Indiana
State of the midwest USA; nicknamed Hoosier State
Area:
93,700 sq km/36,168 sq mi
Capital:
Indianapolis
Cities:
Fort Wayne, Gary, Evansville, South Bend
Physical:
Ohio and Wabash rivers; Wyandotte Cavern; Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore,
on Lake Michigan
Features:
Vincennes, the oldest community in the state; Indianapolis, the scene
of the Indianapolis 500 car race, with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Hall of Fame Museum; Abraham Lincoln boyhood National Memorial; New
Harmony, Robert Owen's Utopian community; Amish country; the inhabitants
of the state are known as Hoosiers
Industries:
Maize, pigs, soya beans, limestone, machinery, electrical goods, coal,
steel, iron, chemicals
Population:
(1995) 5,803,500
Famous People:
Hoagy Carmichael, Eugene V Debs, Theodore Dreiser, Michael Jackson,
Cole Porter, J Dan Quayle, Booth Tarkington, Kurt Vonnegut, Wilbur Wright
History:
Explored for France by La Salle 1679-80; first colonial settlements
established 1731-35 by French traders; ceded to Britain by France
in 1763; passed to US control in 1783; became a state in 1816.
Indiana became an important industrial state in the early 20th
century, with steel mills, oil refineries, and factories producing
automobiles and vehicle parts. However, the state remained one-third
rural in the mid- 1980s, and agriculture retained much of its
former importance.
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