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This article is about the U.S. state. See also Indiana, Pennsylvania (U.S.) and Indiana, São Paulo (Brazil.)

Indiana, meaning the "Land of the Indians," is a Midwestern state of the United States.

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 475 mile (764 km) long Wabash River bisects the state from northeast to southwest and has given Indiana two theme songs, the state song On the Banks of the Wabash as well as The Wabash Cannonball. The White River (a tributary of the Wabash, which is a tributary of the Ohio) zigzags through central Indiana. Indianapolis and Muncie are large cities on this river. Evansville, the third largest city in Indiana, is located on the Ohio River, which forms all of the Indiana-Kentucky border.

Northern Indiana is mostly farmland; however, the northwest corner of the state is part of the greater metropolitan area of Chicago and is therefore more densely populated. Gary, a city on Lake Michigan, is effectively a suburb of Chicago, even though it is in Indiana.

South Bend, Mishawaka, Elkhart and Goshen have become a single metropolitan area over the past 20 years (spanning two counties).

The Kankakee River, which winds through northern Indiana, serves somewhat as a demarcating line between rural and suburban northwest Indiana.

Southern Indiana is a mixture of farmland and forest. The Hoosier National Forest is a 200,000 acre (80,900 ha) nature preserve in south central Indiana. Southern Indiana's topography is more varied and generally contains more hills and geographic variation than the northern portion, such as the "Knobs," a series of 1,000 ft. hills that run parallel to the Ohio River in south-central Indiana. The limestone geology of Southern Indiana has created numerous caves and one of the largest limestone quarry regions in the USA.

Areas under the control and protection of the National Park Service include:

See also List of Indiana counties and their etymologies; List of townships in Indiana

History

The area of Indiana has been settled since before the development of the Hopewell culture (ca. 100–400 CE). It was part of the Mississippian culture from roughly the year 1000 up to the conventional end of Mississippian dating ("contact with Europeans"). The specific Native American tribes that inhabited this territory at that time were primarily the Miami and the Shawnee. The area was claimed for New France in the 17th century, handed over to the Kingdom of Great Britain as part of the settlement at the end of the French and Indian War, given to the United States after the American Revolution, soon after which it became part of the Northwest Territory, known as the Illinois County of the one lost county, then the Indiana Territory, and joined the Union in 1816 as the 19th state.

Pioneer Era: 1816-1860

In answer to a petition for admission to the Union, a bill admitting the state was passed in April, 1816, and on 29 June the State adopted a constitution. On 11 December the State was formally admitted. It was not without considerable effort on the part of the freesoilers of that day that a clause excluding slavery was adopted.

Indiana filled up from the Ohio River north. Emigration, mostly from Kentucky and Ohio, was so rapid that by 1820 the population was 147,176, and by 1830 the sales of public lands for the previous decade reached 3,588,000 acres (5,600 sq mi; 14,500 km²) and the population was 343,031. It had more than doubled since 1820. The first state capital was in southern Indiana in Corydon (which was also the site of the only Civil War battle in Indiana), located about 35 minutes west of Louisville along the current I-64.

Transportation
Down the Mississippi and its tributaries (the Ohio and Wabash) was to be found the sole outlet for the increasing produce of the Middle West, whose waters drained into the great valley. Districts which were not upon streams navigable by even the lightest draught steamboat were economically handicapped. The small, flat boat was their main reliance. Roads suitable for heavy carriage were few up to the middle of the century. To meet this condition the building of canals (espoused by the constitution of 1816) was long advocated, in emulation of Ohio which took example after New York State. In 1826 Congress granted a strip two and a half miles wide on each side of the proposed canal. A very extensive and ambitious scale of main and lateral canals and turnpikes was advocated in consequence. The expense and time attending shipment of merchandise from the east at that time were almost prohibitive. Yet 100,000 bushels of salt came to the State each year from central New York, because it was a necessity, regardless of price. Work began on the Wabash and Erie Canal in 1832, on the White Water in 1836, on the Central in 1837. But bad financing and "bad times" nearly wrecked the whole scheme; yet the Wabash and Erie Canal was completed from Toledo to Evansville. It was a great factor in the development of the State, although it brought heavy loss upon the bondholders on the advent of the railroad, which competition the canal at that time could not stand. Before the canal was in operation wheat sold at 37 to 45 cents, and corn at 16 to 20 cents per bushel. Salt brought $10 per barrel, and sugar from 25 to 35 cents per pound. But the canal increased prices of farm products three or four fold and reduced prices of household needs 60%, a tremendous stimulus to agricultural development. By 1840 the population of the upper Wabash Valley had increased from 12,000 to 270,000. The canal boat that hauled loads of grain east came back loaded with immigrants. In 1846 it is estimated that over thirty families settled every day in the State.

Manufacturing also developed rapidly. In the ten years between 1840 and 1850 the counties bordering the canal increased in population 397 per cent; those more fertile, but more remote, 190 per cent. The tide of trade, which had been heretofore to New Orleans, was reversed and went east. The canal also facilitated and brought emigration from Ohio, New York, and New England, in the newly established counties in the northern two-thirds area of the State. The foreign immigration was mostly from Ireland and Germany. Later, this great canal fell into disuse, and finally was abandoned, as railway mileage increased.

In the next ten years, by 1840, of the public domain 9,122,688 acres (14,250 sq mi; 36,918 km²) had been sold. But the State was still heavily in debt, although growing rapidly. In 1851 a new constitution (now in force) was adopted. The first constitution was adopted at a convention assembled at Corydon, which had been the seat of government since December, 1813. The original state house built of blue limestone, still stands; but in 1821 the site of the present capital (Indianapolis) was selected by the legislature; it was in the wilds sixty miles from civilization. By 1910 it ws a city of 225,000 inhabitants and the largest inland steam and electric railroad centre without navigation in the United States. Yet no railroad reached it before 1847.

The State sent three regiments to the Mexican war. Lew Wallace (afterwards general in the rebellion and the author of "Ben Hur") was a second lieutenant. All her regiments were officered by volunteer officers.

Demographics

As of 2005, Indiana has an estimated population of 6,271,973, which is an increase of 45,436, or 0.7%, from the prior year and an increase of 191,456, or 3.1%, since the year 2000. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 159,488 people (that is 451,681 births minus 292,193 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 38,656 people into the state. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 55,656 people, and migration within the country produced a net loss of 17,000 people.

As of 2004, the population included about 229,000 foreign-born (3.7%).

Racially, the state is:

3.5% of the population is Hispanic, of any race

The five largest ancestries in the state are: German (22.7%), American (12%), Irish (10.8%), English (8.9%), African American (8.4%).

German is the largest ancestry reported in Indiana, with about one-fourth of whites reporting that ancestry in the Census. Persons citing "American" and British ancestry are also present throughout the state, especially in the southern and central parts of the state. Gary and the surrounding Chicago suburbs, along with the city of Indianapolis, have large black populations.

South Bend has a large Polish population and there are a sizeable number of people with Belgian ancestry in Mishawaka. Dyngus Day, the Polish celebration of the end of Lent, takes place on the Monday after Easter and is widely celebrated in South Bend.

A large Hispanic/Latino population exists in Elkhart County, particularly the north side of the city of Goshen. This formerly German- and Dutch-dominated area now has a high concentration of Hispanic (particularly Mexican)-oriented businesses and many official signs in the area are bilingual. Indianapolis has a rapidly growing Hispanic/Latino population as well.

It is sometimes said that culturally Indiana is demarcated by US Highway 30, which runs on a southeast-northwest axis from Fort Wayne through Merrillville into Illinois. Those living north of US 30 are often closer in attitude to Chicago and Detroit, and some feel a disconnection from the rest of the state. South of US 30 tends to have the more stereotypical Hoosier rural, conservative attitudes, though this of course is in question in the larger cities like Indianapolis, Lafayette and Evansville. Bloomington, home of Indiana University, tends to be much more culturally liberal than the rest of the state. Southern Indiana (particularly the counties bordering Louisville, KY) tends to be culturally and linguistically more associated with Kentucky.

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. Meanwhile, population decline has primarily been in a series of counties that geographically form a line between Logansport and Richmond. Most of these counties were at the heart of the Gas Belt. Vigo, Knox, and Perry counties, along the Wabash River and the Ohio River, also experienced decline.

Religion

Religiously, Indiana is predominantly Protestant, although there is also a significant Roman Catholic population. The Catholic presence is perhaps better known than its size would imply due to the existence of the University of Notre Dame; the larger metro areas, such as Indianapolis, Evansville, Gary, and southern Indiana have thriving parochial school systems. Indiana is home to a sizeable and influential proportion of Mennonite and Amish Christians, particularly in Elkhart and LaGrange Counties in the north, and a smaller number in Parke County in the west. The state has the nation's largest population of members of the Protestant "Churches of Christ" denomination.

Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant churches are strong in the cities, but in rural areas evangelical and fundamentalist churches, such as independent Baptist and Pentecostal churches, tend to dominate. Two conservative denominations, the Free Methodist Church and the Wesleyan Church, have their headquarters in Indianapolis.

The Islamic Society of North America is headquartered just off Interstate 70 in Plainfield, west of Indianapolis.

There are significant numbers of Jews in urban areas, particularly Indianapolis, South Bend, Fort Wayne and Terre Haute.

The current religious affiliations of the people of Indiana are shown below:

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; 8132 Primitive Baptists, and 6671 General Baptists); 58,633 were Presbyterians (49,041 of the Northern Church, and 6376 of the Cumberland Church—since united with the Northern); 55,768 were Lutherans (34,028 of the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference, 8310 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. *

Economy

The total gross state product in 2003 was US$214 billion. Indiana's per capita income, as of 2003, was US$28,783.

Indiana 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. The state's nearness to large urban centers, such as Chicago, Illinois, also assures that much dairying, egg production, and specialty horticulture occur. Specialty crops include melons (southern Wabash Valley), tomatoes (concentrated in central Indiana), grapes, and mint (Source: USDA crop profiles). In addition, Indiana is a significant producer of tobacco. Most of the original land was not prairie and had to be cleared of deciduous trees. Many isolated parcels of woodland remain, and much of the southern, hilly portion is heavily forested (a condition which supports a local furniture-making sector in that part of the state).

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., and this activity also requires that very large amounts of electric power be generated. Indiana's other manufactures include automobiles, electrical equipment, transportation equipment, chemical products, rubber, petroleum and coal products, and factory machinery. In addition, Indiana has the international headquarters of pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly as well as the headquarters of Mead Johnson Nutritionals, a division of Bristol-Myers Squibb. 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.

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, and labor accept, 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 for those skills, which often makes location in the state desirable. (Source for basic manufacturing facts in the above two paragraphs is generally McCoy and McNamara, "Manufacturers in Indiana," Purdue University Center for Rural Development, Research Paper 19, July 1998.)

In mining, Indiana is probably best known for its decorative limestone from the southern, hilly portion of the state, especially from around Bedford (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 attack of September 11, 2001, 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, and many labor laws that have remained unchanged since the 1800s, emphasizing the supremacy of employer/management. The doctrine of at-will employment, whereby an employer can terminate an employee for any or no reason, is firmly ensconced in Indiana. Unions in Indiana are among the weakest in the U.S. and it is difficult for unions to organize. Workers' Compensation payouts are the lowest in the United States.

Indiana has a flat state income tax rate of 3.4 percent. Many Indiana counties also collect income tax. The state sales tax rate is 6 percent. 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.

Transportation

Highways

The major U.S. Interstate highways in Indiana are I-69, I-65, I-94, I-70, I-74, I-64, I-80, and I-90.

In the state of Indiana there were 932 traffic deaths in 2005.

Airports

Major airports are in Indianapolis, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Gary, and South Bend. A long-standing proposal to build a major Chicago airport in the Gary area received a boost in early 2006 with the approval of $48 million in federal funding over the next ten years.

Law and government

Indiana's government has three branches: executive, legislative and judicial. The governor, elected for a four-year term, heads the executive branch. The General Assembly, the legislative branch, consists of the Senate and the 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, the Assembly meets for thirty session days. The judicial branch consists of the Indiana Supreme Court, Court of Appeals and local circuit courts. On the national level, Indiana is represented in Congress by two Senators and nine Representatives.

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.

The state's U.S. senators are senior Sen. Richard G. Lugar (Republican) and junior Sen. B. Evans "Evan" Bayh III (Democrat).

Politics

Since it supported Lyndon B. Johnson over Barry Goldwater in 1964, Indiana has not backed a single Democratic presidential candidate. Indiana's polls are the first to close on Election Day, and almost invariably is the first state in the Republican column.

During presidential campaigns, little attention is paid to Indiana by either Republican or Democrat candidates, though for different reasons. Republicans have generally reliable assurance that they will win the state, while Democrats do not appear to want to make the effort to win votes there because of all-but-assured Republican dominance.

During a 2005 speaking engagement, former President Bill Clinton half-jokingly thanked supporters for "allowing" him into such a "red state".

However, half of Indiana's governors in the 20th century were Democrats, though their policies were considerably more right-of-center than Democrats in other parts of the country.

Former governor and current U.S. Senator Evan Bayh is an all-but-announced candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008. His father was a three-term senator with a liberal record who was turned out of office in the 1980 "Reagan Revolution" by conservative Republican (and future Vice-President) Dan Quayle, a native of the small town of Huntington in the northeastern part of the state. Until the election of former Governor Evan Bayh to the U.S. Senate, Indiana had an all-Republican Senatorial delegation, composed of the strongly conservative Dan Coats (later appointed Ambassador to Germany) and the relatively moderate Richard Lugar, who is widely respected in both parties for his experience in world affairs.

Most Hoosiers identify themselves as "conservative", and right-wing talk radio programming such as Rush Limbaugh is widely listened to (the first "Rush Room" in the United States was formed in Mishawaka). Gun politics (Indiana was the first state to enact a lifetime concealed-carry license for handguns), unions, gay marriage (as of 2006, Indiana is attempting to amend the State Constitution to outlaw gay marriage), taxes or workers' rights issues (Indiana is a staunchly pro-management, at-will employment state) are not popular issues among many Hoosiers, which can explain their attachment to the GOP. However, attempts by political pressure groups or even individual state legislators at making the state "more conservative" have met with little success.

See also : United States presidential election, 2004, in Indiana

Important cities and towns

State Capital

Metropolitan areas

The following Indiana cities are centers of United States metropolitan areas.

Micropolitan areas

The following Indiana cities are centers of United States micropolitan areas.

Population over 10,000

Suburbs of Indianapolis

Suburbs of Chicago

Suburbs of Louisville

Suburbs of Fort Wayne

Suburbs of Evansville

Suburbs of South Bend

See also

Education

Colleges and universities

State-chartered

Private

School districts

See the List of school districts in Indiana and the List of high schools in Indiana.

Professional sports teams

Miscellaneous topics

Indiana means the "Land of the Indians".

A resident of Indiana is called a Hoosier (which is also the name used for a student of Indiana University, Bloomington).

There are 24 Indiana state parks, nine man-made reservoirs, and hundreds of lakes in the state.

The USS Indiana was named in honor of this state.

Military installations

Indiana was formerly 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 largely reduced to reservist operations, though the Department of Defense continues to operate a large financial institution there.

Current active installations include Air National Guard fighter units at Fort Wayne, Camp Atterbury in Edinburgh, Indiana, 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 Crane Naval Weapons Center 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.

State symbols

Time zones

Prior to 2006, most of Indiana historically exempted itself from the observation of 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, observed daylight saving time unofficially and illegally by local custom. Due to the confusion of anyone not from Indiana, the state passed a bill* in 2005 whereby the entire state began observing daylight saving time starting in April 2006.

Famous persons

This is an incomplete list. See also List of people from Indiana and Indiana Legends: Famous Hoosiers from Johnny Appleseed to David Letterman by Nelson Price (2001)

Indiana is the home state of many astronauts, including such notables as "Gus" Grissom, Frank Borman and David Wolf. The state was birthplace of numerous entertainers and sportsmen:

References

External links

Indiana | 1816 establishments

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