank of the Midwest" as Indiana's colleges and universities attract the fourth largest number of out-of-state students in the nation and the largest out-of-state student population in the midwest. In addition, Indiana is the third best state in the country at keeping high school seniors in-state as Indiana colleges and universities attract 88% of Indiana's college attendees. This exceptional popularity is attributed to the high quality of the research and educational universities located in the state. Indiana universities also lead the nation in the attraction of international students with Purdue University and Indiana University ranked #3 and #17 respectively in the total international student enrollment of all universities in the United States. The state's leading higher education institutions include Purdue University, Indiana State University, Wabash College, DePauw University, Valparaiso University, University of Evansville, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, IPFW, IUPUI, University of Indianapolis, Butler University, Ball State University, University of Southern Indiana, Indiana University, and University of Notre Dame, are among the many public and private institutions located in the state.
Sports
Professional sports
Indiana has a long history with auto racing. Indianapolis hosts the Indianapolis 500 mile race over Memorial Day weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway every May. The name of the race is usually shortened to "Indy 500" and also goes by the nickname "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing." The race attracts over 250,000 people every year making it the largest single day sporting event in the world. The track also hosts the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard (NASCAR) and the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix (MotoGP). From 2000 to 2007, it hosted the United States Grand Prix (Formula One).
Indiana has a rich basketball heritage that reaches back to the formative years of the sport itself. Although James Naismith invented basketball in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1891, Indiana is where high school basketball was born. In 1925, Naismith visited an Indiana basketball state finals game along with 15,000 screaming fans and later wrote "Basketball really had its origin in Indiana, which remains the center of the sport." The 1986 film Hoosiers is based on the story of the 1954 Indiana state champions Milan High School.
College sports
Indiana has had great sports success at the collegiate level. Notably, Indiana University has won five NCAA basketball championships, six swimming and diving NCAA championships, and seven NCAA soccer championships and Notre Dame has won 11 football championships. Schools fielding NCAA Division I athletic programs include:
Miscellaneous
Military installations
Indiana used to be home to two major military installations, Grissom Air Force Base near Peru (reduced to reservist operations in 1994) and Fort Benjamin Harrison near Indianapolis, now closed, though the Department of Defense continues to operate a large finance center there.
Current active installations include Air National Guard fighter units at Fort Wayne, and Terre Haute airports (to be consolidated at Fort Wayne under the 2005 BRAC proposal, with the Terre Haute facility remaining open as a non-flying installation). The Army National Guard conducts operations at Camp Atterbury in Edinburgh, Indiana and helicopter operations out of Shelbyville Airport. The Crane Naval Weapons Center is in the southwest of the state and the Army's Newport Chemical Depot, which is currently heavily involved in neutralizing dangerous chemical weapons stored there, is in the western part of the state. Also, Naval Operational Support Center Indianapolis is home to several Navy Reserve units, a Marine Reserve unit, and a small contingent of active and full-time-support reserve personnel.
Time zones
Indiana is one of thirteen U.S. states that is divided into more than one time zone. Indiana's time zones have fluctuated over the past century. At present most of the state observes Eastern Time; six counties near Chicago and six near Evansville observe Central Time. Debate continues on the matter.
Before 2006, most of Indiana did not observe daylight saving time (DST). Some counties within this area, particularly Floyd, Clark, and Harrison counties near Louisville, Kentucky, and Ohio and Dearborn counties near Cincinnati, Ohio, unofficially observed DST by local custom. Since April 2006 the entire state observes DST. Although DST is supposed to save energy, a 2008 study of billing data before and after the change in 2006 concluded that residential electricity consumption had increased by 1% to 4%, primarily due to extra afternoon cooling.
State symbols
Famous Hoosiers
Indiana is the home state of many astronauts, including Gus Grissom, Frank Borman, and David Wolf. The state was the birthplace of numerous entertainers and athletes including Axl Rose, Larry Bird, John Mellencamp, Michael Jackson, Don Larsen, David Letterman, David Lee Roth, and Scott Rolen. Other notable people who were in Indiana during a major part of their career include:
- Steve Alford, basketball player, coach
- John Andretti, racecar driver
- David Anspaugh, movie director
- Albert J. Beveridge, politician and historian
- Larry Bird, basketball player, coach
- Damon Bailey, retired basketball player
- Birch Bayh, senator
- Evan Bayh, governor and senator
- Claude Bowers, politician and historian
- Hoagy Carmichael, composer
- Jared Carter, poet
- Jay Cutler, football player
- Jim Davis, cartoonist
- James Dean, movie star
- Eugene V. Debs, Socialist Presidential candidate
- Mark Dismore, racecar driver
- Katie Douglas, WNBA player for the Indiana Fever
- Theodore Dreiser, novelist
- Paul Dresser, song writer
- Carl Erskine, baseball star and civic leader
- Carl G. Fisher, Entrepreneur
- Vivica A. Fox, actress
- Brendan Fraser, actor
- Lillian Gilbreth, home economist
- Michael Graves, architect
- Gus Grissom, astronaut
- Rex Grossman, NFL Quarterback
- Charles Halleck, politician
- Lee Hamilton, politician
- Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States
- William Henry Harrison, general and 9th President of the United States
- Richard Hatcher, politician
- Florence Henderson, singer-actress
- Jimmy Hoffa, American labor leader
- Paul Hoffman, industrialist
- Richard Shannon Hoon singer/songwriter
- Robert Indiana, painter/sculptor
- Janet Jackson, singer/actress
- Michael Jackson, singer/songwriter
- Alfred Kinsey, sex researcher
- Durward Kirby, entertainer
- Don Larsen, baseball pitcher
- David Letterman, TV personality
- Eli Lilly, industrialist and philanthropist
- Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States
- Carole Lombard, actress
- Richard Lugar, politician
- Karl Malden, actor
- Don Mattingly, baseball player/coach
- John Mellencamp, musician
- Steve McQueen, actor
- Ryan Newman, NASCAR driver
- Edna Scott Parker, oldest person in the world
- Jane Pauley, anchor and journalist
- Cole Porter, song writer
- Ernie Pyle, journalist
- Dan Quayle, Forty-fourth U.S. Vice-President
- George Rapp, Utopian
- Orville Redenbacher, farming (popcorn)
- James Whitcomb Riley, poet
- Oscar Robertson, basketball player
- Knute Rockne, football coach
- Axl Rose, musician
- Jerry Ross, Astronaut
- David Lee Roth, musician
- Harland Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken
- Jean Shepherd, raconteur, personality, writer, and actor
- Red Skelton, comedian
- Tony Stewart, NASCAR driver
- Izzy Stradlin, guitarist/musician
- Gene Stratton-Porter, novelist
- David Stremme, NASCAR driver
- Clement Studebaker, automobile maker
- Booth Tarkington, novelist
- Chuck Taylor, salesman famous for originating the Converse Chuck Taylor All-Star
- Tecumseh, pan-American Indian leader
- Steve Tesich, screenwriter and playwright
- Maurice Thompson, novelist
- Kurt Vonnegut, novelist
- Madam C.J. Walker, businesswoman and civic leader
- Lew Wallace, Civil War general, statesman, author
- Steve Wariner, singer/song writer
- Gary Webb, Journalist
- Ryan White, AIDS activist
- Matt Williams, producer of popular television shows
- Wendell Willkie, politician
- Robert Wise, movie director
- Wilbur Wright, inventor, co-father of aviation
- Fuzzy Zoeller, PGA golfer
Bold text
See also
Steve Warner, Country Music Songwriter
Steve Alford, Retired Basketball Player, Coach
Bibliography
- Indiana Writer's Project. Indiana: A Guide To The Hoosier State: American Guide Series (1937), famous WPA Guide to every location; strong on history, architecture and culture; reprinted 1973
- Carmony, Donald Francis. Indiana, 1816 to 1850: The Pioneer Era (1998)
- Jackson, Marion T., editor. The Natural Heritage of Indiana. © 1997, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana. ISBN 0-2533-3074-2.* James H. Madison. The Indiana Way: A State History (1990)
- Skertic, Mark and Watkins, John J. A Native's Guide to Northwest Indiana (2003)
- Taylor, Robert M., ed. The State of Indiana History 2000: Papers Presented at the Indiana Historical Society's Grand Opening (2001)
- Taylor, Robert M., ed. Indiana: A New Historical Guide (1990), highly detailed guide to cities and recent history
External links
Government
- - The Official website of the State of Indiana
- - Official Indianapolis city government website
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Directory
Culture and recreation
Geography
- - Historic guides to the communities of Indiana
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Professional media
- - Digest of Indiana business stories
- - Statewide business daily
- - Central Indiana news
- - Northeast Indiana news
- - West-Central Indiana news
- - South-Central Indiana news
- - Southwest Indiana news
- - Northwest Indiana news
Business
International community and business resources
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