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Indiana is the 19th U.S. state and is located in the Midwest region of the United States of America. 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 and the University of Notre Dame Fightin' Irish football. 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.
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.
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. 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.
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. 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. NICTD owns and operates the South Shore Line, a commuter rail line that runs electric-powered trains between South Bend and Chicago. Sand dunes and heavy industry share the shoreline of Lake Michigan in northern Indiana.
Most of northern and central Indiana is flat farmland dotted with small cities and towns, such as North Manchester.
Most of northern and central Indiana is flat farmland dotted with small cities and towns, such as North Manchester.
The Kankakee River, which winds through northern Indiana, serves somewhat as a demarcating line between suburban northwest Indiana and the rest of the state.
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 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". Other cities located within the area include Anderson, Bloomington, Columbus, Lafayette, Muncie, Richmond, and Terre Haute.
Rural areas in the central portion of the state are typically composed of a patchwork of fields and forested areas.
Evansville, the third largest city in Indiana, is located in the southwestern corner of the state. 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.
For sixty years, from 1890 to 1950, the United States Census found the center of population to lie in southern Indiana.
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.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, some due to lake effect snow. 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.
The area of Indiana has been settled since before the development of the Hopewell culture (ca. 100–400 CE). It was part of the Mississippian culture from roughly the year 1000 up to 1400.). The specific Native American tribes that inhabited this territory at that time were primarily the Miami and the Shawnee. The area was claimed for New France in the 17th century, handed over to the Kingdom of Great Britain as part of the settlement at the end of the French and Indian War, given to the United States after the American Revolution, soon after which it became part of the Northwest Territory, then the Indiana Territory, and joined the Union in 1816 as the 19th state. See Northwest Indian War.On June 29, 1816, Indiana adopted a constitution, and on December 11, 1816, became the 19th State to join the Union. No slavery was allowed, making the state an attractive destination for people like Abraham Lincoln's family, which was disgusted with slavery in Kentucky.
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.
Metropolitan areas by population
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