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Indiana
Indiana, meaning the "Land of the Indians", is a state of the United States. Its capital is Indianapolis. The U.S. postal abbreviation for the state is IN. A resident of Indiana is called a Hoosier and it is also the mascot for Indiana University, located in Bloomington, in southern Indiana. USS Indiana was named in honor of this state.
HistoryThe area of Indiana has been settled since before the development of the Hopewell culture (ca. 100-400CE). It was part of the Mississippian culture from roughly 1000CE up to the conventional end of Mississippian dating ("contact with Europeans"). 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.   Law and GovernmentThe current governor of Indiana is Mitch Daniels, whose campaign slogan was "My Man Mitch," elected on November 2, 2004. The state's U.S. senators are B. Evans "Evan" Bayh III (Democrat) and Richard G. Lugar (Republican). See: List of Indiana Governors, Indiana General Assembly GeographyIndiana 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 long Wabash River bisects the state from northeast to southwest and has given Indiana two themesongs, 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) is zigzags through central Indiana, and this is where most of the population lives. Indianapolis and Muncie are large cities on this river. Evansville, the third largest city in Indiana, is located on the Ohio river , which forms all of the Indiana-Kentucky border. Northern Indiana is mostly farmland, but gets densely populated as you move towards the thriving metropolitan area of Chicago. Gary, a city on Lake Michigan, has become a suburb of Chicago, even though it is in Indiana. The Kankakee river winds through Northern Indiana. See also: List of Indiana counties, Watersheds of Indiana EconomyThe total gross state product in 2003 was $214 billion. Indiana's Per Capita Income was $28,783 as of 2003.  Indiana is located well 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). It should be remembered that while the state is in the Corn Belt, 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 GDP comes from manufacturing, and much of this activity is heavy manufacturing. In the state industry tends to be concentrated in its northern half. The Calumet region of northwest Indiana is the largest steel producing area in the USA, and this activity also requires that very large amounts of electric power be generated. Indiana's other manufactures include electrical equipment, transportation equipment, chemical products, rubber, petroleum and coal products, and factory machinery. In addition, Indiana has the international headquarters of the Eli Lilly and the US headquarters of the Roche pharmaceutical companies. Surprisingly, in view of the large agricultural sector, comparatively little food processing occurs in the state. Like most interior states, Indiana is poorly located with respect to emerging coastal markets and new overseas sources of raw materials for manufacturing. . However, Indiana has been much less hit 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 fron the southern, hilly portion of the state. One of the many public buildings faced with this stone is The Pentagon, and after the attack of September 11, 2001, 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 Lakes states Indiana has small to medium operating petroleum fields; the principal location of these today is in extreme southwest Indiana in an area somewhat confusingly called the " Illinois Field"". DemographicsAs of 2003, the population of Indiana was 6,195,643. Indiana is a state of mostly small towns and midsize cities. Its largest city and capital is Indianapolis, where the nation's most famous auto race, the Indianapolis 500, is held each year. Racially, the state is:
The five largest ancestries in the state are: German (22.7%), American (12%), Irish (10.8%), English (8.9%), African American (8.4%). German-Americans make up a considerable portion of the population of Indiana. Persons of British ancestry are most prominent in the southern and central parts of the state. Gary and the surrounding area has a large African-American population. In addition, the more populated regions are the central area around Indianapolis, the far northwest and north central areas near Lake Michigan, and the northeastern area near Fort Wayne. Major cities that are not in these areas include Evansville, Bloomington, and Terre Haute. ReligionReligiously, Indiana is predominantly Protestant, although there is also a moderate-sized 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 in the state. Indiana is also home to a significant proportion of Mennonite and Amish Christians. The religious affiliations of the people of Indiana are as follows:
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EducationColleges and universities
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Time zonesMost of Indiana has historically exempted itself from the observation of daylight saving time (DST). The area that is within the Eastern time zone is legally exempt from daylight saving time; some counties within this area, particularly Floyd, Clark, and Harrison counties near Louisville, Kentucky, and Ohio and Dearborn counties near Cincinnati, Ohio, observe daylight saving time unofficially and illegally by local custom. Several counties in the northwestern corner of Indiana, near Chicago, and several counties in the southwestern corner of Indiana are in the Central time zone and remain subject to daylight saving time. The history of this unique arrangement is fairly convoluted. When DST was formally adopted, Indiana was in the Central time zone. However, many parts of the state stayed on Central DST the entire year. Eventually, a long-fought battle in the Indiana state legislature led to the current compromise. In the past several years, there have been attempts to place the entirety of Indiana in the Eastern time zone, with Eastern DST, but these have proved impossible to implement. More recently, support has begun to grow for returning Indiana to the Central time zone with Central time zone DST, but this has not been popular enough to implement. On April 28, 2005, the state legislature voted 51-46 for the entire state to observe daylight saving time starting April, 2006. Counties would remain under their current time zones, but the bill also asks the federal Department of Transportation, which has jurisdiction over time zones, to reconsider whether more counties should switch to the Central zone. Miscellaneous information
Indiana is the home state of a disproportionately large number of Astronauts, including such notables as "Gus" Grissom, and Frank Borman. Many other astronauts, including Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan, were graduates of Purdue University in West Lafayette ([1]). Neil Armstrong's Purdue class ring may be the only such object that has ever traveled to the moon and back. Natural resourcesThere are 24 Indiana state parks, nine man-made reservoirs and hundreds of lakes in the state.
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