Indiana State Guide

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, and 38th in size, making it 17th in population density.

Indiana State Guide - Geography

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. 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:

* 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

Indiana State Guide - 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. 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.

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.

Indiana State Guide - 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". 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.

Indiana State Guide - Southern Indiana

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.

Indiana State Guide - 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. 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.

Indiana State Guide - History

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.

Pioneer Era

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.

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.

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.

Indiana State Guide - Demographics

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. 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.

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

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.

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. Bloomington, home of Indiana University, tends to be much more culturally liberal than the rest of the state.[citation needed] 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.

Indiana State Guide - Law and Government

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 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.

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 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 Dan Coats (later appointed Ambassador to Germany) and Richard Lugar, who is widely respected in both parties for his experience in world affairs.

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.

Most Hoosiers identify themselves as conservative. However, attempts by political pressure groups or even individual state legislators at making the state more conservative have met with little success.

Indiana State Guide - Economy

The total gross state product in 2005 was US$214 billion in 2000 chained dollars. Indiana's per capita income, as of 2005, was US$31,150. 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. It's 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. Most of the original land was not prarie 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.

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.

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.

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.

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). 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. There are also large coal mines in the southern portion of the state. Like most Great Lake 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 in force. Unions in Indiana are among the weakest in the U.S. and it is difficult for unions to organize.[citation needed] 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.

Indiana State Guide - Education

State-chartered colleges

* Ball State University
* Indiana State University
* Indiana University System
   o Indiana University (Bloomington)
   o Indiana University East (Richmond)
   o Indiana University Kokomo
   o Indiana University Northwest
   o Indiana University South Bend
   o Indiana University Southeast
* Indiana University-Purdue University Joint Campuses
   o Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus (IUPUC)
   o Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW)
   o Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
* Ivy Tech State College
* Purdue University System
   o Purdue University
   o Purdue University Calumet
   o Purdue University North Central
   o Purdue University College of Technology
      + Anderson
      + Columbus
      + Indianapolis
      + Kokomo
      + Muncie
      + New Albany
      + Richmond
      + South Bend
      + Versailles
* University of Southern Indiana
* Vincennes University

Private colleges

* 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

Indiana State Guide - XaaX

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

Indiana State Guide - Time Zones

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

Article Source: Wikipedia