Indiana

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This article is about the U.S. State. For the Pennsylvania community, see Indiana, Pennsylvania. For the Brazilian community, see Indiana, São Paulo.

State of Indiana

Flag of Indiana Seal of Indiana Nickname(s): The Hoosier State, Motto(s): The Crossroads of America
Official language(s)	English
Capital	Indianapolis
Largest city	Indianapolis
Area	Ranked 38th
- Total	36,418 sq mi (94,321 km²)
- Width	140 miles (225 km)
- Length	270 miles (435 km)
- % water	1.5
- Latitude	37°47'N to 41°46'N
- Longitude	84°49'W to 88°4'W
Population	Ranked 15th
- Total (2000)	6,080,485
- Density	169.5/sq mi  65.46/km² (16th)
Elevation
- Highest point	Hoosier Hill[1] 1,257 ft  (383 m)
- Mean	689 ft  (210 m)
- Lowest point	Ohio River[1] 320 ft  (98 m)
Admission to Union	December 11, 1816 (19th)
Governor	Mitch Daniels (R)
U.S. Senators	Richard Lugar (R) Evan Bayh (D)
Time zones
- most of state	Eastern: UTC-5/-4
- extreme NW & SW	Central: UTC-6/-5
Abbreviations	IN US-IN
Web site	www.in.gov

Indiana is the 19^th U.S. state and is located in the Midwest region of the United States of America. With over six million residents, it is ranked 15^th in population and 17^th in population density.^[2] It is 38^th in land area.

Indiana is a diverse state with a few large urban areas and a number of smaller industrial cities. It is best known for the Indianapolis 500 American automobile race, held annually over the Memorial Day weekend. Residents of Indiana are called Hoosiers.

The state's name means "Land of the Indians" and Angel Mounds State Historic Site, one of the best preserved prehistoric Native American sites in the United States, can be found in southern Indiana.^[3]

Contents 1 Geography 1.1 Northern Indiana 1.2 Central Indiana 1.3 Southern Indiana 1.4 Climate 2 History 2.1 Pioneer Era 2.2 Transportation 3 Demographics 3.1 Religion 4 Important cities and towns 5 Law and government 5.1 Politics 6 Economy 7 Transportation 7.1 Highways 7.2 Airports 8 Education 9 Sports 10 Miscellaneous topics 10.1 Military installations 10.2 Time zones 10.3 State symbols 10.4 Famous Hoosiers 11 Bibliography 12 References 13 External links

[edit] Geography

See also: List of Indiana counties, List of Indiana rivers, and Watersheds of Indiana

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 north. The northern borders of Ohio and Illinois were also shifted from this original plan.^[4]

The 475 mile (764 km) long Wabash River bisects the state from northeast to southwest and has given Indiana a few theme songs, On the Banks of the Wabash, The Wabash Cannonball and "Back Home Again, In Indiana".^[5][6] 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 include:^[7]

• George Rogers Clark National Historical Park in Vincennes
• Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore near Michigan City
• Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Lincoln City
• Hoosier National Forest in Bedford

[edit] Northern Indiana

The northwest corner of the state is part of the greater metropolitan area of Chicago and is therefore more densely populated with almost one million residents.^[8] 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. They are all in the Central Time Zone along with Chicago & are served by the South Shore Electric commuter rail line.^[9]

The Kankakee River, which winds through northern Indiana, serves somewhat as a demarcating line between suburban northwest Indiana and the rest of the state.^[10]

South Bend, Mishawaka, Elkhart and Goshen, in north central Indiana, make up the region known as Michiana. Fort Wayne, the state's second largest city, is located in the northeastern part of the state.

The towns of Gary, Merrillville, Crown Point, Scherrillville, Hobart, Griffith, and other town/cities in this area are known as "The Region", while people from these town are called "Region Rats".

[edit] Central Indiana

The state capital, Indianapolis, is situated in the central portion of the state. It is intersected by numerous Interstate and U.S. highways, giving the state its motto as "The Crossroads of America".^[11] Other cities located within the area include Anderson, Bloomington, Columbus, Lafayette, Muncie, and Terre Haute.

Rural areas in the central portion of the state are typically composed of a patchwork of fields and forested areas.

[edit] Southern Indiana

Evansville, the third largest city in Indiana, is located in the southwestern corner of the state.^[12] It is located in a tri-state area that includes Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky. The southeastern cities of Clarksville, Jeffersonville, and New Albany are part of the Louisville metropolitan area.

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.

[edit] Climate

Most of Indiana has a humid continental climate, with the extreme southern portions of the state bordering on a humid subtropical climate. This means the state has four well defined seasons with warm to hot summers and cool to cold 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.^[13]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 further north, the state does have occasional blizzards. 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, two of the most severe tornado outbreaks in U.S. history affected Indiana, the Tri-State Tornado of 1925 and the Super Outbreak of 1974. The Evansville Tornado of November 2005 killed 25 people.

[edit] History

The area of Indiana has been settled since before the development of the Hopewell culture (ca. 100–400 CE).^[14] It was part of the Mississippian culture from roughly the year 1000 up to 1400.).^[15] The specific Native American tribes that inhabited this territory at that time were primarily the Miami and the Shawnee.^[16] 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, then the Indiana Territory, and joined the Union in 1816 as the 19th state. See Northwest Indian War.^[16]

[edit] Pioneer Era

On June 29, 1816, Indiana adopted a constitution, and on December 11, 1816, became the 19th State to join the Union.^[17] No slavery was allowed, making the state an attractive destination for people like Abraham Lincoln's family, which was disgusted with slavery in Kentucky.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[18]

[edit] 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. The expense and time attending shipment of merchandise from the east at that time were almost prohibitive. 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.

Work began on the Wabash and Erie Canal in 1832, on the White Water in 1836, on the Central in 1837. 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 with the advent of the railroad. Upon completion, the canal actually 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%; those more fertile, but more remote, 190%. 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 mi²; 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 statehouse, 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 was a city of 225,000 inhabitants and the largest inland steam and electric railroad center not on navigable a waterway in the United States. No railroad reached it before 1847.

[edit] Demographics

Historical populations
Census	Pop.	%±
1800	2,632	-
1810	24,520	832%
1820	147,178	500%
1830	343,031	133%
1840	685,866	100%
1850	988,416	44%
1860	1,350,428	37%
1870	1,680,637	24%
1880	1,978,301	18%
1890	2,192,404	11%
1900	2,516,462	15%
1910	2,700,876	7%
1920	2,930,390	8%
1930	3,238,503	11%
1940	3,427,796	6%
1950	3,934,224	15%
1960	4,662,498	19%
1970	5,193,669	11%
1980	5,490,224	6%
1990	5,544,159	1%
2000	6,080,485	10%

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.^[19] 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.

The center of population of Indiana is located in Hamilton County, in the town of Sheridan.^[20] 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.

Demographics of Indiana (csv)
By race	White	Black	AIAN	Asian	NHPI
AIAN is American Indian or Alaskan Native   -   NHPI is Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
2000 (total population)	90.13%	8.91%	0.65%	1.21%	0.08%
2000 (Hispanic only)	3.31%	0.15%	0.07%	0.03%	0.02%
2005 (total population)	89.57%	9.42%	0.63%	1.44%	0.08%
2005 (Hispanic only)	4.29%	0.19%	0.08%	0.04%	0.02%
Growth 2000-2005 (total population)	2.51%	8.99%	-0.26%	23.11%	11.31%
Growth 2000-2005 (non-Hispanic only)	1.33%	8.68%	-2.87%	22.97%	9.77%
Growth 2000-2005 (Hispanic only)	33.38%	26.82%	21.02%	28.42%	16.70%

As of 2005, the population included 242,281 foreign-born (3.9%).^[21]

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%). Only 91.9% of Hoosiers identified an ancestry.^[22]

[edit] 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, as well as a thriving 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. 16% of Indiana is 'non-religious' ^[23].

Indiana is home to a sizable 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.

Two conservative denominations, the Free Methodist Church and the Wesleyan Church, have their headquarters in Indianapolis. Anderson, IN is home to the headquarters of Church of God Ministries and Warner Press Publishing House. Fort Wayne is the headquarters of the Missionary Church. 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.^[24]

[edit] Important cities and towns

Indianapolis is the capital of Indiana, near the geographic center of the state. Other Indiana cities functioning as centers of United States metropolitan areas include Anderson, Bloomington (home of Indiana University's main campus), Columbus, Elkhart, Evansville (home of University of Evansville and University of Southern Indiana), Fort Wayne, Gary (home of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore), Kokomo, Lafayette (home of Purdue University) , Michigan City, Muncie (home of Ball State University), South Bend (home of University of Notre Dame), and Terre Haute (home of Indiana State University and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology).

Indiana cities that function as centers of United States micropolitan areas include Angola, Auburn, Bedford, Connersville, Crawfordsville, Decatur, Frankfort, Greensburg, Huntington, Jasper, Kendallville, Logansport, Madison, Marion, New Castle, North Vernon, Peru, Plymouth, Richmond, Scottsburg, Seymour, Vincennes,Wabash, Warsaw, and Washington.

Other communities with populations of 10,000 or more include Beech Grove, Brownsburg, Carmel, Chesterton, Clarksville, Connersville, Crawfordsville, Crown Point, Dyer, East Chicago, Fishers, Franklin, Goshen, Greencastle, Greenfield, Greenwood, Griffith, Hammond, Highland, Hobart, Jeffersonville, Lake Station, Lawrence, Lebanon, Martinsville, Merrillville, Mooresville, Munster, New Albany, New Haven, Noblesville, Plainfield, Portage, Schererville, Shelbyville, Speedway, Valparaiso (home of Valparaiso University), West Lafayette (home of Purdue University), Westfield, and Zionsville.

The suburbs of Indianapolis include Anderson, Avon, Beech Grove, Brownsburg, Carmel, Clermont, Danville, Fishers, Franklin, Greenwood, Lawrence, Lebanon, Noblesville, Pendleton, Plainfield, Southport, Speedway, West Newton, Whiteland, and Zionsville.

See also: Nine-County Region

The Indiana suburbs of Chicago, Illinois include Crown Point, Dyer, East Chicago, Gary, Griffith, Hammond, Highland, Lake County, Hobart, Merrillville, Munster, Valparaiso, Portage, and Chesterton.

See also: Northwest Indiana

The Indiana suburbs of Louisville, Kentucky include Clarksville, Jeffersonville, and New Albany.

Fort Wayne's Indiana suburbs include Huntertown, Leo-Cedarville, Monroeville, and New Haven, Woodburn.

Evansville's Indiana suburbs include Princeton, Newburgh, and Mt. Vernon.

South Bend's Indiana suburbs include Granger, Mishawaka, North Liberty, Osceola, Walkerton, and Roseland.

See also: Michiana

[edit] Law and government

See also: List of Indiana Governors

See also: Indiana General Assembly

See also: Indiana Supreme Court

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, the Indiana Tax Court, 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).

[edit] Politics

The state votes almost solidly Republican in federal elections. Since it supported Lyndon B. Johnson over Barry Goldwater in 1964, Indiana has not backed a single Democratic presidential candidate. However, half of Indiana's governors in the 20th century were Democrats.

Indiana's delegation to the United States House of Representatives is not overly Republican as one might suspect. Democrats held the majority of seats until the 1994 Republican Revolution, when Republicans took a majority. The GOP held on it to, although not overwhelmingly, 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.^[26]

Former governor and current U.S. Senator Evan Bayh announced in 2006 his plans for a presidential exploratory committee.^[27] His father was a three-term senator with 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.

[edit] Economy

The total gross state product in 2005 was US$214 billion in 2000 chained dollars.^[28] Indiana's per capita income, as of 2005, was US$31,150.^[29] A high percentage of Indiana's income is from manufacturing.^{[citation needed]} 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.

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.^[30]

Indiana is home to 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.^[31]

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.^[32] 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.

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).^[33] 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.^[34] 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 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 6%. 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.

[edit] Transportation

[edit] 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. The number of intersecting highways in and around Indianapolis earned it the nickname as the "Crossroads of America".

[edit] 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.^[35] Terre Haute's airport is listed as international, but there are no airlines operating out of the facility. The only flying done out of the airport is private flying and the F-16's of the Air National Guard's 181st Fighter Wing, which is scheduled to lose its aircraft and become a non-flying unit.

[edit] Education

State-chartered colleges		Private colleges
Ball State University Indiana State University Indiana University System Indiana University (Bloomington) Indiana University East (Richmond) Indiana University Kokomo Indiana University Northwest Indiana University South Bend Indiana University Southeast Indiana University-Purdue University Joint Campuses Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus (IUPUC) Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) Ivy Tech State College Purdue University System Purdue University Purdue University Calumet Purdue University North Central Purdue University College of Technology Anderson Columbus Indianapolis Kokomo Muncie New Albany Richmond South Bend Versailles University of Southern Indiana Vincennes University		Ancilla College Anderson University Bethel College Butler University Calumet College of St. Joseph Christian Theological Seminary Concordia Theological Seminary (Fort Wayne campus) DePauw University DeVry University Earlham College Franklin College Goshen College Grace College Hanover College Holy Cross College Huntington University Hyles-Anderson College Indiana Institute of Technology Indiana Wesleyan University Manchester College Marian College Martin University Oakland City University Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Saint Joseph's College Saint Meinrad College [1] Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College Saint Mary's College Taylor University Tri-State University University of Evansville University of Indianapolis University of Notre Dame University of Saint Francis Valparaiso University Wabash College

See also: List of school districts in Indiana

See also: List of high schools in Indiana

[edit] Sports

Indiana has a rich basketball heritage that reaches back to the formative years of the sport itself. Although James Naismith invented basketball in Springfield, Mass.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 loosely based on the story of the 1954 Indiana state champions Milan High School.

Indiana currently has two major professional sports league franchises, both of which are based in Indianapolis:

• Indianapolis Colts, National Football League
• Indiana Pacers, National Basketball Association

Several minor league professional teams also play in Indiana:

FC Indiana, Women's Premier Soccer League Fort Wayne Komets, United Hockey League Gary Steelheads, Continental Basketball Association Indiana Fever, Women's National Basketball Association Indiana Ice, United States Hockey League

Minor League baseball teams Evansville Otters Fort Wayne Wizards Gary SouthShore RailCats Indianapolis Indians South Bend Silver Hawks

[edit] Miscellaneous topics

• Indiana State Police

[edit] 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, 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.

[edit] Time zones

Main article: Time in Indiana

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.^[36] A debate is now going on as to whether Indiana should be in the Central Time Zone, rather than Eastern.

[edit] State symbols

• State bird: Cardinal
• State flower: Peony
• State motto: "Crossroads of America."
• State poem: Indiana, by Arthur Franklin Mapes.
• State song: On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away
• State river: Wabash
• State stone: Salem limestone
• State tree: Tulip tree

[edit] Famous Hoosiers

Indiana is the home state of many astronauts, including such notables as "Gus" Grissom, Frank Borman, and David Wolf. The state was the birthplace of numerous entertainers and sportsmen including John Mellencamp, Michael Jackson, Don Larsen, David Letterman, Axl Rose, David Lee Roth, and Scott Rolen. Other notable people include:

John Andretti, racecar driver George Ball, industrialist Albert J. Beveridge, politician and historian Larry Bird, basketball player, coach Claude Bowers, politician and historian Hoagland (Hoagy) Carmichael , composer Jim Davis, cartoonist Eugene V. Debs, Socialist Presidential candidate Mark Dismore, racecar driver Theodore Dreiser, novelist Paul Dresser, song writer Edward Eggleston, author Jim Gaffigan, comedian Lillian Gilbreth, home economist Jeff Gordon, NASCAR driver Charles Halleck, politician Benjamin Harrison, U.S. President William Henry Harrison, U.S. President and General Richard Hatcher, politician Don Herold, humorist and illustrator Theodore Hesburgh, educator and religious leader Paul Hoffman, industrialist Brook Kerr,actress Alfred Kinsey, sex researcher

Bobby Knight, basketball coach Eli Lilly, industrialist & philanthropist Don Mattingly, baseball player Caleb Mills, educator Ryan Newman, NASCAR Driver Meredith Nicholson, novelist Michael Jackson, singer/songwritter Robert Dale Owen, utopian Jane Pauley, anchor and journalist Cole Porter , song writer George Rapp, Utopian Orville Redenbacher, farming (popcorn) James Whitcomb Riley, poet Knute Rockne, football coach Scott Rolen, MLB palyer D. C. Stephenson, KKK leader Tony Stewart, NASCAR driver Gene Stratton-Porter, novelist Booth Tarkington , novelist Steve Tesich, writer Maurice Thompson, novelist Kurt Vonnegut, writer Wendell Willkie, politician John Wooden, basketball coach

See also: List of people from Indiana

[edit] 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
• Donald Francis Carmony. Indiana, 1816 to 1850: The Pioneer Era (1998)
• James H. Madison. The Indiana Way: A State History (1990)
• Mark Skertic and John J. Watkins. A Native's Guide to Northwest Indiana (2003)
• Robert M. Taylor, ed. The State of Indiana History 2000: Papers Presented at the Indiana Historical Society's Grand Opening (2001)
• Robert M. Taylor, ed. Indiana: A New Historical Guide (1990), highly detailed guide to citiies and recent history

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Indiana government home page
• Indiana state emblems
• Indiana Historical Society
• Indiana State Facts from USDA
• Road to Indiana Statehood

	State of Indiana
Regions	Michiana | Nine-County Region | Northern Indiana | Northwest Indiana | Southern Indiana | Wabash Valley
Largest cities	Anderson | Bloomington | Carmel | Columbus | East Chicago | Elkhart | Evansville | Fishers | Fort Wayne | Gary | Goshen | Greenwood | Hammond | Indianapolis | Jeffersonville | Kokomo | Lafayette | Lawrence | Marion | Merrillville | Michigan City | Mishawaka | Muncie | New Albany | Noblesville | Portage | Richmond | South Bend | Terre Haute | Valparaiso | West Lafayette
Counties	Adams | Allen | Bartholomew | Benton | Blackford | Boone | Brown | Carroll | Cass | Clark | Clay | Clinton | Crawford | Daviess | De Kalb | Dearborn | Decatur | Delaware | Dubois | Elkhart | Fayette | Floyd | Fountain | Franklin | Fulton | Gibson | Grant | Greene | Hamilton | Hancock | Harrison | Hendricks | Henry | Howard | Huntington | Jackson | Jasper | Jay | Jefferson | Jennings | Johnson | Knox | Kosciusko | Lagrange | Lake | LaPorte | Lawrence | Madison | Marion | Marshall | Martin | Miami | Monroe | Montgomery | Morgan | Newton | Noble | Ohio | Orange | Owen | Parke | Perry | Pike | Porter | Posey | Pulaski | Putnam | Randolph | Ripley | Rush | Saint Joseph | Scott | Shelby | Spencer | Starke | Steuben | Sullivan | Switzerland | Tippecanoe | Tipton | Union | Vanderburgh | Vermillion | Vigo | Wabash | Warren | Warrick | Washington | Wayne | Wells | White | Whitley

	Political divisions of the United States
Capital	District of Columbia
States	Alabama | Alaska | Arizona | Arkansas | California | Colorado | Connecticut | Delaware | Florida | Georgia | Hawaii | Idaho | Illinois | Indiana | Iowa | Kansas | Kentucky | Louisiana | Maine | Maryland | Massachusetts | Michigan | Minnesota | Mississippi | Missouri | Montana | Nebraska | Nevada | New Hampshire | New Jersey | New Mexico | New York | North Carolina | North Dakota | Ohio | Oklahoma | Oregon | Pennsylvania | Rhode Island | South Carolina | South Dakota | Tennessee | Texas | Utah | Vermont | Virginia | Washington | West Virginia | Wisconsin | Wyoming
Insular areas	American Samoa | Guam | Northern Mariana Islands | Puerto Rico | Virgin Islands
Minor outlying islands	Baker Island | Howland Island | Jarvis Island | Johnston Atoll | Kingman Reef | Midway Atoll | Navassa Island | Palmyra Atoll | Wake Island