Thanks to an early nineteenth-century
influx of northward migrants, much of INDIANA still displays
vestiges of the easygoing South. Among these early settlers was
the family of Abraham Lincoln, who set up home near the present
village of Santa Claus in 1816 and stayed for fourteen years
before moving to Illinois. Unlike the abolitionist Lincolns,
many brought slaves to this new territory; Indiana allowed a
system of "voluntary servitude" to operate until 1843.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, thousands of ex-Southerners
rioted against the draft, in part expressing a concern that Indiana
was every bit as subservient to the northeast as Deep South slaves
were to their masters. However, since the 1870s, industrialization
has integrated Indiana into the regional economy. The sports-happy
state is at the forefront of the nation in automobile racing
and high school basketball.
Despite some beautiful
dunes and beaches, the most lasting memories provided by Indiana's
fifty-mile lakeshore (by far the shortest of the Great Lake states)
are of the grimy steel mills and poverty-stricken neighborhoods
of towns like Gary and East Chicago . In northern Indiana, the
area in and around Elkhart and Goshen contains one of the nation's largest
Amish settlements.
The central plains are
characterized by small market towns, except for the sprawling
capital, Indianapolis , which has brightened up its
downtown in recent years to the point that it's not a bad stopover.
Hilly southern Indiana, at its most appealing in the fall, is
a welcome contrast to the central cornbelt, boasting several
quaint towns such as Nashville, Vincennes, Madison and Corydon .
Thriving Columbus exhibits a great array of contemporary
architecture for such a small city, and former resort town West
Baden Springs is restoring the elegant hotel that made it famous.
Dozens of explanations
have been offered as to why residents of the state are called
" Hoosiers "; the most believable is that its use spread
from the days of the Ohio Falls Canal construction in the 1820s,
when a contractor, Samuel Hoosier, gave employment preference
to those living on the Indiana side of the Ohio River.
THE UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA