Indiana
Contents
|
|
|
|
|
State flag
|
INDIANA,
one of the East North Central states of the U.S., bordered
on the N by Illinois and Michigan, on the E by Ohio, on the S by
Kentucky, and on the W by Illinois. Lake Michigan forms part of
the NW boundary, the Ohio R. forms the S boundary, and the Wabash
R. forms part of the W boundary.
Indiana entered the Union on Dec. 11, 1816, as the 19th state.
Three 19th-century U.S. presidents— William Henry Harrison,
his grandson Benjamin Harrison, and Abraham Lincoln —lived
in Indiana for substantial periods. Manufacturing became the chief
economic activity of Indiana in the early 20th century, but at the
start of the 1990s the state was also a major producer of farm commodities,
especially corn, soybeans, and hogs. Indianapolis, the capital,
and Gary were big industrial centers. The state’s name,
which refers to Indians, was coined in the 1760s and applied to
a private tract of land in Pennsylvania; the name was officially
adopted when Indiana Territory was formed in 1800. Indiana is known
as the Hoosier State.
| INDIANA STATE FACTS |
| DATE OF STATEHOOD: |
December 11, 1816; 19th state |
| CAPITAL: |
Indianapolis |
| MOTTO: |
The crossroads of America |
| NICKNAME: |
Hoosier State |
| STATE SONG: |
“On the Banks of the Wabash” (words and music by Paul Dresser) |
| STATE TREE: |
Tulip tree |
| STATE FLOWER: |
Peony |
| STATE BIRD: |
Cardinal |
| POPULATION (2000 census): |
6,080,485; 14th among the states |
| AREA: |
94,328
sq km (36,420 sq mi); 38th largest state;
includes 1424 sq km (550 sq mi) of inland water |
| HIGHEST POINT: |
383 m (1257 ft), near the eastern boundary |
| LOWEST POINT: |
98 m (320 ft), in the southwest |
| ELECTORAL VOTES: |
11 (as of the 2004 presidential election) |
| U.S. CONGRESS: |
2 senators; 10 representatives (9 representatives as of the 2002 election) |
| GOVERNOR: |
Joseph E. Kernan (Dem.)
Took office January 2003 |
Indiana, with an area of 94,328 sq km (36,420 sq mi), is the
38th largest state in the U.S.; 2% of the land area is
owned by the federal government. The state is roughly rectangular
in shape, and its extreme dimensions are about 445 km (about 275
mi) from N to S and about 240 km (about 150 mi) from E to W. Elevations
range from 98 m (320 ft), along the Ohio R. in the SW corner of
the state, to 383 m (1257 ft), in Franklin township near the E border.
The approximate mean elevation is 213 m (700 ft).
The physical landscape of Indiana is composed of three major regions.
A section of the Eastern Great Lakes Lowland is in the N. This area
is relatively flat to gently rolling and contains numerous lakes
and bogs. The soils are gray and brown and are somewhat acid. Toward
the NW the soils are more poorly drained and are composed mainly
of sand, gravel, and clay. Large sand dunes border Lake Michigan.
The central portion of the state is made up of the Till Plains,
a region of generally flat to gently rolling landscape. Most of
the surface was formed by material left behind by glaciers. The
region contains some relatively low hills. The soils are generally
acidic and gray-brown. They are composed of glacial sands, gravel,
and clay. Much good farmland is in the region.
Most of S Indiana is made up of a part of the Interior Low
Plateaus. The landscape here is rougher than in other parts of the
state and includes valleys bordered by steep hillsides. The soils
are gray-brown and are of medium acidity near the Till Plains, but
farther S they contain more clay and are more acidic. Many mineral springs
and limestone caverns are in the region; Wyandotte Cave is one of
the largest caverns in the world.
The Wabash R. and its tributaries, which include the Tippecanoe and
White rivers, drain more than two-thirds of Indiana. The Wabash
flows into the Ohio R. at the SW corner of the state. The NW section
of Indiana is drained by the Kankakee R., and the Saint Joseph and
Saint Marys rivers join at Fort Wayne, in the NE, to form the Maumee
R. Relatively small tributaries of the Ohio R., such as the Blue
and Whitewater rivers, drain much of S Indiana.
A small section (about 595 sq km/about 230 sq mi)
of Lake Michigan is part of Indiana. In addition, the state contains
numerous small natural lakes, the largest of which is Lake Wawasee,
in the N. The biggest bodies of water entirely in Indiana are formed
by dams; these include Monroe, Mississinewa, and Salamonie lakes.
Most of Indiana has a humid continental climate, with cool
winters and long, warm summers. The extreme S part of the state
is within the humid subtropical climate zone and has somewhat warmer
temperatures and receives more precipitation. Fort Wayne, in the
NE, has a mean annual temperature of 10° C (50° F)
and usually receives about 915 mm (about 36 in) of moisture each
year; Evansville, in the SW, has a mean annual temperature of 13.3° C
(56° F) and typically receives about 1067 mm (about 42
in) of precipitation each year. Temperatures in the hilly areas
of central and S Indiana often vary considerably, with higher elevations
having lower temperatures. Lake Michigan moderates the climate of
the NW part of the state—warming the region somewhat in
winter, and cooling it in summer. N Indiana receives up to about
1020 mm (about 40 in) of snow annually, and the S part of the state
generally gets some 255 mm (some 10 in) of snow per year. The recorded
temperature in Indiana has ranged from –37.2° C
(–35° F), in 1951 at Greensburg in the SE, to
46.7° C (116° F), in 1936 at Collegeville in the
NW. Tornadoes occur with moderate frequency, principally in the
spring.
| INDIANA AVERAGE CLIMATE |
| |
Indianapolis |
Evansville |
| Average January temperature range |
–6.7° to 2.2° C |
20° to 36° F |
–4.4° to 5.6° C |
24° to 42° F |
| Average July temperature range |
18.3° to 29.4° C |
65° to 85° F |
19.4° to 31.7° C |
67° to 89° F |
| Average annual temperature |
11.1° C |
52° F |
13.3° C |
56°F |
| Average annual precipitation |
991 mm |
39 in |
1067 mm |
42 in |
| Average annual snowfall |
533 mm |
21 in |
330 mm |
13 in |
| Mean number of days per year with appreciable precipitation |
123 |
114 |
| Average daily relative humidity |
73% |
70% |
| Mean number of clear days per year |
90 |
103 |
About 16% of Indiana is covered with forest, most
of which is in the S part of the state. The great majority of the
trees are hardwoods, such as oak, hickory, maple, walnut, and ash.
Spirea, barberry, and mock orange are common shrubs. Wild flowers
include peony, violet, daisy, columbine, gentian, trillium, and
many species of orchid.
The wildlife of Indiana is varied. The whitetail deer is the
largest mammal. Other mammals include raccoon, opossum, red and
gray fox, coyote, beaver, rabbit, squirrel, skunk, muskrat, mink,
and weasel. Endangered species include bobcat and badger. Among
Indiana’s game birds are wild turkey, ruffed grouse, quail,
and pheasant. Other common birds include the sparrow, blue jay,
wren, and cardinal. Among more than 75 endangered species are the
peregrine falcon, Kirtland’s warbler, and the bald eagle.
Common fish of Indiana are pike, bass, catfish, and pickerel.
Bituminous coal, the leading mineral resource of Indiana,
is principally located in the SW part of the state. Petroleum occurs
in lesser quantities, mainly in the E central and SW regions. Much
dimension stone is produced in S central Indiana. Gypsum deposits
are in the NE and SW, and sand and gravel are found throughout the
state.
According to the 2000 census, Indiana had 6,080,485 inhabitants,
an increase of 9.7% over 1990. The average population density
in 2000 was 169.5 persons per sq mi of land area. Whites made up
87.5% of the population and blacks 8.4%; additional
population groups included 15,815 American Indians and Alaska Natives,
and 59,126 Asians. (These figures do not include the 1.2% of
the population who reported more than one race.) In all 214,536
Indiana residents, about 3.5%, reported being of Hispanic
origin. The state’s biggest cities were Indianapolis, the
capital; Fort Wayne; Evansville; South Bend; Gary; and Hammond.
According to the 1990 census, Roman Catholics formed the single
largest religious group in the state (19.5%), followed
by Baptists (16.5%), Methodists (9.9%), and Lutherans
(5.1%). In 1990 about 65% of Indiana’s
residents lived in areas defined as urban, and the rest lived in
rural areas.
| POPULATION OF INDIANA SINCE 1800 |
| Year of Census |
Population |
Classified As Urban |
| 1800 |
6,000 |
0% |
| 1830 |
343,000 |
0% |
| 1850 |
988,000 |
5% |
| 1870 |
1,681,000 |
15% |
| 1900 |
2,516,000 |
34% |
| 1920 |
2,930,000 |
51% |
| 1940 |
3,428,000 |
55% |
| 1960 |
4,662,000 |
62% |
| 1980 |
5,490,000 |
64% |
| 1990 |
5,544,159 |
65% |
| 2000 |
6,080,485 |
-- |
| POPULATION OF TEN LARGEST CITIES IN INDIANA |
| |
2000 Census |
1990 Census |
| Indianapolis |
791,926 |
731,427 |
| Fort Wayne |
205,727 |
173,072 |
| Evansville |
121,582 |
126,272 |
| South Bend |
107,789 |
105,511 |
| Gary |
102,746 |
116,646 |
| Hammond |
83.048 |
84,236 |
| Bloomington |
69,291 |
60,633 |
| Muncie |
67,430 |
71,035 |
| Anderson |
59,734 |
59,459 |
| Terre Haute |
59,614 |
57,483 |
Indiana has comprehensive educational and communications systems,
as well as noteworthy cultural institutions and historical sites.
Although the state constitution of 1816 called for a state-supported
system of public education, it was not until the 1850s that many
schools were built in Indiana. In the late 1980s Indiana had 1923
public elementary and secondary schools with a combined annual enrollment
of about 671,000 elementary pupils and 283,100 secondary students.
In addition, about 85,800 students each year attended private elementary
and secondary schools.
The first state institution of higher education was Indiana
Seminary, founded in 1820, which now is Indiana University at Bloomington.
In the late 1980s, Indiana had 78 institutions of higher education
with a total annual enrollment of about 275,800 students. Besides
Indiana University, notable schools included the University of Notre
Dame, in Notre Dame; Indiana State University (1865), in Terre Haute;
Purdue University, in West Lafayette; the University of Evansville
(1854), in Evansville; Ball State University (1918), in Muncie; DePauw
University (1837), in Greencastle; Earlham College (1847), in Richmond;
and Butler University (1855), in Indianapolis.
Indiana contains a number of specialized museums such as the Conner
Prairie Pioneer Settlement and Museum, in Noblesville, a restoration
of an early 19th-century Indiana village; the Children’s
Museum, in Indianapolis, with a great variety of exhibits; the James
Whitcomb Riley Birthplace, in Greenfield, with materials associated
with the Hoosier Poet; and the General Lew Wallace Study, in Crawfordsville,
with the personal effects of the military leader and novelist. Other
noteworthy museums are the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, in Fort Wayne;
the Indiana State Museum and the Indianapolis Museum of Art, in
Indianapolis; the Indiana University Art Museum, in Bloomington;
and the Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, in Evansville.
Indiana’s first public library was opened in 1807
in Vincennes. By the late 1970s the state had nearly 240 public
libraries. Major collections were housed in the Indiana State Library,
the Indiana University Library, and the University of Notre Dame
Library. Indianapolis has an opera company, and Evansville, Fort
Wayne, Indianapolis, and South Bend support symphony orchestras.
Several of Indiana’s historical sites honor the state’s
pioneers or commemorate places and personalities associated with
the American Civil War era. George Rogers Clark National Historical
Park, near Vincennes, commemorates the capture by the U.S. of Fort
Sackville from the British in 1779; Historic New Harmony, in New
Harmony, includes the site of two early experiments in communal
living (begun 1814); the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial, near
Lincoln City, contains exhibits and a reconstruction of the farm
on which Abraham Lincoln’s family lived from 1816 to 1830;
and the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, in Indianapolis, is dedicated
to Civil War servicemen.
Indiana’s parks and forests, its Lake Michigan shoreline,
and its lakes and streams provide a variety of recreational opportunities,
among them fishing, boating, hiking, camping, hunting, and skiing.
Of special note is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the site each
May of the world-famous Indianapolis 500 automobile race. Indiana
is known for the quality of its high school and college basketball
competition and is the home of a professional basketball team, the
Indiana Pacers, as well as a professional football team, the Indianapolis
Colts.
Indiana has a comprehensive communications system that, in
the early 1990s, included 90 AM and 165 FM radio-broadcasting stations
and 41 television stations. An experimental broadcasting plant at
Purdue University was Indiana’s first radio station. The
station acquired a code, 9YB, in 1910, and became fully licensed
in 1919. The first commercial television stations in the state were
WTTV in Bloomington and WFBM-TV (now WRTV-TV) in Indianapolis, which
began operations in 1949. The Indiana Gazette, which
was the state’s first newspaper, was initially published
in 1804 in Vincennes. In the early 1990s Indiana had 74 daily newspapers
with a total daily circulation of about 1,512,000. Influential newspapers
included the Indianapolis Star; the Indianapolis
News; the News-Sentinel, in Fort Wayne;
the Evansville Courier; the Post-Tribune, in
Gary; and the South Bend Tribune.
Indiana is governed under a constitution adopted in 1851,
as amended. An earlier constitution had been adopted in 1816, when
Indiana was admitted into the Union. An amendment to the constitution
may be proposed by the legislature. To become effective, the amendment
must be approved by a majority of the legislature in two successive
regular sessions and then by a majority of persons voting on the
issue in a general election.
The chief executive of Indiana is a governor, who is popularly
elected to serve a term of four years and who may not serve more
than two consecutive terms. The lieutenant governor, who succeeds
the governor should the latter resign, die, or be removed from office,
is elected to serve a term of four years and may be reelected any
number of times. Other elected state executive officers include
the secretary of state, attorney general, treasurer, auditor, and
superintendent of public instruction.
The bicameral Indiana General Assembly comprises a senate
and a house of representatives. The 50 members of the senate are
popularly elected to serve 4-year terms, and the 100 members of
the house are elected to serve 2-year terms.
Indiana’s highest court, the supreme court, is made
up of a chief justice and 4 associate judges. The intermediate appellate
court is the court of appeals, with 13 judges. New judges of both
these courts are appointed by the governor, from a list submitted
by the nonpartisan Judicial Nominating Commission, to serve an initial
2-year term. The judges subsequently may be popularly elected to
10-year terms. One of the supreme court judges is chosen by the
nominating commission to serve as chief justice for a 5-year term.
The major trial courts of Indiana are circuit courts, with 95 judges;
superior courts, with 138 judges; county courts, with 31 judges;
and municipal courts, with 16 judges.
Indiana in the early 1990s had 92 counties and about 115 cities. All
but one of the counties were governed by an elected three-member
board of county commissioners; Marion Co., largely consolidated
in 1970 with the city of Indianapolis, was governed by an elected
mayor and council. All the cities of Indiana employed a mayor-council
form of government.
Based on the 2000 census and effective with the election of 2002,
Indiana elects 2 senators and 9 representatives to the U.S. Congress.
The state has 11 electoral votes in presidential elections.
Since the 1860s Republican candidates have generally prevailed
in Indiana in both national and state elections. Indiana was one
of only ten states to support the Republican nominee against President
Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940, and it has been among the most solidly
Republican states in subsequent decades. Republicans have also done
well in races for governor and for the general assembly. Elected
to the U.S. Senate in 1976 and reelected to four additional 6-year
terms, Richard G. Lugar (1932– ) has been an influential
Republican voice in agriculture and foreign policy.
Indiana was primarily an agricultural state until the early
20th century, when great steel mills were opened in the NW part
of the state and automobile factories were established at South
Bend. Today, services and manufacturing are the leading economic
activities by far, but the state also has a highly productive farming sector.
| INDIANA STATE ECONOMY (early 1990s) |
| STATE BUDGET |
|
| General revenue |
$10.7 billion |
| General expenditure |
$10.0 billion |
| Accumulated debt |
$4.1 billion |
 |
| STATE AND LOCAL TAXES, PER CAPITA |
$1631 |
| PERSONAL INCOME, PER CAPITA |
$13,149 |
| POPULATION BELOW POVERTY LEVEL |
10.7% |
| ASSETS, INSURED COMMERCIAL BANKS (312) |
$56.1 billion |
|
| LABOR FORCE (CIVILIAN NONFARM) |
2,467,000 |
| Employed in manufacturing |
26% |
| Employed in wholesale and retail trade |
24% |
| Employed in services |
20% |
| Employed in government |
15% |
|
| MAJOR INDUSTRIES |
% CONTRIBUTED TO GSP* |
| Commercial, financial, and professional services |
44% |
| Manufacturing and construction |
34% |
| Transportation, communications, and public utilities |
10% |
| Government |
9% |
| Agriculture, forestry, and fisheries |
3% |
| Mining |
less than
1% |
Gross State Product = total value of goods and services produced in a year.
Sources: U.S. government publications |
| PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF INDIANA (early 1990s) |
|
Quantity Produced |
Value |
| FARM PRODUCTS |
|
$5.0 billion |
|
| CROPS |
|
$3.0 billion |
| Corn |
17.9 million metric tons |
$1.6 billion |
| Soybeans |
4.7 million metric tons |
$1.0 billion |
| Hay |
2.0 million metric tons |
$162 million |
| Wheat |
1.4 million metric tons |
$141 million |
|
| LIVESTOCK AND LIVESTOCK PRODUCTS |
|
$2.0 billion |
| Hogs |
756,000 metric tons |
$870 million |
| Cattle |
186,000 metric tons |
$358 million
|
| Milk |
1.0 million metric tons |
$321 million |
| Eggs |
5.4 billion |
$285 million |
| Turkeys |
130,000 metric tons |
$121 million |
|
| MINERALS |
|
$1.3 billion |
| Coal |
30.5 million metric tons |
$792 million |
| Stone |
33.0 million metric tons |
$163 million |
| Cement |
2.5 million metric tons |
$132 million |
| Sand, gravel |
26.9 million metric tons |
$99 million |
| Petroleum |
3.3 million barrels |
$61 million |
|
|
|
Annual Payroll |
| MANUFACTURING |
|
$17.8 billion |
| Transportation equipment |
|
$2.6 billion |
| Primary metals |
|
$2.5 billion |
| Electronic equipment |
|
$2.0 billion |
| Industrial machinery and equipment |
|
$1.9 billion |
| Fabricated metal products |
|
$1.7 billion |
| Chemicals and allied products |
|
$1.1 billion |
| Rubber and plastics products |
|
$1.0 billion |
| Food and kindred products |
|
$808 million |
| Printing and publishing |
|
$804 million |
| Instruments and related products |
|
$532 million |
|
| OTHER |
|
$33.1 billion |
| Services |
|
$8.6 billion |
| Government |
|
$8.1 billion |
| Retail trade |
|
$4.7 billion |
| Transportation, communications, and public utilities |
|
$3.0 billion |
| Wholesale trade |
|
$2.9 billion |
| Construction |
|
$2.7 billion |
| Finance, insurance, and real estate |
|
$2.6 billion |
| Sources: U.S. government publications |
Although Indiana is an important agricultural state, ranking
tenth in yearly farm income among the states of the U.S., a relatively
small share of its gross state product is derived from farming,
and fewer than 200,000 Indiana residents actually live on farms.
The state has about 65,000 farms, with an average size of 100 ha
(246 acres). Approximately 60% of its annual farm income
is derived from sales of crops, and the rest comes from the sale
of livestock and livestock products. Corn and soybeans are the leading
crops, and yields of both are well above the national average. Other
important crops include hay, wheat, oats, potatoes, tomatoes and
other vegetables, tobacco, and apples. Indiana is part of the productive
Corn Belt, and farms are located in most parts of the state; some
of the best farmland is in the Central Till Plains area. The leading
types of livestock raised on Indiana farms are hogs and beef cattle.
Hogs are more numerous than cattle, and much of the grain grown
on the state’s farms is fed to them. Substantial numbers
of dairy cattle, turkeys, broiler chickens, sheep, and horses also
are raised. The principal livestock products in the state are milk
and chicken eggs.
Forestry is of relatively little economic importance in Indiana. The
S half of the state is extensively forested, but the component trees
consist primarily of second- and third-growth hardwoods. More than
80% of the annual timber harvest is made up of hardwoods,
most of which is sawed into lumber. Less than 10% of the
harvest is used for making veneers. Commercial fishing is a minor economic
activity in Indiana.
The annual value of Indiana’s mineral output in the
late 1980s was about $1.3 billion; during this period,
mining accounted for less than 1% of the annual gross state
product. Coal, extracted chiefly from the S part of the state, is
the most valuable mineral product; the vast majority of the coal is
produced in easily accessible mines located near the surface. Other
important minerals include sand and gravel, stone, petroleum, clay,
and gypsum. Indiana is an important producer of masonry cement and
is the source of most of the nation’s building limestone,
which is quarried mainly in the S central part of the state.
Indiana is a major manufacturing state. In the late 1980s,
value added by manufacture of Indiana products exceeded $39 billion;
the value of manufacturers’ shipments exceeded $83
billion. Some 642,000 Indiana workers held manufacturing jobs. Leading
products were primary metals (principally iron, steel, and aluminum),
electronic equipment (especially radios and television receivers,
telephones, appliances, and electrical components), and transport
equipment (notably motor-vehicle parts, aerospace components, and
recreational vehicles). Other major Indiana manufactures were fabricated
metals, chemicals, processed food, pharmaceuticals, rubber and plastic
goods, printed materials, precision instruments, furniture, and
paper and paper products. Indianapolis, the state’s foremost
industrial center, produces a great variety of fabricated goods.
A major complex of heavy industry (iron and steel, oil refining,
and chemicals) is located in the Calumet district in the NW; Gary
and Hammond are the main manufacturing centers of this region. Other
prominent manufacturing cities include Fort Wayne, Elkhart, South
Bend, Anderson, Evansville, and Kokomo.
In the early 1990s tourism generated $4.4 billion
annually for the Indiana economy and provided about 98,000 jobs.
The S shore of Lake Michigan, with its sandy beaches and rolling dunes,
serves as a magnet for tourists from nearby cities in Indiana and
from neighboring states. The undulating forested hills of S Indiana
also provide a pleasurable setting for many forms of outdoor recreation. Many
thousands of spectators flock to Indianapolis for the annual 500-mi
(805-km) automobile race. Twenty state parks (among the most popular
being Brown County, Indiana Dunes, McCormick’s Creek, and
Spring Mill) and three units of the National Park System (including
Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore) beckon tourists with a variety
of educational and recreational opportunities.
Indiana occupies a strategic position at a crossroads of the
nation, and its transportation system serves almost all parts of
the state. Indianapolis and the extreme N region of the state are
the main transport hubs. Indiana has about 147,912 km (about 91,908
mi) of roads, including 1830 km (1137 mi) of interstate highways.
In addition, the state is served by some 6842 km (some 4028 mi)
of operated Class I railroad track. Indiana has several important
ports on Lake Michigan; these include Indiana Harbor (in East Chicago),
Gary, Buffington, and Burns Waterway Harbor. The Ohio R. is a vital
transportation artery, especially for shipping coal. Indiana has
92 heliports and 467 airports, the busiest being Indianapolis International
Airport. Many oil and natural-gas pipelines cross the state.
In the early 1990s electricity generating plants in Indiana
had an installed capacity of 20.6 million kw; their annual output
was about 97.7 billion kwh. Almost all the electricity was generated
in coal-burning facilities.
Prehistoric Indian communities occupied present-day Indiana
as early as 15,000 years ago. The Woodland culture (c. 500 bc–ad 1000)
was distinguished by its fire-hardened pottery and burial rituals.
The later Mississippian culture established large towns, such as
the one at Angel Site on the Ohio River near Evansville, but they
too disappeared from the area before the first Europeans arrived.
The major Indian tribes of Indiana at the time of European contact
were the Delaware, Miami, and Potawatomi; others included the Piankashaw, Shawnee,
and Wea.
French exploring parties from Québec reached Indiana
in the 17th century. The first European known to have traveled across
Indiana was the French explorer Robert Cavalier, sieur de La Salle,
in 1679. During the early 18th century the French established three
forts in Indiana, all located along the much-traveled Maumee-Wabash
river route. Among these was Vincennes (1732), the first permanent
settlement in Indiana. The French hold on the Wabash Valley, however,
was always tenuous because of sparse settlement, and at the end
of the French and Indian War in 1763 the area came under British
jurisdiction.
The British subsequently paid little attention to Indiana,
and none of the French posts there was occupied by them until after
the American Revolution began. This conflict caused the British
to shore up their western defenses, thus setting the stage for the
most dramatic events of the war in the West—George Rogers
Clark’s capture in 1778–79 of the British outposts
at Kaskaskia and Cahokia in Illinois and at Vincennes in Indiana. By
any standard, Clark’s was a masterful campaign, and his
exploits may have been influential in the Paris peace treaty (1783)
that extended the boundary of the new American republic to the Mississippi
River.
Indiana was a part of the Northwest Territory from 1787 until 1800,
when a separate Indiana Territory was established. William Henry
Harrison (later the ninth president of the U.S.) served as territorial
governor from 1800 to 1812, during which time he concluded numerous
land cession treaties with the Indians and oversaw major developments
in territorial politics—both the growth of democratic practices
and, paradoxically, the continuation of slavery under the thin disguise
of indentured-servant terminology.
During the territorial period settlement was largely confined
to the southern part of Indiana, but the population grew steadily.
During the preliminaries to the War of 1812, Harrison’s
chief Indian antagonists were Tecumseh and his brother, Tenskwatawa
(c. 1768–1837), the Shawnee Prophet, who had organized
a resistance to the encroachments of the white settlers. In the
fall of 1811, however, Harrison went on the offensive and defeated
the Indians in the Battle of Tippecanoe. The war that followed had
little direct impact on the territory, but it caused a massive westward
movement of settlers that indirectly contributed to Indiana’s subsequent
admission as a state of the Union in 1816.
For the next few decades Indiana remained a pioneer state,
but significant demographic, economic, and political changes occurred.
The central and northern portions of the state were settled, partly
by people moving up from southern Indiana and partly by migrants
from the upper South, Ohio, and the Middle Atlantic states.
The primary economic activity of the state’s first
generation was farming. Most pioneer families eked out a meager
existence, taking most of life’s essentials from the land
by their own labors and skills and converting such work-related
tasks as barn raisings, cornhuskings, and road-building musters
into social affairs. Two constant worries troubled the Indiana pioneers—the
absence of transportation and the presence of Indians—and
both problems were attacked vigorously if shortsightedly. The Delaware,
Potawatomi, and Miami Indians were moved farther west between 1820
and 1850. At the same time, major north-south and east-west roads, crossing
at the new state capital of Indianapolis, were laid out, and in
1836 the state adopted a mammoth internal improvement scheme designed
to place improved roads, canals, or railroads in virtually every
part of the state. Completion of the plan was delayed by the national
depression of 1839–43, and a railroad network did not materialize
until the 1850s.
The new Republican party, organized in 1854, won power in
Indiana with the election of Henry Smith Lane (1811–81)
as governor in 1860. During the American Civil War, the Republicans
tried to label their Democratic opponents as Copperheads sympathetic
to the Confederacy, but both parties contributed mightily in military
and economic resources to the ultimate Northern victory. After the
war, however, Indiana moved away from the Republican camp. It gave
only moderate support to the Radical Republican attempt to impose racial
equality on the South, and control of the state government was returned
to the Democrats in 1872.
In the late 19th century Indiana emerged as a major industrial,
political, and literary force within the Union. Its industrial growth
was enormously stimulated by the discovery in 1886 of an extensive
natural-gas field, which attracted hundreds of new manufacturing
firms. The automobile industry was also established in Indiana in
the 1890s by Elwood Haynes (1857–1925). The Indianapolis
500-Mile Race, first run in 1911 and still held every Memorial Day
weekend, is a fitting reminder of this once-powerful industry of
Indiana.
The state played an unusually prominent role in national politics
during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In every election
but two between 1868 and 1920, Indiana supplied at least one national candidate.
They included President Benjamin Harrison, Vice-Presidents Schuyler
Colfax, Thomas Hendricks, Charles Fairbanks, and Thomas Marshall,
and a five-time presidential nominee on the Socialist ticket, Eugene V.
Debs. Dan Quayle, U.S. vice-president (1989–93), was born
in Indianapolis. On the state level, Indiana returned to the Republican
ranks after the 1896 presidential election and, with a few exceptions,
has remained a Republican state during the 20th century.
Indiana was also home to a great many popular and successful
writers—novelists, poets, playwrights, humorists, historians,
and others. Such names as Booth Tarkington, James Whitcomb Riley,
Charles and Mary Beard, Theodore Dreiser, Lew Wallace, Ernie Pyle,
and Kurt Vonnegut are known far beyond the shores of North America.
During World War II, nearly 10 percent of Indiana’s
population entered the armed services, and most of those who remained
on the home front were involved in wartime production of ships and
planes; guns and ammunition; and, equally important, cereal grains
and livestock. After the war Indiana resumed its place as a leading
industrial-manufacturing-agricultural state. Today its economy is
strong and diversified, bolstered by a comprehensive transportation
network and excellent educational facilities. The population, increasingly urban
and suburban, more than doubled between 1900 and 1980. In March
1997 flooding throughout the Ohio River valley damaged many Indiana
towns.