State of Indiana - IN

Indiana, meaning the "Land of the Indians," is a state in the Great Lakes region of the Midwestern United States. Residents of Indiana are called Hoosiers. Indiana is 15th in population at nearly 6.3 million,[1] and 38th in size,[2] making it 17th in population density.[3]

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 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.[4][5] The White River (a tributary of the Wabash, which is a tributary of the Ohio) zigzags through central Indiana.

Most of northern and central Indiana is flat farmland dotted with small cities and towns, such as North Manchester.Areas under the control and protection of the National Park Service include:[6]

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

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.[7] 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.[8]

The Kankakee River, which winds through northern Indiana, serves somewhat as a demarcating line between suburban northwest Indiana and the rest of the state.[9]

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.

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".[10] 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.

Southern Indiana
Evansville, the third largest city in Indiana, is located in the southwestern corner of the state. [11] 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.

History
The area of Indiana has been settled since before the development of the Hopewell culture (ca. 100–400 CE).[12] It was part of the Mississippian culture from roughly the year 1000 up to 1400.).[13] The specific Native American tribes that inhabited this territory at that time were primarily the Miami and the Shawnee.[14] 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.[14]

Pioneer Era: 1816-1860
On June 29, 1816, Indiana adopted a constitution, and on December 11, 1816, became the 19th State to join the Union.[15] 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.[16]

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. 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%; 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.

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

Demographics
Indiana Population Density MapHistorical 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.[17]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.

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%).[18]

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.[19]

South Bend has a large Polish population and there are a sizable 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, 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. 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.

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:

Christian – 82%
Protestant – 62%
Baptist – 15%
Methodist – 10%
Lutheran – 6%
Church of Christ – 5%
Pentecostal – 3%
Mennonite/Pietist – 1%
Other Protestant – 23%
Roman Catholic – 19%
Other Christian – 1%
Other Religions – 1%
Non-Religious – 17%
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.[20]

Important cities and towns
30 Largest Cities [21] 2005 Population
Indianapolis 784,118
Fort Wayne 223,341
Evansville 115,918
South Bend 105,262
Gary 98,715
Hammond 79,217
Bloomington 69,017
Muncie 66,164
Lafayette 60,459
Carmel 59,243
Anderson 57,500
Fishers 57,220
Terre Haute 56,893
Elkhart 52,270
Mishawaka 48,497
Kokomo 46,178
Greenwood 42,236
Lawrence 40,959
Columbus 39,380
Noblesville 38,825
Richmond 37,560
New Albany 36,772
Portage 35,687
Michigan City 32,205
Merrillville 31,525
Goshen 31,269
East Chicago 30,946
Marion 30,644
Valparaiso 29,102
Jeffersonville 28,621
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).

Map of IndianaIndiana 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, West Lafayette (home of Purdue University), Westfield, and Zionsville.

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

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.

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.

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).

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.

During presidential campaigns, little attention is paid to Indiana by either Republican or Democrat candidates. 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 making Indiana.

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, 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.

Economy
The total gross state product in 2005 was US$214 billion in 2000 chained dollars.[22] Indiana's per capita income, as of 2005, was US$31,150.[23]

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, 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.[24]

Indianapolis from the Central CanalDespite 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 Lawrence County (the home area of Apollo I astronaut Gus Grissom).[25] 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.[26] 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%. 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.

Transportation

Highways
State license plateThe 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 947 traffic deaths in 2004.[27]

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. [28] 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 over the next few years.

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 Columbus
Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne
Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Ivy Tech State College
Purdue University System
Purdue University
Purdue University Calumet
Purdue University North Central
Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus
Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne
Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Purdue University College of Technology
Anderson
Columbus
Indianapolis
Kokomo
Muncie
New Albany
Richmond
Indiana University 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

school districts in Indiana
high schools in Indiana

Professional sports teams
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

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

Several vessels of the United States Navy have borne the name USS Indiana in honor of this state.

Scouting in Indiana
The Herbalist

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.

Time zones
Main article: Time in Indiana
Map of U.S. time zones with new CST and EST areas displayedPrior 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[2] in 2005 whereby the entire state began observing daylight saving time starting in April 2006.[29]A debate is now going on as to whether Indiana should be in the Central Time Zone, rather that the Eastern.

State symbols
State bird: Cardinal
State flower: Peony
State motto: "Crossroads of America."
State poem: Indiana, by Arthur Franklin Mapes.[30]
State song: On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away
State river: Wabash
State stone: Salem limestone
State tree: Tulip tree

Famous Hoosiers
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
Charles Halleck, politician
Benjamin Harrison, U.S. President
William Henry Harrison, U.S. President and General
Richard Hatcher, politician
Elwood Haynes, inventor
Theodore Hesburgh, educator and religious leader
Paul Hoffman, industrialist
Alfred Kinsey, sex researcher
Bobby Knight, basketball coach
David Letterman, comedian and talk show host
Eli Lilly, industrialist & philanthropist
Don Mattingly, baseball player
Joseph F. Meyer founder of Indiana Botanic Gardens 1910
Caleb Mills, educator
Meredith Nicholson, novelist
Robert Dale Owen, utopian
Cole Porter , song writer
George Rapp, Utopian
Orville Redenbacher, farming (popcorn)
James Whitcomb Riley, poet
Knute Rockne, football coach
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
Lew Wallace, novelist
Wendell Willkie, politician
John Wooden, basketball coach

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:

Singer/Farm Aid activist John Mellencamp, born in Seymour and residing near Bloomington.
The Jackson 5/Michael Jackson/Janet Jackson entertainment family, of Gary.
Don Larsen baseball player
David Letterman Host of The Late Show; born in Indianapolis.
Axl Rose Lead singer of Guns N' Roses; born in Lafayette.
David Lee Roth Original lead singer of Van Halen; from Bloomington.
See also: List of people from Indiana

References
^ Indiana quickfacts
^ States ranked by size
^ States ranked by population density
^ Ozick, Cynthia. "MIRACLE ON GRUB STREET; Stockholm.", The New York Times, November 9, 1986. Retrieved on 2006-10-19. (in English)
^ Fantel, Hans. "SOUND; CD'S MAKE THEIR MARK ON THE WABASH VALLEY", The New York Times, October 14, 1984. Retrieved on 2006-10-19. (in English)
^ Find A Park. National Park Service. Retrieved on 2006-10-19.
^ Indiana Drug Rehab Centers. Drug Rehab Centers. Retrieved on 2006-10-19.
^ Our History. Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District. Retrieved on 2006-10-19.
^ Hudson, John C.. "Chicago: Patterns of the metropolis", Indiana Business Magazine, May 1, 2001. Retrieved on 2006-10-19. (in English)
^ Verespej, Michael A.. "The atlas of U.S. manufacturing", April 3, 2000. Retrieved on 2006-10-19. (in English)
^ Yancey, Madonna. "Evansville: Cranes in the air over Indiana's third-largest city", Indiana Business Magazine, June 1, 2005. Retrieved on 2006-10-19. (in English)
^ (January 12, 2003) Hopewell culture (in English). Britannica Elementary Encyclopedia. Retrieved on 2006-10-19.
^ Kavasch, E. Barrie. "Ancient mound builders", Cobblestone Publishing Company, Cobblestone, January 10, 2003, p. 6. Retrieved on 2006-10-19. (in English)
^ a b (January 1, 2005) Indiana (in English). World Almanac Books. Retrieved on 2006-10-19.
^ Our History. The Indiana Historian. Retrieved on 2006-10-19.
^ (January 12, 2005) Indiana (in English). Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.. Retrieved on 2006-10-19.
^ Cumulative Estimates of Population Changes for the United States and States: April 1,2000 to July 1,2005
^ Census: Indiana, United States
^ Census: DP-2. Profile of Selected Social Characteristics: 2000
^ INDIANA - Online Information article about INDIANA
^ Census Population Estimates for 2005
^ Bureau of Economic Analysis: Gross State Product
^ Bureau of Economic Analysis: Anual State Personal Income
^ WNDU-TV: News Story: Bayer is leaving Elkhart - November 16, 2005
^ NASA-Astronaut Bio: Virgil I. Grissom
^ Pentagon Renovation Program
^ Traffic Safety Facts 2004 NHTSA page 178 (PDF p.194)
^ Airport Gets Millions In Federal Funding: CBS Channel 2 website. Retrieved 18 October 2006.
^ New Timezone Map produced by Indiana Chamber of Commerce
^ Indiana Emblems - State Poem: About Indiana, Indiana State government website. Retrieved 24 September 2006.

 

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