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 Facts About Indiana
  This longtime ancestral home of
numerous American Indian tribes, would eventually be named Indiana
Territory," Land of Indians," by the U.S. Congress. The French first
journeyed here in 1614, then the British. For decades they fought each
other (and the Indians) for control of this strategic and fertile land.
Shortly after the Revolutionary War ended, eastern settlers began to
arrive. Within 30 short years, the Indians were defeated and expelled, and
this Land of Indians would change dramatically. From 1889 - 1910, the
Standard Oil Company, U.S. Steel Corporation, and others, built huge
facilities along Lake Michigan's shoreline, creating industrial towns
(almost overnight) and transforming Indiana into a steel and oil refining
mecca. Productive farms soon covered the rural areas, and immigrants by
the thousands began anew in the Hoosier State. The 20th Century brought
economic change, as high-tech and service industries jumped to prominence,
and Indiana tourism opened the eyes of travelers. Famed for Abe Lincoln's
Log Cabin, the Indy 500, and of
 course,
basketball, perhaps Indiana's most endearing charms are its small town
attitudes and lifestyles still found throughout the state.
Capital: Indianapolis
Population: 6,159,068
Entered the Union:
December
11,1816
As the: 19th State
Motto: The Crossroads of America
Nickname: Hoosier State
Flower: Peony
Bird: Cardinal
Song: On the Banks of the Wabash, Far
Away
Origin of Name: A name given by the
U.S. Congress, when the Indiana Territory was established, meaning Land
of Indians.
Points of Interest: Indiana Pacers NBA
Team; Indiana Repertory Theatre; Indianapolis Motor Speedway; Indianapolis
Museum of Art; Indiana State Museum; Richmond Art Museum; Wyandotte Caves;
and, Indianapolis Zoo & Gardens.
Bordering States: Michigan, Ohio,
Kentucky and Illinois.
Numerous Facts & Trivia:
The first long-distance auto race in the U. S. was held May 30, 1911, at
the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The winner averaged 75 miles an hour and
won a 1st place prize of $14,000. Today the average speed is over 167
miles an hour and the prize is more than $1.2 million. Indianapolis Motor
Speedway is the site of the greatest spectacle in sports, the Indianapolis
500. The Indianapolis 500 is held every Memorial Day weekend in the
Hoosier capital city. The race is 200 laps or 500 miles long.
Abraham Lincoln moved to Indiana when he was 7 years old. He lived most of
his boyhood life in Spencer County with his parents Thomas and Nancy.
Explorers Lewis and Clark set out from Fort Vincennes on their exploration
of the Northwest Territory.
The movie "Hard Rain" was filmed in Huntingburg.
During WWII the P-47 fighter-plane was manufactured in Evansville at
Republic Aviation.
Marcella Gruelle of Indianapolis created the Raggedy Ann doll in 1914.
The first professional baseball game was played in Fort Wayne on May 4,
1871.
James Dean, a popular movie star of the 1950s in such movies as "East of
Eden" and "Rebel without a Cause", was born February 8, 1941, in Marion.
He died in an auto crash at age 24.
David Letterman, host of television's "Late Show with David Letterman,"
was born April 12, 1947, in Indianapolis.
Santa Claus, Indiana receives over one half million letters and requests
at Christmas time.
Crawfordsville is the home of the only known working rotary jail in the
United States. The jail with its rotating cellblock was built in 1882 and
served as the Montgomery County jail until 1972. It is now a museum.
Historic Parke County has 32 covered bridges and is the Covered Bridge
Capital of the world.
True to its motto, "Cross Roads of America" Indiana has more miles of
Interstate Highway per square mile than any other state. The Indiana state
Motto, can be traced back to the early 1800s. In the early years river
traffic, especially along the Ohio, was a major means of transportation.
The National Road, a major westward route, and the north-south Michigan
Road crossed in Indianapolis. Today more major highways intersect in
Indiana than in any other state.
Most of the state's rivers flow south and west, eventually emptying into
the Mississippi. However, the Maumee flows north and east into Lake Erie.
Lake Wawasee is the states largest natural lake.
Indiana's shoreline with Lake Michigan is only 40 miles long, but Indiana
is still considered a Great Lakes State.
More than 100 species of trees are native to Indiana. Before the pioneer's
arrive more than 80% of Indiana was covered with forest. Now only 17% of
the state is considered forested.
Deep below the earth in Southern Indiana is a sea of limestone that is one
of the richest deposits of top-quality limestone found anywhere on earth.
New York City's Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center as well as
the Pentagon, the U.S. Treasury, a dozen other government buildings in
Washington D.C. as well as 14 state capitols around the nation are built
from this sturdy, beautiful Indiana limestone.
Although Indiana means, "Land of the Indians" there are fewer than 8,000
Native Americans living in the state today.
The first European known to have visited Indiana was French Explorer
Rene'-Robert Cavalier sierur de La Salle, in 1679. After LaSalle and
others explored the Great Lakes region, the land was claimed for New
France, a nation based in Canada.
In the 1700s the first 3 Non-native American settlements in Indiana were
the 3 French forts of Ouiatenon, Ft. Miami, and Ft. Vincennes. Although
they had few settlers in the region, French presence in Indiana lasted
almost 100 years. After the British won the French and Indian War, and
upon the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the French surrendered
their claims to the lower Great Lakes region.
Indiana was part of the huge Northwest Territory, which included present
day Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin, which were ceded to the United
States by the British at the end of the Revolutionary war.
Ft. Wayne, Indiana's 2nd Largest city, had its beginnings in 1794, after
the Battle of Fallen Timbers, when General "Mad Anthony" Wayne built Ft.
Wayne on the site of a Miami Indian village.
Many Mennonite and Amish live on the farmland of Northeastern Indiana. One
of the United States largest Mennonite congregations is in Bern. According
to Amish ordnung (rules) they are forbidden to drive cars, use
electricity, or go to public places of entertainment.
At one time Studebaker Company of South Bend was the nation's largest
producer of horse-drawn wagons. It later developed into a
multimillion-dollar automobile
manufacturer.
In Fort Wayne, Syvanus F. Bower designed the world's first practical
gasoline pump.
Indianapolis grocer Gilbert Van Camp discovered his customers enjoyed an
old family recipe for pork and beans in tomato sauce. He opened up a
canning company and Van Camp's Pork and Beans became an American staple.
Muncie's Ball State University was built mostly from funds contributed by
the founders of the Ball Corporation, a company than made glass canning
jars.
Thomas Hendricks, a Democrat from Shelbyville, served Indiana as a United
States Senator, a United States representative, governor, and as Vice
President under Grover Cleveland. Indiana has been the home of 5 vice
presidents and one president.
Peru Indiana was once known as the "Circus Capital of America".
Indiana University's greatest swimmer was Mark Spitz, who won 7 gold
medals in the 1972 Olympic games. No other athlete has won so many gold
medals in a single year.
In 1934 Chicago Gangster John Dillinger escaped the Lake Country Jail in
Crown Point by using a "pistol" he had carved from a wooden block.
Before Indianapolis, Corydon served as the state's capitol from 1816-1825.
Vincennes was the capital when Indiana was a territory.
East Race Waterway, in south Bend, is the only man-made white-water
raceway in North America.
In 1862, Richard Gatling, of Indianapolis, invented the rapid-fire machine
gun.
The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was organized in Terre Haute in
1881.
Sarah Walker, who called herself Madame J.C. Walker, became one of the
nation's first woman millionaires. In 1905 Sarah Breedlove McWilliams
Walker developed a conditioning treatment for straightening hair. Starting
with door-to-door sales of her cosmetics, Madame C.J. Walker amassed a
fortune.
From 1900 to 1920 more than 200 different makes of cars were produced in
the Hoosier State. Duesenbergs, Auburns, Stutzes, and Maxwells - are prize
antiques today.
The Indiana Gazette Indiana's first newspaper was published in Vincennes
in 1804.
The state constitution of 1816 directed the legislature to establish
public schools, but it was not until the 1850s that state government was
able to establish a public school system.
Before public schools families pitched in to build log schoolhouse and
each student's family paid a few dollars toward the teachers salaries.
At one time 12 different stagecoach lines ran through Indiana on the
National Road. (Now U.S. Interstate 40)
In the 1830s canals were dug linking the Great Lakes to Indiana's river
systems. The canals proved to be a financial disaster. Railroads made the
canal system obsolete even before its completions.
Indiana's first major railroad line linked Madison and Indianapolis and
was completed in 1847.
The farming community of Fountain City in Wayne County was known as the
"Grand Central Station of the Underground Railroad." In the years before
the civil war, Levi and Katie Coffin were famous agents on the Underground
Railroad. They estimated that they provided overnight lodging for more
than 2,000 runaway slaves who were making their way north to Canada and
freedom.
During the great Depression of the 1930's 1 in every 4 Hoosier factory
hands was out of work, farmers sank deeper in debt, and in southern
Indiana unemployment was as high as 50%.
In the summer of 1987 4,453 athletes from 38 nations gathered in
Indianapolis for the Pan American Games.
The Saturday Evening Post is published in Indianapolis.
Comedian Red Skelton, who created such characters as Clem Kadiddlehopper,
and Freddie the Freeloader, was born in Vincennes.
The Poet Laureate of Indiana, James Whitcomb Riley was born in a two-room
log cabin in Greenfield. He glorified his rural Indiana childhood in such
poems as "The Old Swimmin' Hole" "Little Orphant Annie", and " When the
frost is on the Pumpkin".
Albert Beveridge won the Pulitzer Prize in biography in 1920, for The Life
of John Marshall. In 1934 Harold Urey won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for
his discovery of deuterium. Ernie Pyle won the Pulitzer Prize in foreign
Correspondence in 1944. Paul Samuelson won the Nobel Prize in economics,
1970.
Learn more at 50states.com
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